The birth of a child with a disability, or the discovery that a child has a disability, can have profound effects on the family. In “You are Not Alone,” Patricia McGill Smith offers the insights that she and others have gained through their own experience of having a child with a disability. In this article, we will provide additional information to support the life cycle, health, and well-being of the family when a member has a disability.It is with a great deal of humility that we are even attempting to describe what the future may hold for you and your family. On the one hand, we want…
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Journal Article This issue of The Future of Children assesses past and current two-generation programs. But it goes much further than that. The editors identified six widely acknowledged mechanisms or pathways through which parents, and the home environment they create, are thought to influence children’s development: stress, education, health, income, employment, and assets. Understanding how these mechanisms of development work—and when, where, and how they harm or help—should aid us in designing interventions that boost children’s intellectual and socioemotional development, strengthen families, and help…
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Recent research has documented the complex living arrangements of today's children (FP-13-19), but less is known about the living arrangements of parents, particularly fathers. Because mothers are far more likely to have full-time physical custody of their children in non-intact families, many fathers do not live with their children. However, until recently, the research community lacked data that identified the living arrangements for all of men's children. This profile uses the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), one of the few data sources that collects information directly…
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Journal Article The young adult years raise a number of intriguing questions about the relationship between fathers and daughters. How does the quality of their relationship throughout childhood manifest itself during a daughter's college years? In what specific ways is the 'well-fathered' daughter advantaged compared with daughters who had troubled or distant relationships with their fathers? What aspects of the daughter's college and early adult life are generally more influenced by her relationship with her father than by her relationship with her mother? This review of recent research provides intriguing…
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This report explains the following nine important facts about American families and work which together illustrate the changes that are needed to ensure long-term economic growth, maintain economic competitiveness, improve the well-being of Americans, and make full use of all of America's talents: mothers are increasingly the household breadwinners; fathers are increasingly family caregivers; women make up nearly half of the labor force; women are increasingly among the most skilled workers, attaining the majority of college degrees, and deepening their work experiences; most children live in…
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Journal Article The absence of biological fathers in South Africa has been constructed as a problem for children of both sexes but more so for boy-children. Arguably the dominant discourse in this respect has demonized non-nuclear, female-headed households. Fathers are constructed as either absent or 'bad'. Thus it has become important to explore more closely how male care-givers have been experienced by groups of men in South Africa. This article examines discourses of fatherhood and fatherlessness by drawing on qualitative interviews with a group of 29 men who speak about their reported experiences and…
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Journal Article This study employs nationally representative data on adolescents and their stepfathers (n=2085) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine factors associated with positive stepfather-stepchild relationships in married stepfamilies. Results reveal substantial variability in the perceived quality of adolescents' relationships with stepfathers. Structural equation models using Wave I data reveal that close relationships with mothers and close ties between mothers and stepfathers are positively related to the perceived quality of adolescents' relationships with…
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Journal Article Grandparents or other relatives are raising over 2.7 million children in the United States; and research suggests that the birth parents of these children maintain varying levels of involvement with them and their relative caregivers. However, the impact of parental involvement on children's developmental outcomes remains largely unexplored. This study sought to understand the role of maternal and paternal involvement (each parent's contact with the caregiver, contact with the child, friendliness to the caregiver, and quality of relationship with the child) on competence levels of African…
This tip sheet provides specific tips to improve parenting skills. It is designed as an informational handout for families in support of the companion resource for providers, Tips for Service Providers: Healthy Parenting Practices. (Author abstract)
This tip sheet is designed to support service providers in discussing the topic of healthy parenting practices with the families they serve. It is supported by the informational handout, Strong Families: Tips for Healthy Parenting. (Author abstract)
