Fatherhood Summit Session
Substance abuse has a devastating effect on families, and it is especially challenging for low-income and minority fathers. This session addressed how practitioners can help fathers and families affected by the crisis.
The panel provided a backdrop review of the ever-evolving substance abuse prevention and treatment policies and practices in the U.S., as well as current trends and tensions in… Work activity among prime-age (25 to 54) men in America has declined precipitously, leaving seven million or more working-age men in the US outside the labor force. The causes are widespread and include a lack of postsecondary education, dependence on benefit programs, opioid dependency, the rising prevalence of criminal records, a lack of available jobs in economically distressed areas, and weakening cultural norms. A wide range of policies should be implemented to address these causes. These include increased education and training, subsidized jobs for the hard-to-employ, wage subsidies or…
Unpublished Paper
The negative effects of incarceration on child well-being are often linked to the economic insecurity of formerly incarcerated parents. Researchers caution, however, that the effects of parental incarceration may be small in the presence of multiple partner fertility and other family complexity. Despite these claims, few studies directly observe either economic insecurity or the full extent of family complexity. We study parent-child relationships with a unique data set that includes detailed information about economic insecurity and family complexity among parents just released from prison.…
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Journal Article In this study, we examine how financial stress is associated with problem behavior in adolescents through the lives of their parents. Using an actor–partner interdependence model, we explore pathways within (actor) and between (partner) parents. Our data included 340 families, with both parents rating their financial stress, depressive symptoms, and interparental conflict, and with parents and adolescents rating parenting and problem behavior in adolescents. The results indicate that the association between financial stress and problem behavior in adolescents is mediated by depressive…
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Many children experience adversity in the form of poverty, abuse or neglect, homelessness, or other conditions that make them vulnerable to the damaging effects of chronic stress. New research reveals that chronic stress alters their rapidly developing biological systems in ways that undermine their ability to succeed in school and in life. The good news is that we have strong evidence for programs and approaches that policy makers could use to help these children overcome the effects of stress. Home visitation and early childhood health care can give parents much-needed support and…
The ability of young people to forge and sustain healthy relationships can affect almost every aspect of their lives--school and work success, physical and mental health, and the overall health and well-being of their own children. Helping young people thrive and overcome barriers to economic and personal success requires more than ensuring they complete their secondary education and workforce development. Providing youth with the necessary skills to form and sustain healthy intimate relationships is also an essential part of their future success. (Author abstract)
This fact sheet discusses findings from a KIDS COUNT report that highlights the ways in which parents are stretched thin working in low-paying jobs, the effects of inflexible employment on a parent’s ability to provide the emotional and physical care vital for early childhood development, and the detrimental effects of parental stress on children’s cognitive development. It then spotlights five two-generation polices to improve family mobility: home visiting programs, training health professionals to identify risk factors, streamline the process for accessing benefits, connect fathers to…
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Journal Article Children’s early social experiences shape their developing neurological and biological systems for good or for ill, writes Ross Thompson, and the kinds of stressful experiences that are endemic to families living in poverty can alter children’s neurobiology in ways that undermine their health, their social competence, and their ability to succeed in school and in life. For example, when children are born into a world where resources are scarce and violence is a constant possibility, neurobiological changes may make them wary and vigilant, and they are likely to have a hard time controlling…
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Journal Article Self-regulation ability is an important component of school readiness and predictor of academic success, but few studies of self-regulation examine contributions of fathering to the emergence of self-regulation in low-income ethnic minority preschoolers. Associations were examined between parental child-oriented parenting support and preschoolers' emerging self-regulation abilities in 224 low-income African American (n = 86) and Latino (n = 138) children observed at age 30 months in father-child and mother-child interactions to determine unique predictions from fathering qualities. Child-…
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Journal Article Responsible fathering programs address a range of obstacles to involvement; however, most concentrate on employment and co-parenting to the exclusion of men's mental health needs. Depression not only directly interferes with parent involvement, it also impacts employment and relationships. The goal of this paper was to determine the level of depressive symptoms presented at program intake by 120 men who participated in two different responsible fathering programs, and to examine the relationship between levels of depressive symptoms, other assessed needs, and treatment plans. One-third of the…
