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Journal Article Father involvement contributes uniquely to children’s developmental outcomes. The antecedents of father involvement among unmarried, African American fathers from rural areas, however, have been largely overlooked. The present study tested a conceptual model linking retrospective reports of childhood trauma and early adulthood social instability to father involvement among unmarried, African American men living in resource-poor, rural communities in the southeastern United States. Findings suggest that OXTR methylation might be a biological mechanism linking social instability to father…
One of the goals of fatherhood programming is to improve the lives of children by enhancing fathers’ emotional and financial support and encouraging healthy family dynamics. Programs do this through a focus on child development and appropriate parenting skills, the value of fathers’ positive engagement with their children, and the provision of connections to social support systems for fathers. However, rural fatherhood programs may need to address these topics in unique and creative ways due to some of the practical challenges of providing services in rural areas.
Brief, NRFC Quick Statistics and Research Reviews, Brief
Roughly one in five people and more than one in 10 men between the ages of 18 and 44 in the United States live in rural communities. Although rural and urban fathers are similar in many ways, there are significant differences shaping their lives and opportunities that have implications for fatherhood programs. For instance, program staff working in rural communities often report that higher rates of unemployment, lower educational attainment, limited job opportunities, and lack of transportation translate to challenges that are difficult to address and unique to rural communities. This…
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Community partnerships can help fatherhood programs in many ways. They can increase the range of available services, enhance recruitment and retention efforts, and help fathers gain access to employment and training opportunities. Forming an effective partnership with the local child support agency can be particularly helpful for programs working with noncustodial fathers who are struggling to maintain regular child support payments. This case study describes the development of such a partnership in a rural area of central California (Merced County) and provides an overview of lessons…
One of the defining features of the “American Dream” is the ability to succeed despite being born indisadvantaged circumstances. But upward mobility, in the sense of doing better than your parents,appears to be on the wane. There is however a great deal of variation across the nation in ratesof upward mobility, and some of the greatest variation lies in the nation’s rural heartland. Whilesome rural counties exhibit the nation’s lowest rates of upward mobility, others can still lay claimto being “lands of opportunity,” ensuring that young residents are prepared to take on adulthoodand work…
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The purpose of this research brief is to highlight the unique challenges – and the strengths – of rural communities and provide suggestions for integrating culturally responsive healthy relationship education into existing safety-net services to strengthen rural families in poverty. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article Fatherhood and fathering practices have been surprisingly absent from the literature on rural men and masculinity. This article draws on interviews with two generations of farm fathers in Norway to examine how rural masculinities are constructed through fathering practices. It explores how fathering creates potential for the development of alternative rural masculinities in two socio-historical contexts. Findings demonstrate that farm work is important for masculine legitimization in both generations, but, in contrast to the older generation, for the current generation farm work and fathering…
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Journal Article Communities across the United States, in both urban and rural areas, are seeking ways to promote well-being for their citizens in sustainable ways. This paper provides a descriptive case study of one rural community that used an inquiry-based approach to ask, “How can we engage our citizens to improve child and family well-being in our community?” The group also wondered “What if Brookings had one place for families to access all family resources that support well-being?” “What if all families had a place where their needs were heard?” and “What if all resources for families looked at the…
While the 2016 election brought to light the bleak employment picture for men in rural America, an analysis of Census data reveals similar numbers of out-of-work men in many major cities.
This chapter describes the Family Life Project, a large-scale longitudinal study that chronicles the lives of African American and non-African American children and their families living in two poor rural areas of the US: Appalachia and the Black South. The breadth of the Family Life Project data allows us to expand the previous literature on rural poverty and to highlight the notion that the effects of poverty are not limited to low levels of income, but are rather fused with several “correlated constraints” that co-occur with poverty: low maternal education, low job prestige, non-standard…
