Brief
In recent years, research has well documented the silencing of girls' voices in our culture during the pivotal adolescent years. Girls are typically loud, opinionated, and physically confident until age 12 or so; then many girls begin silencing their own voices. The sassy, tree-climbing 10-year-old who expects justice from the world for everyone, including herself, often turns into a soft-spoken, passive 13-year-old who may still demand justice from the world - but, strangely, not for herself. This fact sheet discusses tips on how fathers and stepfathers can counter negative cultural…
Brief
Both father and daughter need to change some of their attitudes and behavior in order to create a more adult relationship with one another during her college-age years. Unfortunately what usually happens is that one person is readier to change than the other. Either dad is treating his daughter too much like a little girl while she is striving and wanting to become an adult. Or dad is treating her like an adult while she is still behaving and wanting to be treated like a child. Your mutual struggle as father and daughter to create an adult to adult relationship usually reaches it peak over…
Brief
If you're a divorced father who has remarried, odds are your relationship with your daughter has become more complicated, more stressful, and more distant. Sadly for the majority of fathers and daughters, when dad remarries: The father-daughter relationship is more damaged than the father-son relationship; tensions between mom and dad's wife create problems in the father-daughter relationship; the mom who was not employed during her marriage tends to be the most jealous and most uncooperative when dad remarries; college educated, white mothers tend to be less willing than non-white, less…
Brief
Parents agree that open parent/child communication is invaluable when raising children. Yet, when kids sit down and talk to parents about tough issues like violence, sex, alcohol/drugs, and HIV/AIDS, they are more often sitting with mom than with dad. This may have more to do with fathers missing conversation opportunities or avoiding certain topics than with a lack of connection between dads and their kids. (Author abstract)
Brief
Churches are bulwarks of marriage in urban America. Analyses of data from the Fragile Familiesand Child Wellbeing Study indicate that urban parents who attend church frequently are significantlymore likely to marry before the arrival of children or to marry in the wake of a nonmaritalpregnancy, and they are more likely to experience higher levels of relationship quality. The churchattendance of fathers is a particularly powerful predictor of marital behavior and relationshipquality. Religious attendance appears to foster behavior among urban fathers that makes them moreattractive mates and…
Brief
This brief argues that welfare reform has not gone far enough to encourage two-parent families and responsible fatherhood. In fact, some of its own policies discourage this behavior. Furthermore, many poor families with young children are already struggling to stay together against the odds. Eventually, the majority of these families break up. By intervening early, government could help these fragile families scale the most common barriers to remaining intact over the long haul. (Author abstract)
Brief
The rise in single parenthood in the U.S. is well-known. Today, nearly a third of all children born in the United States are born to unmarried parents; the proportions are even higher among poor and minority populations--40 percent among Hispanics and 70 percent among African Americans. Yet, we know very little about these families, particularly about the fathers. Consequently, much of what we read in the newspapers or hear on television about unwed parents is based on anecdotal rather than scientific evidence. This policy brief is intended to dispel three common myths about unwed fathers and…
Brief
This document offers a brief examination of the key policy issues surrounding the EITC and marriage penalties. The EITC is designed to support low income working families with children. It provides a subsidy (up to $3,816 in 1999) for families with children and low earnings. Current research shows that the EITC has been successful in raising the income of such families, increasing rewards/incentives to work among many low skill workers, and in stimulating greater work effort by single parents. (Author abstract).
Brief
This study shows that making the effort to involve fathers and father figures in Head Start pays off- more fathers get involved with their sons. However, while father involvement programs do have an effect, the treatment resulted in relatively low levels of involvement. Therefore, practitioners must recognize that vigorous outreach is needed. (Author abstract).
Brief
There are several ways to conceptualize fathers' impact on children. This brief provides one way that emphasizes three areas to consider when thinking about father involvement. These three areas are engagement and interaction; availability and accessibility; and day-to-day care. Some variations in programs and outcomes exist because of differences in the cultural, demographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds of the populations presented in the research. (Author abstract, modified).
