Other
This guide from the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement is intended to help Head Start staff understand more about the role that positive goal-oriented relationships play in effective parent, family, and community engagement and school readiness. It includes definitions, tools, and guides for reflective practice and supervision. (Author abstract modified)
Brief
This Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) policy brief examines opportunities for states to play a prominent role in the evolving 2 Gen movement. The first section reviews the continuing need to address poverty in America, the history of 2 Gen strategies in America, the evidence suggesting the promise of 2 Gen efforts, and current efforts to bring renewed attention to 2 Gen work. It also elaborates on the WPFP's approach to 2 Gen state policy work. The second section examines the role of states in pursuing 2 Gen strategies, with a particular focus on the state systems and policies that help…
Brief
This inaugural issue of Focus on Policy summarizes recent research on the ways in which the American family has changed over the past half century. Changes include how couples form partnerships, have children, earn a living, and struggle to get by. (Author abstract)
Brief
A two-generation approach to public policies brings together worlds that are often separated (focusing only on children or only on parents) to modify or create new policies that focus on the needs of parents and children together. Two-generation policies reflect strong research findings that the well-being of parents is a crucial ingredient in children’s social-emotional, physical, and economic well-being. And at the same time, parents’ ability to succeed in school and the workplace is substantially affected by how well their children are doing. Two-generation programs and policies are not a…
Other
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…
Brief
The Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN) convened a workgroup of experts in the field of fatherhood and father involvement to develop a research agenda that defines the state of the current research in this area, identifies extant gaps in this research, and generates suggestions for future research. The goal is for the workgroup's ideas to inform subsequent funding by the FRPN for evaluation and research projects that seek to enhance our collective understanding of the important role fathers play in the lives of their children and how programs and policies can strengthen this role…
Brief
Healthy marriage relationship skills education programs serving unmarried parents aim to help these couples improve their relationships, with the ultimate aim of supporting family stability and promoting child well-being. A central goal of these programs is to promote fathers' sustained, active engagement in their children's lives. Data from Mathematica's evaluation of the Building Strong Families (BSF) program allow us to deter-mine which families that enrolled in a set of healthy marriage programs were at greatest risk of having fathers with very limited involvement with their young…
Other
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…
Report, Other
This guide is designed to enhance the knowledge of evidence-informed and promising practices that address the needs of expectant and parenting youth in foster care and their children, and to provide a comprehensive set of resources for jurisdictions interested in achieving safety, permanency, and well-being for these young families. Information is drawn from a review of an expanded list of existing clearinghouses on evidence-informed programs, an internet search of programs, and phone interviews with programs to secure updated evaluation data. The resource guide is organized into three major…
Brief
This research brief, from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families, provides a national portrait of low-income Hispanic families in the U.S. Having a better understanding of these families will help programs and policymakers in their efforts to assist these families. We use recent nationally-representative data to describe the relationship and childbearing histories of low-income Hispanic men and women aged 15 to 44. Importantly, we distinguish by nativity—i.e., born in the U.S. versus in some other country—as family formation patterns vary greatly by nativity, and these…
