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Journal Article The author aims to help make low-income, unmarried, and minority fathers more visible by reviewing the emerging literature base on this population and addressing important conceptual, methodological, and policy issues. Recent evidence is reviewed concerning patterns of fatherhood, factors that support or prohibit fathers' active involvement with their children, and the impact of paternal involvement on children's development. To move the field forward, advances are needed in methodology (increased use of father reports, multiple methods, and longitudinal studies), measurement (greater…
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Journal Article About 2.5 million nonresident fathers are poor and do not pay child support. According to the National Survey of America's Families, most noncustodial fathers face the same multiple employment barriers as poor custodial mothers, but are significantly less likely than those mothers to participate in work-support programs such as training, education, job search activities, or income security programs. Before 1996, the government offered an array of financial assistance, housing, and employment training for single mothers. However, nonresident fathers qualified only for food stamps and were not…
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Journal Article Incarcerated fathers or men in the role of father or surrogate father in the US are approaching rates that could be considered epidemic in proportion. Children are adversely affected by the absense of fathers. This study explores the efficacy of a programmed parenting intervention for incarcerated men, derived from the Real Life Parenting Skills Program. (Author abstract modified)
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Journal Article Using data from case records and from questionnaires completed by caseworkers, the author describes: contact between 132 fathers of children in kinship foster care and their caseworkers over a period of 12 months; and the fathers' involvement in permanency planning for their children. The data indicate that most fathers had no contact with the caseworkers during the period under study, and had never participated in permanency planning. Analysis revealed that paternal involvement varied significantly by the child's family composition. Fathers of two or more children from a one-father family…
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Journal Article Preliminary data from the National Evaluation of Early Head Start (NEEHS) program suggests that minority and lower income fathers are just as emotionally invested in their infants and toddlers as White middle-class fathers, this article reports. The data refutes generalizations that lower-income minority fathers are less involved than others in the early childhood development. Most published studies on the subject have relied disproportionately upon data from White middle-class fathers, according to the report. NEEHS provides a more racially and socioeconomically diverse examination of…
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Journal Article This study examined the effect of father-child interactions on the behavior and health of young children in a sample of 182 families reported to child protective services. Data were collected from interviews with the child and his or her caregiver and from reviews of child protective service records and teacher reports. Variables included child and family characteristics; parental and family functioning; extrafamilial relationships; community environment; religious affiliation; child outcomes; and service utilization. Whereas the presence or absence of a father or father figure seemed to make…
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Journal Article Most research on the effect of father figures in the home on the incidence of child maltreatment has been cross-sectional and has focused on sexual abuse. This prospective study's purpose is to determine if the presence of a father surrogate in the home affects the risk of a subsequent child maltreatment report. In a longitudinal sample of at-risk children, North Carolina's Central Registry for Child Abuse and Neglect was used to determine the maltreatment history of children from birth to age 8 years. Children who had a father surrogate living in the home were twice as likely to be reported…
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Journal Article This paper uses data from the baseline Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to examine the level and effects of father-involvement on child's birth weight and mother's health behavior during pregnancy (prenatal care, drinking, drug use and smoking). The findings indicate that most fathers, including unwed fathers, are involved with their children at birth and have intentions to remain involved. The effects of father involvement on health and health behavior depend, however, on how the construct is measured. When measured as parents relationship status (married, cohabiting, romantic or…
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Journal Article Previous studies have revealed that marital status is an important predictor of birth outcomes, with unmarried mothers having a higher probability than married mothers of delivering low birthweight babies. However, research on the impact of different mother-father relationships among unwed parents is virtually non-existent and little is known about whether and how father involvement affects birth outcomes. In this study, we use the sample of unwed patents in the 7-cities baseline Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing data to examine the effect of parents relationship status and support…
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Journal Article The new welfare reform law includes a number of provisions designed to increase the amount of child support paid by nonresident fathers, but little is known about whether stronger child support enforcement may create parental conflict. Parental conflict may increase when fathers do not wish to pay or when fathers pay and demand more time with their child, but mothers resist these demands. Using seven-city data from the study of Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing, the authors find that very few parents are opposed to the idea that fathers should have child support obligations and rights to…
