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Journal Article The dramatic increase in nonmarital births in the United States cannot be written off as a simple “lifestyle choice” that has no implications for child well-being. Nor is it simply a result of a rise in casual sexual encounters. The vast majority of children born outside of marriage are born to parents in committed yet fragile relationships. Our challenge in this volume is to explore the ramifications of this new reality and to fashion policy recommendations that reduce the number of fragile families in the first place, and that ensure that children born into fragile families receive the…
Many social service programs share common goals although they may vary widely by funding stream, service delivery strategy and/or target population. The marriage and relationship education (MRE) field and the child welfare system both strive to strengthen families and improve child outcomes. MRE practitioners may want to consider building partnerships with child protective services (CPS) to offer MRE as part of an intervention for families whose children may be at risk for abuse and/or neglect. This tip sheet provides advice on how to engage CPS in providing MRE to families. (Author abstract…
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Journal Article Few programs to enhance fathers' engagement with children have been systematically evaluated, especially for low-income minority populations. In this study, 289 couples from primarily low-income Mexican American and European American families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and followed for 18 months: 16-week groups for fathers, 16-week groups for couples, or a 1-time informational meeting. Compared with families in the low-dose comparison condition, intervention families showed positive effects on fathers' engagement with their children, couple relationship quality, and…
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Journal Article Objectives. Because of their youth, adolescent parents often lack the interpersonal skills necessary to manage the relationship challenges involved in parenting, leaving them and their children vulnerable to the health risks associated with relational stress and conflict. The primary goal of this study was to test the efficacy of the Young Parenthood Program (YPP), a 10-week counseling program administered during pregnancy and designed to facilitate interpersonal skill development and positive parenting among adolescent parents. Methods. Participants included 105 pregnant adolescents and…
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Journal Article With a large and growing share of American families now forming outside of marriage, triangular infant-mother-father relationship systems in "fragile families" have begun to attract the interest of family scholars and clinicians. A relatively novel conceptualization has concerned the feasibility of intervening to support the development of a sustained and positive coparenting alliance between mothers and fathers who have not made an enduring relationship commitment to one another. At this point in time, there are very few published outcome studies of programs explicitly conceived to help…
This tip sheet focuses on ways to merge healthy marriage and relationship education into child welfare services, focusing primarily on family preservation services, rather than unsafe situations where a child is removed. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article Involving caregivers in their children's services often is assumed to make the delivery of child-focused services more effective. We examined the relation of caregiver involvement in children's early intervention programs (EIPs) with caregiver-child interaction. Participants were 99 low-income single caregivers whose children ( 40 months old) were enrolled in EIPs that provided opportunities for caregiver involvement. The results confirmed that caregivers who were more engaged with the programs (as rated by program staff) were more likely to demonstrate more responsiveness in interactions…
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Journal Article Almost one third of all children in the United States are born to unmarried parents. This figure is even higher among poor and minority populations. Because of their heightened risk for economic and social problems and family dissolution, disadvantaged, unmarried parents have been called 'fragile families.' In 2002 the Bush administration announced its Healthy Marriage Initiative. Its purpose was to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples. In 2006 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) allocated $150 million a year to marriage and fatherhood…
