red dot icon
Journal Article Recent cases that awarded custody to the birth father of a child have prompted state legislatures to reform adoption laws that were originally intended to secure permanency for children who had lost both parents. Contemporary cases often involve unwed fathers who are not given the opportunity to approve or object to the adoption. However, judgments that favor the birth father in such cases cause the separation of the child from the only parents he or she has ever known, causing attachment disruption and other difficulties. States attempted to remedy the situation by either expanding their…
red dot icon
Journal Article This article examines provisions of the Uniform Adoption Act in the context of efforts by unwed fathers to assume custody of children who have been adopted. It describes the psychological impact of adoption on the birth parents, the adoptive parents, and the child, and highlights court decisions in three controversial cases involving the rights of unwed fathers in adoptions. In each case, the biological father sought to overturn an adoption to which the biological mother had consented. The adoptive parents countered with charges that the father had abandoned his child. The Uniform Adoption…
red dot icon
Journal Article When states establish paternity registries they must set deadlines after which an unwed father cannot assert his right to paternity, the author states. While these laws apply to paternity registration in cases where a mother chooses to keep her baby, state statutes vary on whether such registration deadlines should apply in custody cases where the mother later decides to put the child up for adoption. The author explores federal and state legal rulings relevant to the discussion, noting that some states measure the date of child's birth as the beginning of this registration period while…
red dot icon
Journal Article The relative extent to which mothers and fathers administer physical punishment sheds light on family relationships, parental roles and, perhaps, the identity of potential abusers. In this study, 362 British mothers and 103 fathers of randomly selected children from 366 two-parent families were interviewed. According to self-reports, the proportions of mothers and fathers who had used physical punishments were similar, as were the frequencies with which they used them. About 50 percent more mothers than fathers smacked or hit their children weekly or more often, whereas fathers were more…
red dot icon
Journal Article Neoconservative social scientists have claimed that fathers are essential to positive child development and that responsible fathering is most likely to occur within the context of heterosexual marriage. This perspective is generating a range of governmental initiatives designed to provide social support preferences to fathers over mothers and to heterosexual married couples over alternative family forms. The authors propose that the neoconservative position is an incorrect or oversimplified interpretation of empirical research. Using a wide range of cross-species, cross-cultural, and social…
red dot icon
Journal Article Maternal gatekeeping is conceptualized within the framework of the social construction of gender and is defined as having three dimensions: mothers' reluctance to relinquish responsibility over family matters by setting rigid standards, external validation of a mothering identity and differentiated conceptions of family roles. These three conceptual dimensions of gatekeeping are operationalized with modest reliability and tested with a confirmatory factor analysis on a sample of 622 dual-earner mothers. With cluster analyses, 21% of the mothers were classified as gatekeepers. Gatekeepers did…
red dot icon
Journal Article This study examines the impact of state welfare reform policies on the paternal involvement of low-income single fathers. Life history interviews were conducted with 40 African American fathers participating in a community-based parenting program in Chicago. Men's rightful claims to fatherhood were constructed through voluntary involvement with their children and enforced paternity establishment. Welfare policies gave precedence to child support and providing and dismissed fathers' in-kind caregiving. Policy requirements reflected limited understanding of related caregiving and providing…
red dot icon
Journal Article Current demographic patterns indicate that a significant number of children are living apart from their biological fathers, suggesting a structural fragility or vulnerability of men's connections with their children. In this article, we first explore whether fathers have concerns about possible disruptions of their relationships with their children and identify the nature of these concerns. Next, we identify those characteristics that distinguish the fathers with high levels of concern from those who are less concerned. The quality of the marital or partner relationship strongly predicts…
red dot icon
Journal Article The study is an exploratory attempt to examine family and life satisfaction of 212 noncustodial fathers 3 years following divorce, using path analysis to validate the hypothesized ordering among six dependent variables suggested by resource theory. Results indicated the significant predictors of family and life satisfaction were perceived economic well-being, cooperative communication during conflict and during coparenting, low importance of resource deprivation, and low frequency of conflict. Involvement with children was not a significant predictor of family and life satisfaction. Resource…
red dot icon
Journal Article Using data from the 1987-1988 National Survey of Families and Households, this study examines gender differences in how nonresident parents spend time with their absent children. Whereas nonresident fathers are often perceived as "Disneyland" parents, nonresident mothers are generally considered to be more involved in their children's daily lives. However, results suggest that nonresident mothers and fathers exhibit a similar pattern of participation in activities with their absent children, controlling for sociodemographic and family characteristics. Most nonresident parents either engage…
