Brief
Many couples in the United States are choosing to live together before marriage. Young people in particular, seem to believe that living together first is a good idea. Research shows, however, that couples who live together before getting married: Have a higher divorce rate; Tend to be less happy in their marriages; Have more trouble communicating. This is especially true for couples who live together before plans are made to marry.
Other
As the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood projects have entered their second year of program operations and continue to move forward with data collection and reporting activities, an increasing number of grantees have been asking for more clarification regarding OFA?s expectations around data collection, reporting, and evaluation. To respond to these queries and provide consistent information for all grantees, we have developed this memorandum in order to summarize the evaluation requirements (as specified in the program announcements), to provide an overview of how these…
This fact sheet outlines how TANF funds can be used to fund programs that develop and maintain healthy marriages/families. (Author abstract)
This chapter examines differences in father involvement among fathers who are living with a child and the child's mother. Using qualitative interview data with fifty-seven couples, the author looks at fathering in the first year after birth to see how fathers in happy and unhappy relationships-- some married, others cohabiting-- differ in level of father involvement. (Author abstract modified)
This 'parenting relationship' book is based on the authors' experiences in leading more than 2,000 workshops with new and expectant dads to discuss parenting in a non-threatening environment. In it Hogan Hilling and Jesse Jayne Rutherford offer thoughtful insights into what makes dads behave the way they do. "The Modern Mom's Guide to Dads" draws on what Hilling has learned from working with dads and moms for more than fifteen years. He explains to modern moms what their husbands are really thinking about pregnancy, parenting, and marriage, and he teaches them how to get their husbands more…
Starting a conversation with another parent can sometimes be a little intimidating. Dads can feel a little awkward in starting or carrying on a parenting conversation, particularly if they don't know the other person in that conversation well (or at all). This fact sheet offers tips on connecting with other parents including finding other dads with similar interests, the best ways to initiate contact, as well as what kinds of conversations to have with women with children. (Author abstract modified)
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Journal Article This research represents an exploration of patterns of boundary ambiguity among poor, young, unmarried men and their reproductive partners. Interviews were conducted with men and their partners during the third trimester of pregnancy. Interviews focused on patterns of men's physical and psychological presence in relationships with their partners and in activities associated with pregnancy and prenatal care. Patterns of presence among fathers-to-be are identified and factors associated with those patterns are explored. Patterns of presence reflect degrees of physical and psychological presence…
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Journal Article Research suggests that a lack of father involvement in divorced families may have negative effects on fathers, mothers, and their children. However, past research has often failed to include men's perspectives of the factors that influence their parental role after separation or divorce. Despite the fact a majority of fathers experience a decrease in child access following separation; research has often overlooked the significance of parental time to fathers' experiences of parenting after separation and divorce. This study is an analysis of interviews completed with men regarding their…
Brief
If you're a divorced father who has remarried, odds are your relationship with your daughter has become more complicated, more stressful, and more distant. Sadly for the majority of fathers and daughters, when dad remarries: The father-daughter relationship is more damaged than the father-son relationship; tensions between mom and dad's wife create problems in the father-daughter relationship; the mom who was not employed during her marriage tends to be the most jealous and most uncooperative when dad remarries; college educated, white mothers tend to be less willing than non-white, less…
This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine differences in the parenting behaviors of resident biological and social fathers on measures of engagement, shared responsibility, and cooperation in parenting. Regression, difference-in-difference, and decomposition techniques are used. Results suggest that biological and social fathers differ significantly on most parenting measures (and in some unexpected ways), but that a considerable portion of these differences can be explained by differences in the background characteristics of the individuals and…
