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Journal Article Kinship care refers to familial arrangements where the primary caregiver(s) are biological relatives, godparents, or other fictive kin with strong bonds, raising children when the biological parents are unable. The majority of children living in a home with neither of their biological parents’ present are living in kinship care arrangements. Previous research has primarily focused on maternal involvement and experiences in kinship care; however, little is known about paternal access, engagement, and responsibility in these arrangements. Researchers and practitioners have identified factors…
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Journal Article Paternal involvement in the lives of their children has a positive influence on child and family outcomes, including breastfeeding rates, sleep training, nutrition and exercise, and developmental outcomes. Much of the research on paternal involvement, however, focuses on Caucasian fathers of middle and high socioeconomic status (SES). Within an urban, primarily Latino, lower SES community, we seek to involve and empower fathers through education on common child rearing topics.
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NRFC Quick Statistics and Research Reviews, Brief
In 2016, more than one in four children under 21 in the United States lived in a household apart from one of their parents. In 80 percent of these households, the custodial parent was the mother and the non-residential parent was the father. The amount and frequency of financial support that both parents provide shapes household economic stability, which can also affect children’s overall health and well-being. Non-residential parents often have a legal obligation to help pay the costs associated with raising their children. However, some non-residential parents pay these costs…
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Journal Article Single motherhood has long been linked to the risk for child maltreatment. However, little is known about the role of fathers in buffering mothers' risk for child maltreatment. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this paper investigates (1) the ways in which non-resident fathers' economic contributions and involvement in parenting may moderate associations between mothers' transitions to being single and the risk for child maltreatment, and (2) whether these processes vary by race/ethnicity. Results indicate that mothers' transitions to being single are not…
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Journal Article We identify multiple predictors of five types of father involvement in 167 low- to moderate-income two-parent Mexican American families with fifth-grade children. Analyses show that fathers' egalitarian gender attitudes and mothers' education are associated with higher levels of father involvement. Fathers are more involved in monitoring and interacting with children when families place more emphasis on family rituals, they are more involved in supervising children when mothers are employed more hours, and they perform more housework when mothers earn more and the family is under economic…
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Journal Article The current study investigated how fathering behaviors (acceptance, rejection, monitoring, consistent discipline, and involvement) are related to preadolescent adjustment in Mexican American and European American stepfamilies and intact families. Cross-sectional data from 393 7th graders, their schoolteachers, and parents were used to examine links between different dimensions of fathering and adolescent outcomes. Following an ecological multivariate model, family SES, marital satisfaction, and mothers' parenting were included as controls. In all contexts, fathering had significant effects…
A father will always play a vital role in a child's growing years, especially sons. His absence or presence in the child's life will have a profound impact in the future. In Black Fathers Black Sons, author Ray Waters delves into the relationships of African-American men and reveals new insights that will fuel debate and debunk many myths. (Author abstract)
The Best Kept Secret studies the often-overlooked group of single, African American custodial fathers. While the media focuses on the increase of single mothers and the decline in marriage in the black community, Roberta Coles paints a nuanced picture of single black dads. Based on qualitative research, the author looks at the parenting experience of these fathers, who may have become single parents through nonmarital births, divorce, widowhood and adoption. The fathers, ranging in age from 20 to 76, discuss their motivations for taking custody of their children, what roles they enact as…
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Journal Article Fathers have often been ignored in the parenting literature. The current study focused on male cohabiting partners (MCPs) who can serve as “social stepfathers” and examined the association of coparent support and conflict with their positive parenting behavior (i.e., acceptance, firm control, and monitoring) of adolescents. Participants were 121 low-income urban Black cohabiting stepfamilies (mother, MCP, adolescent). The mother and MCP completed measures on coparenting support and conflict, and the young adolescent completed measures on MCP parenting. Using structural equation modeling (SEM…
The majority of African American children live in homes without their fathers, but the proportion of African American children living in intact, two-parent families has risen significantly since 1995. Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society looks at father absence from two sides, offering an in-depth analysis of how the absence of African American fathers affects their children, their relationships, and society as a whole, while countering the notion that father absence and family fragmentation within the African American community is inevitable. Editors Obie Clayton, Ronald B. Mincy,…
