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Journal Article As the male prison population increases, so too does the number of children with fathers in prison. The negative impact of fatherlessness on children has been well documented. While parenting education is often seen as an effective tool to improve the quality of family relationships and foster positive outcomes for children, fathers in prison frequently are ignored or excluded from parenting programs. This mixed method study examined the impact of short term parenting education on fathers in prison who were enrolled in a 3-day parenting class. A simple experimental design was coupled with…
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Marriage has become a major component of the TANF reauthorization debates, as proposals in the Senate, House, and White House have allocated significant resources to marriage promotion activities and related research. Although there is an existing body of research on marriage from fields such as psychology, demography, and child development, research on marriage policy is sparse. In September 2003, the National Poverty Center hosted a conference to synthesize what is known from existing research about marriage policies and family formation issues.This issue of the forum describes two recent…
We use data from the Fragile Families Study (N = 3317) to document the number of changes in maternal romantic partnerships experienced by children between their birth and age 3, particularly children born to unmarried mothers. We also examine the association between partnership instability and parenting, child health and behavior. We find significantly high levels of partnership instability among children born to unmarried mothers. In addition, partnership instability is negatively associated with parenting, child health, and behavioral problems for children at age 3. Each partnership change…
Plans to ensure the safety of children in homes affected by domestic violence must include interventions with batterers to alleviate the threat to all family members. This guide produced by the Massachusetts Department of Social Services Domestic Violence Unit describes strategies for interviewing and working with abusers. Emphasis is placed on holding offenders accountable for their behavior and providing motivations for change. A system for assessing dangerousness and risk for the social worker and nonabusive parent is discussed. Chapters review the influence of race, class, culture, and…
Increases in single-parent households, often involving never married couples, have heightened the urgency to understand decisions parents make about parent-child relationships after separation. This qualitative study provides a descriptive analysis of the concerns of mothers in non-marital relationships that may affect their decisions regarding visitation and clarifies the relationship between visitation and paying child support. Weighing the benefits versus the costs, most mothers were willing to allow visitation even if the father did not pay child support, recognizing the importance of…
This paper reports findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine union formation among unmarried parents who have just had a child together. Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of economic, cultural/interpersonal, and other factors on whether parents are romantically involved living apart, cohabitating, married to each other, or not romantically involved one year after the child's birth. Net of other factors, women's education and men's earnings encourage marriage. Cultural and interpersonal factors also have strong effects. Women's trust…
The Department of Health and Human Services Peer Technical Assistance Network sponsored a roundtable discussion to share ideas about programs to strengthen families who are separated by parental incarceration. Government officials, service providers, and practitioners from Tennessee, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma reviewed trends in incarceration and discussed solutions to common challenges. Prisoner re-entry, recidivism, and the impact of incarceration on children and parents specifically were discussed. Attendees noted the need to focus on nurturing stability in dysfunctional…
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of parents in prison increased significantly during the 1990s. Parental incarceration and the disruption of family relationships have several negative effects on children, including poverty, poor academic performance, aggression, depression, delinquency, and substance abuse. However, parenting programs can help mothers and fathers in prison to strengthen attachments to their children and protect them from risk behaviors. Effective family dynamics also can reduce recidivism for parents after their release from prison. The Welfare Peer…
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Journal Article Scott and Crooks (authors of another article in this issue) provide an accounting of the characteristics that are more typical among maltreating than nonmaltreating fathers. Despite the merit in the suggested guidelines for intervention programs, questions may be raised about the relative utility of interventions rather than prevention programs with at-risk males. The effectiveness of one such prevention program (home visiting) is described. (Author abstract modified)
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Journal Article In this commentary the authors highlight some of the ways that current views of fathers who maltreat their children or partners may be outdated, and consider appropriate services for these men and their families. They examine barriers to intervention with men, including the societal bias that mothers are more amenable to change than fathers as well as the reality that these men are difficult to work with. Help providers must possess the skills necessary to challenge and motivate maltreating and at risk fathers. These skills are described as a combination of those derived from working with…
