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In early 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement recognizing that “maternal depression affects the whole family” and urging pediatric providers to “incorporate recognition and management of perinatal depression into pediatric practice.” Soon after, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued new recommendations on interventions to prevent perinatal depression. The convergence of these 2 statements from nationally recognized bodies of experts in evidence-based medicine underscores the urgency of a heightened focus on screening and making referrals for…

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…

Although the gender gap may be slowly closing across generations, men are generally much more likely than women to develop a substance use disorder as they move through adolescence into early to middle adulthood when most men first become a father. Research done from several different perspectives suggests that substance use by men affects family relations and family relations affect substance use by men, undoubtedly in a reciprocal manner as men move through the life cycle of the family. Moreover, substance use by men represents a substantial threat to the development of infants, toddlers…

This study explores fathers’ engagement with home visiting in the “Tennessee Dad” project, a cluster randomized-controlled trial of an in-home parenting education program for fathers delivered alongside a primary home visiting curriculum. Results from three mixed models using data from 2,916 visits with treatment (n = 113) and control (n = 117) condition families indicated that visits to treatment condition families were more likely to have a father present than visits to control condition families, but there were no differences between conditions on participation minutes or level of…

Research on young parents experiencing homelessness has typically focused on mothers and pregnant women. Young homeless fathers’ tendencies to decline involvement throughout pregnancy and in their children’s lives have been documented and condemned; however, little is known about young men’s perspectives on these situations. This exploratory study engaged homeless young men in qualitative interviews regarding their perceptions and experiences of fathering. Respondents often viewed fatherhood as solely representing breadwinner responsibilities and as a burden that one dutifully carries or…

Since the last decade review of the fathering literature in 2000, scholars across numerous disciplines such as demography, family studies, medicine, nursing, law, psychology, social work, and sociology have continued to produce a steady stream of work on fathering and father-child relationships. This literature is reviewed selectively with a focus on key developments, persistent challenges, and critical directions for future research. Significant developments include greater availability of large and nationally representative datasets to study fathers; expansion and evaluation of U.S.…