Years before becoming the 44th President-elect of the United States, Barack Obama published this lyrical, unsentimental, and powerfully affecting memoir, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller when it was reissued in 2004. Dreams from My Father tells the story of Obama's struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother--a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the tiny African village of Alego.
Obama opens his story in New York, where he hears that his father--…
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Journal Article This commentary focuses on new directions in the study of fathers and families. Several topics that are ripe for more theoretical and empirical scrutiny are outlined. These include the biological determinants of fathering, cultural constraints on fathers, the impact of becoming a father on men's development as adults, and an intergenerational perspective on fathering. Finally, a wider range of methodological approaches--including qualitative as well as quantitative, experimental as well as correlational--is advocated in order to advance our appreciation of fathers in children's lives. (Author…
With the enactment of welfare reform in 1996, encouraging and supporting marriage became priorities for the federal government and the states. Research findings that children in married families generally fare better than those in single-parent families on measures of poverty, hardship, and well-being have provided the rationale for marriage promotion policies. In this brief, we examine racial and ethnic differences in children's living arrangements. We give special attention to racial and ethnic variation in the characteristics of single-parent households and the implications for child well-…
The result of an invited conference of scholars studying father involvement, this volume reflects on the conceptualization and measurement of father involvement within the academic and policy-making communities. It explores different measurement techniques and cultural influences impacting father involvement. The book begins by describing three of the most popular approaches to the study of father involvement and its impact: the binary approach, studies on the impact of separation and divorce, and interaction among fathers, mothers, and children. Following chapters address: assessing…
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Approximately one-third of all infants are born to parents who are not married. Families in which the parents are cohabitating or living separately are considered to be fragile and at risk of dissolution and poverty. This report highlights findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and the Time, Love, Cash, Caring, and Children Study regarding the relationships between unmarried parents. The results can be used to assess need and target services to support these families. The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study is following a cohort of 3,712 children born to unmarried…
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Journal Article This qualitative study represents one of the first efforts to examine how African American fathers protect their children from community violence. Eighteen African American biological and "social" fathers of preschoolers in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area participated in focus groups addressing parenting in violent neighborhoods. Fathers described seven protective strategies reflecting three major themes: monitoring children, educating children about safety, and improving community life. These strategies are discussed within the context of African American values, traditions, and…
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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…
A study investigated the perceptions of 34 caseworkers and supervisors who participated in five focus group discussions on unwed fathers' involvement in permanency planning. The impact of parental statuses on caseworkers' capacity and inclinations to engage unwed fathers in child welfare permanency planning is examined, as well as how gender, socioeconomic status, child welfare, and family policies and practices collectively shape institutional opportunities and responses to paternal participation among unwed fathers in child welfare services. 35 references. (Author abstract modified)
This brief is based on extensive in-person observational data, as well as survey data, from 55 unmarried low-income African-American mothers and fathers who were part of the Fragile Families study. Given that 70 percent of African-American children (compared with one-third of all children) in the U.S. are born to parents who are not married, this is a particularly important group to study. The present study is one of the first to collect in-depth observational and parent-reported data from unmarried mothers and fathers regarding their couple relationship and the fathers' involvement with…
In this paper, we document the continuing decline in employment and labor force participation of black men between the ages of 16 and 34 who have a high school education or less. We explore the extent to which these trends can be accounted for in recent years by two fairly new developments: (1) the dramatic growth in the number of young black men who have been incarcerated and (2) strengthened enforcement of child support policies. We use micro-level data from the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Groups, along with state-level data over time on incarceration rates and child…
