This fact sheet discusses the transition men make as they accept becoming a father and their unique development as fathers during the first two years of fatherhood. Topics include The Father's Self-concept and Self-esteem, Mother/Father Roles and Communication, Parenting Attitudes and Stress, Father's Changing Relationship with His Parents, and Support and Stress in the Community.
Report, Other
As part of the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998, Congress established a medical child support working group to identify barriers to medical support enforcement and to recommend ways to address them. This webpage report is an effort to provide greater background on one such barrier - the lack of access by many nonresident parents to employment-based health care coverage. The report develops a national estimate of the extent to which nonresident fathers have access to employment-based health care coverage, and considers the potential for increasing the number of children…
Brief
This brief argues that welfare reform has not gone far enough to encourage two-parent families and responsible fatherhood. In fact, some of its own policies discourage this behavior. Furthermore, many poor families with young children are already struggling to stay together against the odds. Eventually, the majority of these families break up. By intervening early, government could help these fragile families scale the most common barriers to remaining intact over the long haul. (Author abstract)
Brief
The rise in single parenthood in the U.S. is well-known. Today, nearly a third of all children born in the United States are born to unmarried parents; the proportions are even higher among poor and minority populations--40 percent among Hispanics and 70 percent among African Americans. Yet, we know very little about these families, particularly about the fathers. Consequently, much of what we read in the newspapers or hear on television about unwed parents is based on anecdotal rather than scientific evidence. This policy brief is intended to dispel three common myths about unwed fathers and…
Unpublished Paper
The Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study is designed to collect information about the men who father children outside marriage and the nature of their relationships with their children and their children's mothers. The research will follow a new birth cohort of approximately 4,700 children, including 3,600 children born to unmarried parents representative of nonmarital births in each of 20 cities and in U.S. cities with populations over 200,000. Both mothers and fathers will be followed for at least 4 years, and in-home assessments of children's health and development will be carried…
Unpublished Paper
Strict criminal justice policies, such as long-term sentences, are interfering in the achievement of welfare reform goals to promote marriage and parental involvement. This report analyzes data from the Fragile Families Study to examine the impact of criminal justice policies on the likelihood that unwed parents will form a family together. A total of 3,600 unwed couples and 1,100 married couples are being interviewed at the time of their child's birth and five one-year intervals. Study participants are being recruited from 20 cities with different welfare regimes and labor markets.…
