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A variety of MRE programs are offered in communities and by the military/Guard. Connecting theGuard (through Chaplains and family support programs) to community-based MRE services can provide needed supports to Guard families coping with stressors related to deployment, employment, and lack of connection to other Guard families in their community. This paper summarizes the key challenges and stressors the Guard members' families face and identifies emerging programs, promising practices, and existing resources to support the specific needs of National Guard couples and single parents. (Author…
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Journal Article We focused on coparenting support, partner relationship quality, and father engagement in families with young children that did not change structurally over 4 years of participation in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study (N = 1,756). There was a significantly stronger and more robust positive association between fathers' perceived coparenting support at age 1 and father engagement at age 3 among nonresidential nonromantic parents compared with residential (married or cohabiting) and nonresidential romantic parents. There was a significantly stronger and positive association…
Brief
This fact sheet discusses the importance of social connections for parents and provides tips for creating and maintaining positive social connections that can offer support.
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Journal Article This study examined whether coparenting support and social support had a stronger effect on father engagement with 3-year-olds among adolescent fathers compared with adult fathers. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,540), we found that coparenting support and paternal social support had a significantly stronger positive effect on adolescent fathers than adult fathers. The associations among coparenting, social support, and adolescent father engagement did not depend on whether the father and mother were romantically involved with each other. The results…
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Journal Article Using a non-hierarchical approach to identity theory, we construct a scale to analyze the characteristics associated with the importance of fatherhood in a national sample of male partners (N = 932) of U.S. women of reproductive age, including fathers and non-fathers. OLS multiple regression shows that economic situation is not associated with importance of fatherhood, but valuing career success, higher education, higher religiosity and non-egalitarian gender attitudes (compared to egalitarian) are associated with higher importance of fatherhood scores. Leisure, age, fertility problems, and…
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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…