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Journal Article Despite efforts to strengthen child support enforcement over the past decades, the level of unpaid child support remains high. High child support arrears create problems for families and states; however, our understanding of how arrears accumulate is limited. Using longitudinal data from Wisconsin administrative records for noncustodial fathers, this article examines patterns of the evolution of child support arrears. We develop a scheme to categorize long-term arrears changes and identify six typical trajectories of arrears evolution that distinguish the timing and pattern of changes in debt…
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Journal Article Responsible fatherhood programs have proliferated in the United States during the past several decades, yet few studies have been conducted of their effects on fathers and children. Evaluation of these programs requires attention to 2 questions that have not been adequately addressed: What are the specific outcomes expected from fathers' participation in programs, and how do we measure those outcomes? In this article, we suggest 3 theoretical frameworks for fatherhood programs: attachment theory, family systems theory, and the risk-resilience perspective. Promising outcome measures and the…
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Journal Article When their children are born, most unmarried parents have high expectations for the future, but they are particularly vulnerable to financial and relationship instability. Their children are disproportionately likely to experience negative health and wellbeing outcomes, in part because of low father involvement. We provide an overview of the findings in this area, drawing primarily from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and two studies conducted by the Child and Family Research Partnership at The University of Texas at Austin. We conclude that father involvement is largely a…
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Journal Article Policy interest and support for increasing the positive involvement of fathers in their children's lives has increased substantially in recent years, with a dedicated federal funding stream for responsible fatherhood programs. These programs aim to improve fathers’ parenting, economic stability, and relationship skills, factors that are known to be associated with fathers’ socioemotional and financial support of their children. We focus on the efforts of four fatherhood programs participating in a large-scale evaluation sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S.…
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Journal Article The current study examined low-income, unmarried, nonresidential fathers’ engagement in co-parenting with the child's mother. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 71 fathers attending nine different fatherhood programs in five cities that serve low-income, primarily unmarried, nonresidential fathers. The results revealed that co-parenting in this sample of fathers is a multidimensional construct that includes both negative and positive components. Our results also point to specific behaviors or indicators that seem to be unique to this population of fathers and mothers and that…
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Journal Article The "My Brother's Keeper" initiative (Obama, 2014) has helped to attract public attention to the vulnerabilities faced by many boys of color (BOC). In this article, I review what is known about the developmental status of BOC, identify key family practices that are critical to their development, and consider the implications of both for early intervention. The lack of school readiness skills and early reading competence are seen as the most serious early concerns. BOC struggle with language, literacy, and the regulation of behavior and emotions. These problems are evident at school entry,…
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Journal Article Increasing the involvement of fathers in child safeguarding is an issue which has seen relatively little practice innovation in mainstream services. This article concerns a bold attempt to improve practice in this domain through a systemic approach. Key findings are presented from an evaluation of a Fatherhood Institute project in six English local authorities. The intervention was positively received and the self-efficacy of children's services staff improved on most measures as a result of training. However, not all planned aspects of the project could be implemented. The article reflects…
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Journal Article Today’s father is not your father’s father. There are 70.1 million fathers in the United States,1 with 24.7 million part of married couples with children aged
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Journal Article African American paternal grandmothers serve an important role in influencing teenage fathers’ involvement with their children in that grandmothers’ support of their sons’ fathering practices is associated with increased father involvement. We used qualitative data from 53 paternal grandmothers to compare satisfaction with teenage sons’ fathering practices with their expectations for ideal fathering and identify reasons for inconsistencies between the two. Paternal grandmothers characterized three practices (providing financial support, being attentive, and performing day-to-day care) that…
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Journal Article The literature on father involvement suggests that the value men ascribe to being a father is important for understanding their involvement with their children, yet this theory has received only limited empirical attention. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,197), I examined the association between the psychological centrality of men’s father identity at the time their child was born and their trajectories of involvement during their child’s first 5 years, paying particular attention to differences by fathers’ residence status. I found that the centrality…
