Brief
This ASPE Issue Brief presents findings related to casework practice from a study that sought to determine the extent to which child welfare agencies seek out nonresident fathers of children in foster care and involve them in their children’s case management and permanency planning. The study was conducted by the Urban Institute and NORC under contract to ASPE and was funded in large part by the Administration for Children and Families.
Brief
This document provides answers to twelve commonly asked questions regarding supervised parenting time and other visitation-related issues.
red dot icon
Journal Article Providing effective foster care is a major undertaking that continues to plague this country. The ultimate goal of substitute care is to provide child victims of maltreatment with a safe and nurturing home environment. The goal of this theory driven research project was to identify ecological factors correlated with effective non-kin family foster care. Various levels of analysis were considered including individual, family and community. The findings of this study identified three factors as significant predictors of effective foster care. Included are implications for social work in the…
The National Center on Fathers and Families identified seven lessons that should be considered by policymakers and researchers concerned with the role of fathers in family life. This fact sheet provides a brief explanation of issues related to the diversity of ways in which fathers demonstrate care for their families, the value of father presence, the impact of joblessness on father involvement, and barriers created by the punitive nature of public policies. Other lessons focus on support for co-parenting, the developmental implications of fatherhood, and the influence of family culture on…
red dot icon
Journal Article There has been a growing recognition of the need to provide appropriate intervention services to fathers who have been abusive in their families. This paper highlights four specific treatment goals for fathers who maltreat their children, along with therapeutic strategies necessary to accomplish desired outcomes. These goals were developed as part of the Caring Dads: Helping Fathers Value Their Children program and include: (a) developing sufficient trust and motivation to engage men in the process of examining their fathering; (b) increasing men's awareness and application of child-centered…
red dot icon
Journal Article The purpose of this study is to identify factors that predict recidivism among families in which the father is the perpetrator of physical abuse and to compare these factors to the factors that investigators believe are related to higher risk. A case-comparison design was used to understand risk among 137 predominantly Caucasian families in which a father had injured a child. The multivariate analysis showed that families in which the father was unemployed (greater time at risk), had younger children, was not the biological father of all of the children, did not take responsibility for his…
red dot icon
Journal Article This study compared perceptions of personal distress, interpersonal and marital problems, and aspects of family climate of maltreating fathers and mothers. Subjects were 2841 offenders (1918 of whom were fathers or father-figures) who were identified and treated by the USAF Family Advocacy Program between 1988 and 1996. Independent variables for the analysis were parent sex (mother vs. father) as well as type and severity of maltreatment, history of repeat offenses, and history of abuse in childhood. Maltreating mothers were more distressed and reported more problems from individuals outside…
red dot icon
Journal Article Departing from the typical focus of intervention studies on service use and program effects for mothers and children, this article examines the extent to which fathers are present as clients in Early Head Start intervention programs for infants and toddlers. The article uses descriptive findings from 2 studies: the first is a population survey of 261 Early Head Start programs (National Practitioners Survey), and the second is a father involvement demonstration program of 21 programs (Fatherhood Demonstration Study). Similar measures enabled comparability across the studies. The 2 studies…
Video
This documentary, directed by John Badalament shows the stories of three men who grew up with abusive fathers and had to grapple with their own choices as intimate partners and fathers. (Author abstract, modified)
CFFPP conducted focus groups with staff from county child welfare agencies to gain an understanding of the issues they confront as they work with children and their families. These were held in southeastern Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Dane, Racine, and Rock counties), which together represent the some of the state's highest caseload of children involved with the child welfare system. Through the focus groups, CFFPP intended to explore not only specific child welfare policies and practices that enhance or deter father involvement, but also other state policies that can affect father involvement (e.g…
