REBECCA M. RYAN AND ARIEL KALIL University of Chicago KATHLEEN M. ZIOL-GUEST Harvard University* Longitudinal Patterns of Nonresident Fathers’ Involvement: The Role of Resources and Relations Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examined patterns of non- resident father involvement 1 and 3 years after a nonmarital birth (N ¼ 893). Cluster analyses were used to determine patterns of involvement across different father behaviors. About half of fathers displayed low involvement when chil- dren were 1 and 3 years old, one fourth of fathers maintained high involvement, and equal remaining proportions increased or decreased involvement over time. Multinomial logistic analyses indicated that better relationships between parents were associated with consis- tently high versus low involvement. Better rela- tionships with each others’ extended family also predicted remaining highly involved and increasing involvement over time. Parents’ ro- mantic relationship status was closely associ- ated with patterns of involvement. Rising rates of nonmarital childbirth over the past 40 years have increased political and public con- cern over nonresident fathers’ involvement in children’s lives. Among the public policy initia- tives aimed at increasing father involvement, one approach, exemplified by programs that com- prise the federal Healthy Marriage initiatives, seeks to foster stable union formation among unwed parents (Dion, 2005; Ooms, Bouchet, & Parke, 2004). Fathers who coreside with their children are more involved on average in their daily lives than those who do not (Cabrera et al., 2004), suggesting programs that success- fully promote union formation would also increase father involvement. Recent research on relationships among unwed couples suggests, however, that only a small percentage marry in the years following a nonmarital birth (Carlson, McLanahan, & England, 2004; Gibson-Davis, Edin, & McLanahan, 2005), suggesting many children born to unwed parents will ultimately live apart from their fathers regardless of attempts by programs or parents to form stable unions. For these families, policies and programs should uti- lize routes other than union formation to encour- age involvement between fathers and their noncustodial children. Programs such as those that comprise the Responsible Fatherhood initiative, which desig- nates federal funding to encourage involvement among noncustodial fathers, focus on a few of these routes, including increasing unwed fathers’ economic resources through education and emp- loyment, enforcing child support payment, and improving unwed parents’ relationship quality through relationship skills education (Ooms et al., 2004). All of these factors are positively associated with father involvement (e.g., Cabrera Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, 1155 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 (rmryan@uchicago. edu). *Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health Landmark Center, Har- vard University, Room 445-B, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA 02215. This article was edited by Cheryl Buehler. Key Words: early childhood, family relations, fatherhood, nonresidential parents. 962 Journal of Marriage and Family 70 (November 2008): 962–977