Brief
What makes for a good teen fatherhood program? The timing of fatherhood is a powerful organizer of the paternal role. Early entry into fatherhood is a non-normative event and often accelerates role transitions. Even before they become fathers, teen fathers are a particularly vulnerable group of males whose family backgrounds and life-stressors tend to differ from older men and men who do not become fathers during adolescence. For many years, teen fathers were either overlooked or blamed for their role in teen pregnancy. However, interest in designing programs to reduce teen pregnancy, and…
Brief
In fiscal year 2018, noncustodial parents were obligated to pay nearly $33.6 billion in current child support on behalf of the 15 million children served by the Title IV-D child support program. One-third of that, or $11 billion, was not collected. Unemployment is the leading reason for non-payment of child support by noncustodial parents. This brief will explore the opportunities at the state and federal levels to provide employment services to noncustodial parents and increase child support payments in the process.
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Journal Article Young parents (less than 25 years of age) have been shown to have especially low rates of father involvement and union stability. However, research has also shown that parenting experiences of young fathers may not be uniform. There is a need for more research that assesses both the multidimensionality of relationship typologies and their temporality. Using a large longitudinal sample of low-income, young mothers enrolled in a randomized control study of a home-visitation program (n = 704; 61% program, 39% control), we evaluated how mother-father relationship dynamics changed over time. Ten…
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Journal Article Objectives. Because of their youth, adolescent parents often lack the interpersonal skills necessary to manage the relationship challenges involved in parenting, leaving them and their children vulnerable to the health risks associated with relational stress and conflict. The primary goal of this study was to test the efficacy of the Young Parenthood Program (YPP), a 10-week counseling program administered during pregnancy and designed to facilitate interpersonal skill development and positive parenting among adolescent parents. Methods. Participants included 105 pregnant adolescents and…
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Journal Article Guided by maternal role attainment and identity theory perspectives, the authors examined the association between prenatal and postbirth father involvement and maternal identity for adolescent mothers and the moderating effects of interparental relationship quality. Mailed surveys were completed by 125 mothers age 14-19 years (67.2% White) who were recruited from a statewide school-based program. Maternal identity was operationalized as a latent construct composed of three indicators representing role validation, role strain, and identity salience. Analyses revealed that prenatal father…
Other, Brief
This inaugural publication of the Family Policy Institute of Oklahoma provides a brief assessment of the status of Oklahoma's children using five different indicators representing serious challenges to their well-being: child safety, child poverty, educational success, teen births, and youth substance abuse. Findings indicate: there were over 11,000 cases of child abuse and neglect confirmed in 2013 in Oklahoma; 1 in 4 Oklahoma children lived in poverty in 2011; Oklahoma's high school graduation rate is been 72-78%; Oklahoma ranks 2nd for teen births in the United States at 47.3%; and…
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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…
This fact sheet provides parents with helpful tips on how to discuss and prevent teen pregnancy with their adolescent children. Tips include communication strategies, making expectations clear, and setting limits.
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Journal Article We examined the relationship between fathers' human, social, and financial capital and future marital plans among 176 pregnant adolescent mothers and the fathers of their babies. Fathers' social capital proved to be the most significant resource in relation to marital plans. Mothers and fathers were significantly more likely to plan to marry when the father was involved in the pregnancy and when there was less couple conflict. Couples were more likely to agree about marriage when the mother and father agree that the father was involved in these aspects of parenting and when the couple agrees…
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Journal Article Grounded in family systems and ecological theories, this study examined teenage mothers' perceptions of fathers' parental involvement and the role of teenage mothers' gatekeeping beliefs. Fathers' involvement was perceived to be greater when teenage parents were romantically involved (n = 55). When they no longer shared a romantic relationship (n = 59), mothers' satisfaction with and desire for fathers' involvement (i.e., gatekeeping beliefs) mediated the association between mothers' perceptions of developmental and contextual factors and their perceptions of fathers' involvement. Overall…
