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Journal Article The majority of teen pregnancy literature and practice is deficit based, focusing on the consequences of teen pregnancy; significantly less research is devoted to the teens’ strengths. This article discusses the strengths-based perspective as a viable framework for clinicians and school social workers to implement to help teen parents and their families ameliorate some of the challenges they encounter. This article emphasizes the importance of clinicians, school social workers, and the community to adopt a strengths-based perspective when working with teen parents in order to cultivate…
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Journal Article This study extended work on the consequences of incarceration for families by linking parents’ incarcerations to their material support of children entering adulthood. It examined two categories of support, parental transfers of cash and shared housing, that are known deficits among young children of incarcerated parents and that play important roles in young adult attainment and well-being. Propensity score analyses of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N [Wave3] = 14,023; N [Wave4] = 14,361) revealed that previously incarcerated mothers were less likely to give…
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Journal Article This article discusses experimental tests of two recent administrative interventions, the TANF 16 intervention and the statement intervention, designed to increase child support collections in Washington State. The TANF 16 intervention sought to reimburse the state for TANF benefits paid to custodial parents by intensively pursuing collections in arrears-only cases. The statement intervention tested whether sending regular billing statements to noncustodial parents who were new to the child support system increased compliance. While the TANF 16 intervention's effects represent a substantial…
Fact Sheet, Brief
Series of one pagers designed to clarify existing federal policies that affect formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. The MythBusters cover topics critical to reentry, such as public housing, access to federal benefits, parental rights, employer incentives, and more. As the MythBusters show, some federal laws and policies are narrower than is commonly perceived, as is the case with public housing and food assistance benefits. States and localities often have broad discretion in determining how policies are applied and/or have various opt-out provisions for states (TANF and…
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Journal Article This issue of The Future of Children seeks to integrate existing knowledge about the children and families of today's United States military; to identify what we know (and don't know) about their strengths and the challenges they face, as well as the programs that serve them; to specify directions for future research; and to illuminate the evidence (or lack thereof) behind current and future policies and programs that serve these children and families. At the same time, it highlights how research on nonmilitary children and families can help us understand their military-connected counterparts…
Spending positive time with both parents promotes child well-being and is associated with better child support outcomes. Unmarried parents do not have systematic access to assistance in establishing parenting time orders, so stateand local child support programs have sought to address this service gap. This fact sheet highlights states and countiesthat coordinate the establishment of child support orders and parenting time agreements. Family violence safeguardsare always a critical component when addressing parenting time. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article Findings from a study of casework outreach to birthparents of children in out-of-home care are presented. The study explored whether the birthfather was being ignored as a resource for discharge planning. It examined the outreach and interventions of caseworkers in three New York City out-of-home care agencies. Casework activity levels were found to be higher for birthmothers than for birthfathers, and a complex relationship among the variables of gender, outreach, and response was revealed. The nature and value of more specific outreach toward birthfathers of children in care, and the risk…
This Resource Guide was written to support service providers in their work with parents, caregivers, and their children to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect. The guide includes information about protective factors that help reduce the risk of child maltreatment, strategies for changing how communities support families, and evidence-informed practices. It also offers suggestions for enhancing protective factors in families, tools to build awareness and develop community partnerships, information about child abuse and neglect, a directory of national organizations that…
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Journal Article Despite efforts made by management and caseworkers to promote active parental participation in the protective context, fathers or other male figures are often brushed aside from intervention. This paper presents the results of qualitative research on methods used by youth protection caseworkers (n = 22) working with stepfather families. The main objective is to identify items that encourage or discourage stepfather involvement in psychosocial interventions. Results showed that certain items do not apply solely to stepfathers, but influence youth protection caseworker decision-making from a…
This information packet was written to support child maltreatment prevention efforts by describing strategies and activities that promote protective factors. It is written for service providers, to encourage and support them as they engage and partner with parents to protect, nurture, and promote the healthy development of children. The packet includes suggestions for enhancing each of the five protective factors in families; tip sheets in English and Spanish for providers to use when working with parents and caregivers on specific parenting challenges; strategies for sharing the message…
