The effectiveness of fatherhood programs working with low-income and mostly noncustodial fathers are reviewed in this chapter, including results from the Children First program, eight federally funded demonstration projects designed to increase noncustodial parents access to their children, and the Parents Fair Share program. Lessons learned from the evaluations of these programs are shared. 30 references.
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Journal Article Previous longitudinal research has shown that parental monitoring is a powerful predictor of child outcomes. Children from families with low levels of monitoring are particularly at risk for antisocial behavior, difficulties in school, and related problems. We studied whether parental monitoring--as reported by mothers/stepmothers, fathers/stepfathers, interviewers, and teachers--differs across two-parent biological families, stepmother families, and stepfather families. Two-parent biological families were hypothesized to have higher levels of monitoring than stepparent families. Controlling…
Employment rates for single mothers with dependent children have been rising, partly because of welfare reform and expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit. This paper examines this trend and implications for future retirement security. The results show that employment and earnings gains for single mothers during the late 1990s will translate into modestly higher Social Security benefits and better retirement outcomes when they reach later life, assuming these trends persist. However, most single mothers will fare worse in retirement than other women, primarily because they generally earned…
This report includes perspectives from domestic violence advocates, batterer program representatives, and fatherhood program representatives on the scope and challenges of fatherhood programs. Participants attended two meetings held in May 2001 and July 2002, to discuss the variety of issues confronting fatherhood programs. One of the key concerns discussed was the inclusion of domestic violence information in such programs. The report shares participants' views on the prevalence of domestic violence and the characteristics of fathers attending fatherhood programs, barriers to…
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Designed for social service providers, this document reviews public policies affecting fatherhood programs and offers recommendations for programs. It begins by discussing the impact of federal public policy on fatherhood programs and the inclusion of marriage promotion in social welfare policy. The trend towards stricter enforcement of child support requirements is noted, barriers impeding collaboration between fatherhood programs and social welfare programs are explored, and strategies fatherhood programs can use to promote collaboration with child support agencies are offered. The movement…
Rates of births to teenage parents are high and there is also a high incidence of poor outcomes among the children of teenage parents including developmental and learning problems, and child maltreatment. Parenting programmes may have an important role to play in improving outcomes for both teenage parents and their children. The aim of this review was to examine the effectiveness of individual and/or group based parenting programmes in improving psychosocial and developmental outcomes in teenage mothers and their children. A range of biomedical and social science databases were searched.…
The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network held a roundtable in November 2003 to discuss best practices for strengthening families separated by parental incarceration. Participants reviewed national trends and examined the components of state initiatives designed to reduce recidivism and alleviate the negative impact of parental incarceration on children. Emphasis was placed on improving parenting skills and nurturing parent-child relationships. This final report summarizes the challenges identified by programs, such as the lack of family stability, limited parenting skills, child support…
This report discusses the outcomes of an evaluation of Healthy Families Arizona, a home visitation program designed to provide supportive services and education to parents of newborns who might benefit from support to strengthen their families. The program is intended to promote positive parent/child interaction and child health, and prevent child abuse and neglect. All services are voluntary and assistance is typically provided for 12 to 18 months but may be provided for up to five years. This report focuses on aggregate data that are summarized across the 23 sites that make up the Healthy…
The People Achieving Responsibility through Education, Nurturing, and Training (PARENT) program was implemented in Larimer County, Colorado to equip non-custodial parents to support their children emotionally and financially. Services include parenting skills education, employment assistance, case management, and referral. A grant from the federal Office of Support Enforcement was used to pay the child support obligations of compliant participants on a temporary basis. This report presents the findings of an evaluation of the PARENT program which considered attendance and characteristics…
