Most state child support agencies have responded to the increases in teen and nonmarital births with the traditional offer of paternity establishment and child support enforcement services after the birth of the child. The Child Support Division of the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has taken the innovative step of developing a number of educational and outreach efforts that reach youth and young adults before a pregnancy occurs.The leading example of the OAG’s efforts is the Parenting and Paternity Awareness (p.a.p.a.)Curriculum; p.a.p.a. is a school-based curriculum that sends a…
Being a father in this era of changing family structures and converging gender roles means more than bringing home a paycheck or delivering punishment to a misbehaving child. A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that Americans expect dad to be more of a moral teacher and emotional comforter than a breadwinner or disciplinarian. About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say it is "extremely important" for a father to provide values and morals to his children, the top ranked paternal role of the four tested in the survey. Roughly half say it is extremely important for a dad to provide emotional…
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Journal Article Father involvement in families of urban American Indians has been a neglected area of research. In this study, the authors examined the associations among parental relationship quality, father involvement, and coresidence. The authors conducted a multiple group analysis through structural equation modeling comparing 107 American Indian fathers with fathers of the general population in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Although the results were similar between groups, findings indicated two key differences for urban American Indians. First, emotional supportiveness had a stronger…
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This fact sheet gives information on the cause of food-related disagreements in families and provides strategies for effective communication to overcome these disagreements in a healthy way.
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This publication offers information for parents and caregivers on adolescent social development and offers tips for social service agents and parents on how to encourage healthy social development.
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This publication offers information on healthy relationship for teens and how parents and other caregivers can encourage healthy dating for adolescents.
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This publication offers information on healthy teen relationships including three kinds of premarital predictors, background and contextual factors, individual traits and behaviors, and interactional processes.
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Journal Article The article focuses on the low-income fathers and the role of laws and legislations of the court regarding the absence of fathers in the low-income families. Even though low-income fathers are included in the general research on absent fathers, they may face various problems and challenges related to paternal engagement during and after court actions. Various barriers to the paternal engagement discussed include relational, structural and role barriers. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article This paper reviews the research of the past two decades that addresses the relationship between family structure and early child health outcomes. Specifically, we focus on family structure's influence on child health during pregnancy, birth, and infancy. We briefly summarize the most pervasive changes to family structure in the US during recent decades and discuss how early child health is linked to future outcomes for children and adults. We review research that highlights the mechanisms linking family structure to early child health and identify key risk and protective factors for children…
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Journal Article An estimated 1.5 million children have a parent held in a state or federal prison in the United States, an increase of more than half a million since 1991. Many of these children have disruptions in familial relationships such as growing up in foster care, with grandparents or other relatives, or moving around among an array of temporary caretakers. Incarcerated parents have few opportunities for parenting from the inside, and they worry about the impact of their separation on their children. Children of African American families are hit particularly hard. Nearly half the parents behind bars…
