Designed to assist advocates for nonresident fathers in child welfare cases, this checklist provides tips for recognizing male help-seeking behaviors. Strategies for advocates are explained and include: recognize the life circumstances of father clients, perform outreach, and remove barriers to meetings; explain the father advocate role in the child welfare system; use the strengths of traditional masculinity while addressing self-defeating beliefs about getting help; address any negative biases about fathers; and learn and practice male-friendly rapport-building tactics.
Designed to assist advocates for nonresident fathers in child welfare cases, this checklist provides tips for addressing special advocacy issues. Strategies for advocates are explained for addressing substance abuse, mental health concerns, domestic violence allegations, and immigration concerns.
Fathers play an important role in child development, whether or not they reside with their children. However, an increasing number of children from all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds are growing up without a father in the home. The authors describe strategies that mental health and social work professionals can use to support the participation of noncustodial fathers in the lives of their children. Specific considerations for divorced fathers, nonresidential fathers who never married their children's mother, and teen fathers are highlighted. The text describes the emotional experiences…
The incarceration of a father can have a significant impact on the emotional development of his children, with many children experiencing dissociation, anxiety, loss, and anger. Factors that influence the child's response include the circumstances of the father's arrest, how the child hears about the arrest, and the mother's level of distress. This book describes the effects of imprisonment on fathers, their children, and the mothers of their children and explains how social workers can support family relationships in this difficult situation. The role of family relationships in the…
In recent years a number of programs have been initiated to provide incarcerated fathers with education and training in parenting skills. This chapter reviews research, theory and the evolving practice of such programs, including experiences of 125 inmates who have participated in parenting classes while in prison. The psychosocial and social needs of incarcerated fathers; recruitment and barriers; program goals; evaluation strategies; and a summary of core information to guide program development are presented. Common characteristics of imprisoned fathers and various prison parenting…
This examination of Judeo-Christian faith-based initiatives promoting responsible fatherhood explores the basic values and assumptions of such interventions and the characteristics of several successful programs. A number of barriers and challenges exist to faith-based fatherhood programs focused on improving the father-child-family relationship. The basic assumption of such programs is that to be a good father a man must become a man of God, the authors explain, and scriptures provide many examples and moral lessons about the behavior and character of a good father. Evangelical Protestant…
Studies about the effects of divorce on children have found that children who are separated from their father are more likely than children in two-parent families to have problems in psychosocial development, behavior, school performance, employment, and future interpersonal relationships. Conversely, the research indicates that positive relationships with nonresidential fathers who are actively involved in the lives of their children promote positive adjustment. This chapter suggests that postdivorce child custody agreements should seek to enhance the involvement of the nonresidential parent…
This chapter describes the theoretical foundations of the Positive Paternal Emotional Responsiveness (PPER) subscale of the Fatherhood Scale, which was designed to assess the childhood paternal bonds of adults. The PPER contains 13 questions that focus on the role of the father in the development of a healthy perception of self. Clients are asked to rate their experience with their father as a caring person and the frequency of paternal expressions of praise and love. The results can be used to identify areas for further exploration in therapy, such as strengths in the relationship between…
The Caring Dads program is one of the first group intervention manuals designed specifically for men who have maltreated their children and / or exposed them to domestic violence. Developed and piloted over five years, this 17-session program draws from best practices in the fields of batterer intervention, parenting, child maltreatment, behavior change, and working with resistant clients. The Caring Dads manual provides clear, easy-to-follow guidelines and activities for the implementation of the program and is a useful tool for both experienced and relatively novice service providers.…
This chapter reports the findings of a study of father-son relationships among 18 adolescent sex offenders. The objective of the research was to examine the role of paternal deprivation in psycho-sexual development and sexually abusive behavior. None of the boys in the study reported having a warm and nurturing relationship with their birth fathers. Slightly more than half of the boys indicated that their father had abandoned their family when they were young. Eighteen percent of the boys had been sexually abused by their father and 50 percent were physically abused. Psychoanalytic theory…
