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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…
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Approximately one-third of all infants are born to parents who are not married. Families in which the parents are cohabitating or living separately are considered to be fragile and at risk of dissolution and poverty. This report highlights findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and the Time, Love, Cash, Caring, and Children Study regarding the relationships between unmarried parents. The results can be used to assess need and target services to support these families. The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study is following a cohort of 3,712 children born to unmarried…
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Journal Article Involving caregivers in their children's services often is assumed to make the delivery of child-focused services more effective. We examined the relation of caregiver involvement in children's early intervention programs (EIPs) with caregiver-child interaction. Participants were 99 low-income single caregivers whose children ( 40 months old) were enrolled in EIPs that provided opportunities for caregiver involvement. The results confirmed that caregivers who were more engaged with the programs (as rated by program staff) were more likely to demonstrate more responsiveness in interactions…
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Journal Article Although fathers perpetrate a significant proportion of child maltreatment, the intervention needs of abusive and neglectful fathers have not been adequately addressed or researched. This paper outlines the theoretical background for the Caring Dads program and argues that well-designed treatment has the potential to benefit men, their children, and their families. However, the treatment needs of maltreating and at-risk fathers are unique, and programs must be designed accordingly. Based on the integration of parenting, child abuse, change promotion, and batterer treatment literatures, five…
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Journal Article This article reviews a protocol on locating and involving absent fathers in child protective proceedings under Michigan law. It explains how to distinguish legal, equitable, and putative fathers under the law, steps for Family Independence Agency caseworkers to take to establish legal fatherhood, and putative father hearings in child protective proceedings. The application of the presumption of legitimacy to child protective proceedings under Michigan law is explored, and key State court cases are cited. 67 references.
This chapter describes the theoretical foundations of the Positive Paternal Emotional Responsiveness (PPER) subscale of the Fatherhood Scale, which was designed to assess the childhood paternal bonds of adults. The PPER contains 13 questions that focus on the role of the father in the development of a healthy perception of self. Clients are asked to rate their experience with their father as a caring person and the frequency of paternal expressions of praise and love. The results can be used to identify areas for further exploration in therapy, such as strengths in the relationship between…
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This issue focuses on the father's role in permanency planning for a child in foster care. It begins by discussing barriers to father involvement and predictive factors in father-child involvement. Different types of father involvement are reviewed, along with five important questions to determine paternity status and issues to consider when determining paternity. Tips are provided for overcoming the reservations of both mothers and fathers, and for involving fathers in case planning. Conditions for the award of temporary custody to fathers are also identified. Practice guidelines are then…
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 demonstration program tested a model for addressing the systemic factors that influence father involvement in case planning in the state of Washington, such as staff training and agency policies. Pilot programs were implemented in four offices in one region of Washington, as well as in San Mateo County, California. This fourth report of the project highlights findings from three waves of data collection activities with fathers of children who entered the child welfare system between September 2002 and February 2003, and from families that were identified as eligible between March 2003…
