red dot icon
Journal Article Social service organizations face significant challenges involving fathers. This study presents the findings of a project between a maternal and child health program and a school of social work aimed at enhancing the organization’s capacity for engaging fathers in services. Results revealed that staff expressed a willingness to engage fathers but felt unprepared to do so. In detailing their experiences with the organization, fathers discussed the ways in which they had been engaged and their recommendations for improving those efforts. We conclude by advocating for the adoption of a bottom-up…
red dot icon
Journal Article Little is known about how home-visiting programs already using evidence-based models develop program enhancements to increase father involvement. This article uses interviews with administrators in a statewide network of home-visiting programs in a large midwestern state to explore their perspectives on the promise and feasibility of developing father participation program enhancements within established, evidence-based home-visiting program models. Respondents saw father involvement initiatives as important for home visitation, but expressed concern that these enhancements could compete…
red dot icon
Journal Article Fathers’ mental health help seeking is an understudied area. Using participants (N = 1,989) from the Fragile Familiesand Child Wellbeing Study, this study hypothesized that few fathers would seek mental health services; and increasesin anxiety, depression, and parental stress would predict less mental health help seeking. Only 3.2% of the participantsreported seeking mental health counseling. Among the three independent variables, only depression emerged as asignificant factor that predicted less mental health help-seeking behaviors in fathers. Future research and clinical effortsneed to…
Webinar
This Webinar discusses how domestic violence and responsible fatherhood organization can partner, challenges to address in partnerships, as well as when dealing with addressing domestic violence in fatherhood programs. (Author abstract)
Webinar
This Webinar discusses the Earned Income Tax Credit and how programs can utilize the program as a way to benefit fathers and families and achieving economic stability and self-sufficiency. (Author abstract)
Webinar
This Webinar discusses domestic violence programs specifically for fatherhood programs in terms of batterers prevention and intervention services. (Author abstract)
red dot icon
Journal Article This special issue contains articles that explore how disadvantaged young men are faring in the face of low educational achievement, joblessness, out-of-wedlock childbearing, incarceration, and in the face of the Great Recession. An introductory article reviews social and economic forces facing young fathers, and the following four articles outline the economic status of low-income men and fathers. The deteriorating labor market prospects for low-skilled men in the United States is discussed, as well as young disadvantaged men as fathers, the relationship contexts of young disadvantaged…
red dot icon
Journal Article Head Start programs offer a setting to examine support that facilitates father involvement. The Dakota Father Friendly Assessment (DFFA) is designed to evaluate an organization's level of father-friendliness. To establish its psychometric properties, a sample of North and South Dakota early childhood staff (N = 609) completed the DFFA. A number of measures were included as indicators of validity. Factor analysis of the DFFA confirmed the presence of four expected factors and revealed a fifth factor (loadings ranged from .40 to .80). Coefficient alphas for DFFA subscales ranged from .71 to…
red dot icon
Journal Article A comprehensive five-year review of five social work journals and one family-focused interdisciplinary journal was conducted to examine the prevalence of recent research on fathers. Despite an increase in father-focused research over the past two decades, there continues to be a significant lack of research examining fathers relative to mothers, as well as research that includes fathers as participants. Ethical issues regarding the inclusion of fathers in social work research and practice are discussed. (Author abstract)
red dot icon
Journal Article A review of five major social work journals published during a 27-year period indicates that the literature on fathers is sparse. The view of fathers that emerges from articles that have been published shows fathers as perpetrators, as missing, and as embattled. If the social work profession is to remain committed to working with families, then researchers and practitioners must study the changing patterns of fatherhood. (Author abstract)
