In schools all across the country, every day, young men and boys build relationships based on their notion of what it means to be a “real” man. They make choices that can put others and themselves at risk and contribute to a variety of devastating public health problems, such as teen dating violence, unplanned teen parenthood, and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection. In response, schools and communities across the country are implementing programs that reach out to young men as leaders and allies and that invite them to take up the challenge of ending men’s violence…
This paper draws on data gleaned from in-depth, repeated inter-views with approximately 200 low-income noncustodial fathers in two U.S. cities. It focuses on two social problems that have seldom been brought together in the same analysis: father involvement (both economic and relational), and the impact of men's involvement with the criminal justice system. In the sample, roughly one-third of respondents report being incarcerated at least once during their life course. The authors looked in detail at what these respondents had to say about how their involvement with the criminal justice…
Central to effective programs addressing the complex needs of non-custodial parents is the collaboration of agencies. In particular, this workshop seeks to bring together and encourage partnership between TANF and OCSE state agencies. TANF presents States with substantial flexibility in the design of programs. The idea behind TANF is that everybody wins when families are moved from welfare to sustainable employment that provide earnings consistent with self-sufficiency. The dramatic drop in the TANF caseloads, now estimated at about one half of the families in welfare in 1996, left states…
Our study investigates whether fatherhood and specifically involvement with nonresident children influence men's entrance into marital and cohabiting unions. Using the National Survey of Families and Households, our findings suggest that neither resident nor nonresident children affect men's chances of entering a new marriage but nonresident children have a positive effect on cohabitation. The positive association between nonresident children and men's union formation is not uniform; instead, we find that it is involvement with nonresident children, specifically visitation, that enhances men'…
This report uses a variety of indicators to portray children's experiences while growing up. Data on child well-being were collected by interviews of households in the 1992 and 1993 SIPP panels, which were conducted at the same time in the fall of 1994. The topics covered in this report illustrate what children experience on a daily basis, including differences in family living arrangements, economicand social environments, and the types of neighborhoods where children live. Experiences with nonparental child care arrangements, daily interactions with parents, performance in school, and…
The involvement of fathers in their children's' activities is recognized as a critical factor in early child development and the emotional well being of older children. This article examines research data on the importance of fathers' participation in the lives of their children, personal characteristics of involved and disengaged fathers, and activities that fathers more typically share with their children. The author notes that while activities such as helping with homework or engaging in religious activities might not seem special to many fathers, they are special to children and to their…
Developed by the National Center on Fathers and Families with input from researchers and practitioners, the Fathering Indicators Framework assesses changes in fathers' behaviors and the impact of paternal behavior on the child and the family. The instrument was intended to provide a structure for measuring the characteristics of father involvement and to promote the collection of data necessary for assessing the level and effect of fathers' participation in the lives of their children. The resulting product lists indicators and data sources for six areas: father presence; involvement in…
The Parents' Fair Share demonstration program was implemented in seven sites to test an approach for helping noncustodial fathers meet their child support responsibilities. Employment and training services, support groups, mediation services, and modified child support enforcement activities were intended to improve job stability and child support payments, as well as father-child relationships. The evaluation of the project compared outcomes for fathers who participated in the Parents' Fair Share program with fathers who were randomly assigned to a control group from 1994 to 1996. Overall…
The increase in the number of children being born to unmarried parents present a number of social policy issues for strengthening the involvement of unwed fathers with their children. This working paper examines trends in out-of-wedlock childbearing, the influence of fathers in child development, and how social policies such as welfare, child support, and fathering programs affect unwed fathers and their family involvement. The authors discuss a number of studies that have found paternal involvement to be associated with better emotional, behavioral, and developmental outcomes in children, as…
The degree of paternal economic and emotional investment in children and families has a major impact on child outcomes, however trends away from two-parent families indicate the need for social policy changes to further encourage active involvement by fathers, married or otherwise. The authors consider a number of economic factors that may contribute to the drift away from two-parent families in this review of the economic literature on welfare reform, child support enforcement, and labor markets, and their possible influence on paternal disengagement through divorce, separation and birth to…
