State and local policymakers are advised to follow a six-step strategy for developing initiatives to promote father-child relationships: teach men to be good parents; help fathers improve relationships with the mothers of their children; facilitate employment for low-income fathers; allocate federal funds to programs for fathers; enhance the child support system; and increase public awareness about the value of fathers. This guide describes the considerations for each step and recommends action strategies for government officials. Suggestions include: integrate fatherhood modules into sex…
This Australian pilot program seeks to promote cooperative post-separation parenting, through education and communications training, to reduce reliance on family courts in resolving conflicts involving the terms of court orders. Most parents using the courts for such conflicts are non-residents and while such cases represented a small number of the overall caseload, they take up a disproportionate amount of court time and resources. The Anglicare program uses the term cooperative parenting rather than co-parenting or joint parenting to describe positive post-separation parenting by both…
Research indicates certain qualities of the parental relationship can serve as a benchmark for the degree of involvement of unwed fathers and their children. This paper explores characteristics of parental relationships and unwed paternal involvement, as well as other causal factors that can affect the role of unwed fathers in their children's lives. The authors examined data in the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a large longitudinal study of parental relationships, involvement, and child well-being and development. A total of 3,600 children born to unmarried parents in 20 large…
Report, Other
Children need and deserve financial and emotional support from both their parents. You will see from this webpage report how important it can be to have dad's involvement in children's education. The positive effects of father involvement have been a fairly consistent finding in studies of two-parent families. Now a growing body of research is showing that financial support and the positive involvement of a father, including cooperation between parents, increase positive outcomes for children who do not live with both of their parents. Moreover, research that separates father involvement…
There is overwhelming evidence that a parent's involvement in a child's education makes a very positive difference. In the past, often an unstated assumption was made that 'parent involvement' meant 'mothers' involvement.' New research shows that the involvement of both mother and father is important. Given this finding, together with the lack of previous work on expanding fathers' involvement, this report describes new opportunities in this area. Research has shown that fathers, no matter what their income or cultural background, can play a critical role in their children's education.…
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 article examines the impact of the recent dramatic changes in the social policies, particularly the expansion of the EITC and welfare reform on labor supply, marriage, and cohabitation. Altered policies have increased incentives to work or marry for some, diminished incentives for others. The results strongly indicate expanded work by single mothers and reductions of work by married mothers in accordance with their changed incentives. By contrast, estimated impacts on marriage are small and ambiguous, though modest changes in cohabitation in the predicted direction suggest that impact on…
