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Training Materials This guide for parents provides answers to common questions about caring for children from birth to three years old. Topics include prenatal care, health and nutrition, brain development, behavior, financial and legal issues, and adoption. Child care options, stages of development, sleep and play, and the roles of fathers and grandparents also are discussed. The last section reviews challenges facing children, such as the causes of child abuse and neglect, when to report abuse, the dependency system, single parenting, special needs, trauma, and the effects of violence. Each section offers…
This chapter summarizes economic theory and evidence regarding the impact of welfare, child support enforcement, and labor markets on the lack of father involvement in circumstances such as divorce, legal separation, or nonmarital births. The discussion reviews trends in family structure and explains how public policy can enhance child well-being by promoting family structures that facilitate father involvement in children's lives. All economic theories about family structure are based on the assumption that individuals make the decision to marry or divorce by weighing the benefits of each…
Effective policies to promote responsible fatherhood must rely on more than mere exhortations. Many fathers need significant assistance in becoming financially responsible for or emotionally involved with their children, whether it be job training or other employment services, or intensive case management and counseling. The model programs described in this report are outstanding examples of effective strategies for helping fathers and they deserve replication nationwide. Coupled with work requirements and increasingly tough enforcement of child support, these programs should go a long way…
This paper brings together a body of empirical evidence on how marriage affects the economic well-being of families with children. The paper considers the theoretical reasons marriage might enhance economic well-being, clarifies the empirical questions about the potential roles of marriage, and presents descriptive data and the evidence from empirical studies. The review deals with the impact of higher marriage propensities on incomes and wealth, of gains in marriage relative to cohabitation, of the stimulus to male earnings associated with marriage, and of the changes in economic well-being…
The decline in marriage and its serious consequences for poverty and inequality are well documented. This paper concentrates on how marriage, cohabitation, single parenthood and the presence of biological parents affect the incomes and material hardships of children. The study uses data from the National Survey of America's Families to examine: 1) recent changes in the marital and household structure of families with children, 2) how levels of income and material hardship vary by family structure, and 3) whether marriage acts to reduce material hardship, even among families with low incomes…
Low-income fathers share many of the same characteristics as women on welfare--low literacy, poor employment history and low-wage employment. This fact sheet proposes ways in which policymakers can build services to help fathers. Suggestions include (but are not limited to): Develop networks of local providers to provide men with employment assistance; use state institutions to refer low-income fathers to local service providers; identify "nontraditional partners" like voluntarypaternity establishment programs, HealthyStart and Head Start--to connect fathers withneeded services; connect with…
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Journal Article To successfully engage fathers, workers need training to dispel many of the myths related to "absent fathers" believed by not only case managers but society as a whole. It is our job to create a safe environment for the children as well as the parents. Case managers need adequate training that will give them the skills to build respect and trust between the child welfare system and fathers. Agency staff--from directors to case aides--need to increase the focus on the importance of improving the father-child relationship and the benefits to the child. To better meet the needs of children in…
