This study examines the role and influence of fathers and father figures in the lives of African American adolescent girls (N=302) from a representative sample of poor and low-income families. Sixty five percent of the adolescents identified a primary father, of whom two-thirds were biological fathers and one-third were father figures. Adolescent girls reported more contentious and less close relationships with biological fathers than with father figures. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that fathers' emotional disengagement predicted greater depressive symptomatology and behavioral…
This study examines the strategies that 11 purposively selected Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grantees used to design and implement their programs for non-custodial parents, usually fathers, including some of the mid-course corrections needed to improve services and client intake. It also summarizes lessons that can be learned from these efforts-- lessons that are applicable to the larger community of workforce development and social services agencies that would like to be more pro-active in serving low-income noncustodial parents. This study was undertaken to provide field-based information to WtW…
In late 1997, the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) funded Responsible Fatherhood Demonstration Projects in eight states. All of these programs attempt to improve the employment and earnings of under- and unemployed noncustodial parents, and to motivate them to become more financially and emotionally involved in the lives of their children. Although the projects share common goals, they do not follow a single format or a specific model of service delivery. This report is an early implementation analysis of the programs focusing on: (1) how they are administered; (2) the types…
This report is based on research conducted for the Parents' Fair Share Demonstration, a national demonstration project that combined job training and placement, peer support groups, and other services with the goal of increasing the earnings and child support payments of unemployed noncustodial parents (usually fathers) of children on welfare, improving their parenting and communication skills, and providing an opportunity for them to participate more fully and effectively in the lives of their children. (Author abstract).
This inspection focuses on the relationship between the payment of child support and order establishment practices for a subset of the non-custodial parent population -- low-income non-custodial parents. This subset constitutes about one-third of the total non-custodial parent population. The goal of this inspection is to understand current methods of setting support for these non-custodial parents and to determine possible alternative methods to improve their payment rates. (Author abstract).
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According to the 1997 National Survey of America's Families, 2.6 million nonresident fathers have family incomes below the poverty line and most of them face multiple employment barriers, including a criminal record, lack of a high school education, relatively little recent work experience, and poor health. Although these employment barriers are similar to those faced by poor custodial mothers, poor nonresident fathers are significantly less likely than poor custodial mothers to participate in training, education, and job search activities as well as income security programs. Given that…
The executive summary of the National Center for Children in Poverty's 2000 report finds several important developments since the mid-1990s that have critical implications for young children and their families. The survey finds the number of working mothers continues to increase, with 59 percent of mothers with infants under one year working outside the home in full- and part-time jobs. Seventy-three percent of mothers with children over the age of one year held some job, and fifty-two percent were full-time workers. The 1996 welfare reform act has played a key role in this increase, however…
This paper discusses some of the key issues facing fathers in Australia, including changing concepts about the role of the fathers and the potential impact of these changes on children. Recent fathering studies in Australia and the United States are discussed, as are statistics showing 19.3 percent of Australian families with children under age 15 are headed by a single woman compared to 1.9 headed by a father. The authors argue the concept of social fatherhood, including all responsibilities and activities fathers are expected to perform, has more influence on children than biological…
