Brief
Family instability refers to changes in parents’ residential and romantic partnerships, such as marriage, divorce, and romantic partners moving in or out of the home. Family instability influences children and adolescents’ functioning, as do household income and parents’ relationship status. Family stability can promote positive social behavior in children and adolescents, while instability is associated with social maladjustment, including behaviors such as aggression toward peers, teachers, or parents. This brief examines the links between family instability during childhood,…
Brief
This research brief from the Office of Child Support Enforcement identifies findings from a five-site Parenting Time Opportunities for Children (PTOC) grant. This grant, awarded to child support agencies in California, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Oregon, was intended to demonstrate how child support agencies can include parenting time orders in child support enforcement actions and how the increases in noncustodial parenting time, with safeguards in place for child welfare, led to improved relationships and increased compliance with child support payment.
Brief
This brief presents information about screen time research, considers the implications for parents and children, and provides tips and resources to help fathers manage their children’s screen time.
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).
Brief
Low-income families face significant challenges navigating both low-wage employment or education and training programs and also finding good-quality child care. Programs that intentionally combine services for parents and children can help families move toward economic security and create conditions that promote child and family well-being. Although these programs in general are not new (see Background), policymakers and program leaders are now experimenting with innovative approaches to combining services. Yet, most currently operating programs, sometimes called “two-generation” or “dual…
Brief
Over the past several decades, fathers have nearly tripled the time they spend with their children. Involved fatherhood is associated with better outcomes on nearly every measure of child wellbeing. Healthy father involvement can also serve as a protective factor to strengthen families at risk for child maltreatment. Most children are not at risk for maltreatment by their parents, and child abuse prevention programs have evolved from focusing solely on reducing risk factors to also building protective factors in families. Some programs target fathers specifically, and aim to promote positive…
Brief
This brief from the Head Start Health Manager Descriptive Study explores family engagement through these research questions: In what ways do Head Start/Early Head Start programs support family engagement in health-related aspects of program services? What are the barriers to family engagement in health-related aspects of program services from the health manager perspective? To what extent do barriers to family engagement differ by program or health manager characteristics and the populations served? What are the implications regarding family engagement for Head Start/Early Head Start health…
Brief
This mixed-method evaluation examined five community-based initiatives in Washington State intended to prevent child maltreatment and exposure to toxic stress, mitigate their effects, and improve child and youth development outcomes. The study had two phases. During the first phase (2013–2014), the research team assessed operational contexts, strategies used to increase community capacity to prevent ACEs, and impact at the county level. In the second phase (2015–2016), the researchers examined the extent to which sites developed capacity to achieve their goals, and the relationship of select…
Brief
Reading is an essential activity that is linked to children’s cognitive development, academic skills, and future employment opportunities. Children often become interested in reading by watching and mimicking their parents or participating in child-parent reading routines. Although mothers have a big role to play, research shows that fathers are particularly influential for children’s language and literacy development, which means they are a promising point of intervention for efforts to improve children’s language and literacy. Reading together and engaging in other literacy activities, such…
Brief
This brief explains the Two-Generation (Two-Gen) approach for working with families builds well-being by creating a solid and stable foundation through integrated, intensive, and high-quality services in four areas of focus: early childhood education, elementary education, economic stability, and family engagement. It discusses findings from a research study that explored how three States (Connecticut, Colorado, and Utah) are development and implementing a Two-Gen framework in practice and how support for an intentional Two-Gen approach can be translated into a coordinated implementation…
