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Journal Article We investigated children and families who were participating in a mentoring program targeting children with incarcerated parents. Using multiple methods and informants, we explored the development of the mentoring relationship, challenges and benefits of mentoring children with incarcerated parents, and match termination in 57 mentor-child dyads. More than one-third of matches terminated during the first 6 months of participation. For those matches that continued to meet, however, children who saw their mentors more frequently exhibited fewer internalizing and externalizing symptoms. In…
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Journal Article A study was conducted of 51 Georgia offenders who were substance abusers and fathers to 130 children. Findings indicate that despite their lack of participation in hands-on fathering, offenders cited children as one of their biggest motivators for success upon release. The majority wanted to re-connect with their children and to become both a good role model and a meaningful part of their children's lives. 4 references.
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Journal Article Few programs to enhance fathers' engagement with children have been systematically evaluated, especially for low-income minority populations. In this study, 289 couples from primarily low-income Mexican American and European American families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and followed for 18 months: 16-week groups for fathers, 16-week groups for couples, or a 1-time informational meeting. Compared with families in the low-dose comparison condition, intervention families showed positive effects on fathers' engagement with their children, couple relationship quality, and…
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Journal Article Although much research has focused on how imprisonment transforms the life course of disadvantaged black men, researchers have paid little attention to how parental imprisonment alters the social experience of childhood. This article estimates the risk of parental imprisonment by age 14 for black and white children born in 1978 and 1990. This article also estimates the risk of parental imprisonment for children whose parents did not fi nish high school, fi nished high school only, or attended college. Results show the following: (1) 1 in 40 white children born in 1978 and 1 in 25 white…
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Journal Article This study explored the lived experience of parenting that may inform individual health practices and behavior of young, ethnic minority, primarily Latino parents, participants in a HIV prevention intervention. Narrative accounts from parents (N = 90) were analyzed to illuminate the impact of parental protectiveness and aspirations for the child. Focus groups (n = 23) were utilized to generate a nuanced understanding of young parenthood. Self-reflective, complex, and multidimensional perspectives on parental protectiveness emerged along themes: (a) "growing up thoughtful," (b) "you gotta…
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Journal Article Nonresident fathers' financial support and time are both important to children's well-being, although the association between these two types of involvement is mixed in the literature. Using the 1994 - 2004 waves of the Current Population Survey-Child Support Supplement, this article examined the associations between mothers' reports of child support payments and visitation. The results indicated that about 36% of nonresident fathers did not visit their children at all, and the distribution of visitation was highly skewed. Therefore, zero-inflated Poisson regression was used, and the results…
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Journal Article Children do better when their fathers are involved in raising them, yet child welfare systems have been slow to include fathers in family support services or case planning. It can be difficult for fathers with children in care to access legal representation and appropriate services. In this issue, parents write about the steps fathers can take to protect and support their children. (Author abstract)
