Webinar
Four presenters from three states answered the questions below and identified innovative practices states are utilizing to engage fathers in the 13th FRPN learning community webinar.
What are innovative state policies and practices to engage fathers in key family programs?
How are some child support agencies passing through more child support to families, adjusting orders for fathers with low incomes, engaging fathers to avoid court involvement and using debt forgiveness and driver’s license reinstatement to promote father engagement in workforce and parenting programs?
How are some…
This factsheet explores the relationship between social support and father involvement. It reviews findings from research studies that indicate fathers who report having high levels of social support experience better psychological well-being and demonstrate more positive patterns of father involvement and coparenting. Studies suggest spousal/partner support is positively associated with fathers' well-being; high levels of program support are associated with higher reports of fathers' parenting skills; fathers who report high levels of tangible or instrumental support report better well-…
This monograph describes Creating Lasting Family Connections (CLFC), a multifaceted youth substance abuse prevention program designed to promote the healthy development of youth at risk for alcohol and other drug abuse. Chapter 1 discusses the need for alcohol and other drug prevention initiatives, reviews historical trends in substance abuse treatment and prevention, and examines the impact of motivations on prevention practices. Chapter 2 reviews resiliency theory, the theoretical basis for the development of the CLFC program, and Chapter 3 describes the components of the CLFC program. Main…
The passions surrounding the public discourse about the effects of father absence inhibit an objective analysis of the well-being of children in a variety of single-parent situations. This chapter presents data from several national studies about risk factors for children in different living arrangements. The statistics indicate that problems such as dropping out of high school and teen pregnancy exist in two-parent, as well as single parent families. Outcomes also vary according to family characteristics and do not necessarily reflect common assumptions about the disadvantages faced by…
The quality of parents' romantic relationship has important implications for a father's involvement with his child. Both the quality of the mother-father relationship and the level and type of father involvement are critical for children's positive development. This fact sheet discusses the implications and importance of relationship quality on the well-being of fathers not only in their role as parents but also in other areas of their lives as well as its impact on fathers' involvement with their children. (Author abstract)
The quality of the relationship between a mother and father is important for understanding their coparenting behavior (i.e., shared decision making about the well-being of a child). Research suggests that better mother-father relationships and higher quality coparenting relationships go hand in hand, and the quality of each of these relationships is important for children's well-being. This fact sheet discusses the importance and implications of couple relationship quality for father' coparenting. (Author abstract)
Alcohol abuse has negative consequences for men's health, their relationships with their partners, and their children's well-being. Alcohol abuse rates for men declined in the late 1980s, but increased between 1990 and 2000. This fact sheet discusses the implications of alcohol abuse on fathers, their relationships with their children, as well as implications for their spouses or partners. (Author abstract)
Part of a series of fact sheets that discuss how and why the child support program provides innovative services to families across six interrelated areas to assure that parents have the tools and resources they need to support their children and be positively involved in raising them, this fact sheet discusses how the child support program promotes children's health. By establishing and enforcing medical support orders, the program can meet its responsibility to secure health care coverage for the children in its caseload by collaborating with private insurers, employers, Medicaid, CHIP, and…