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Training Materials This compilation includes materials for professionals providing services to young fathers. The first section includes a factsheet that describes the benefits of young fathers’ positive involvement with their child and child’s mother. The second section includes an assessment and checklist to help organizations identify their strengths and areas for growth in working with young fathers and provides steps to make all aspects of programs more young-father-friendly. A workbook is then provided that includes interactive activities that will help fathers, mothers, and program staff learn more about…
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Journal Article The majority of teen pregnancy literature and practice is deficit based, focusing on the consequences of teen pregnancy; significantly less research is devoted to the teens’ strengths. This article discusses the strengths-based perspective as a viable framework for clinicians and school social workers to implement to help teen parents and their families ameliorate some of the challenges they encounter. This article emphasizes the importance of clinicians, school social workers, and the community to adopt a strengths-based perspective when working with teen parents in order to cultivate…
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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…
This annual report for 2008-2009 describes the activities and outcomes of the Parents Too Soon (PTS) programs, intensive home visiting programs in Illinois that aim to maximize the abilities of teen parents to care for their children and continue their own development. All PTS programs provide long-term home visiting services (3 to 5 years) to teen parents and their young children using one of three nationally recognized research based models: Healthy Families America, Parents As Teachers, and Nurse Family Partnership model. In addition, 12 of the 22 programs receive supplemental funding to…
Brief
This brief discusses the need to delay early or unplanned fatherhood, and calls on policy makers intensify their focus on the responsibilities of men in preventing teen and unplanned pregnancy by addressing pregnancy planning and prevention in federally funded programs serving significant numbers of men, and reaching men more effectively in family planning programs. It recommends pregnancy planning and prevention be included as a component of such programs as responsible fatherhood, healthy relationships and marriage, education and workforce development, juvenile justice, and re-entry…
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Journal Article This article explains about 9% of American men become fathers before their twentieth birthday, challenges home visiting programs face in reaching out to fathers in high-needs communities, and tips that home vising programs can use to help engage fathers in home visiting and in parenthood. Tips include defining fatherhood, providing relationship education, and working with fathers’ schedules and commitments.
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Journal Article The article focuses on a review of a research on the problems of teenage fathers and recommendations on public policy and clinical practice concerning the support to adolescent parents. The authors discuss the service needs of teenage fathers such as educational support services, evaluations of services for young adult fathers such as the Texas Fragile Families Initiative (TFFI), and educational activities concerning the prevention of early pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STD). (Author abstract)
The latest in Healthy Teen Network's series of Fast Facts, this fact sheet explores the benefits of targeting boys and young men specifically in order to reduce teen pregnancy and early, unintended fatherhood and to promote the development of positive relationships between young fathers and their children. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article This special issue focuses on teen parenthood and includes articles that address the developmental trajectory for children born to teenage parents, protective factors for teen parents and their children, intervention efforts to promote resiliency, and the experiences of infants of teenage parents. An introductory article discusses the risks associated with adolescent parenthood and community-based strategies to support young families. The following article reviews findings from large national studies on the effects of early care and intervention on the children of adolescents. The next…
This chapter identifies developmental factors associated with positive fathering among 179 young, high-risk fathers who made a better than expected adjustment to parenthood. Results found that despite significant individual and social disadvantages, these fathers developed relational capacities associated with positive parenting. These capacities include a growth-oriented perspective on the co-parenting relationship, a commitment to shared responsibility for taking care of the co-parenting relationship, and a willingness to empathize with their co-parenting partners. Case studies illustrate…
