red dot icon
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…
red dot icon
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…
red dot icon
Journal Article This special issue contains articles that explore how disadvantaged young men are faring in the face of low educational achievement, joblessness, out-of-wedlock childbearing, incarceration, and in the face of the Great Recession. An introductory article reviews social and economic forces facing young fathers, and the following four articles outline the economic status of low-income men and fathers. The deteriorating labor market prospects for low-skilled men in the United States is discussed, as well as young disadvantaged men as fathers, the relationship contexts of young disadvantaged…
red dot icon
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.
red dot icon
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)
red dot icon
Journal Article The Teen Father Collaboration, a two-year national research and demonstration project launched in 1983, was designed to determine the most effective ways to assist teenage fathers in contributing to their children's social, emotional and financial well-being. Eight social service agencies from around the country provided nearly 400 young fathers and prospective fathers--most 17 or 18 years of age--with a variety of services, including counseling, educational assistance and job training. Many young fathers wanted to contribute financially to their children's upbringing but had only a limited…
red dot icon
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…
This paper discusses the process for obtaining grant funds, focusing on a specific project that provides support to pregnant and parenting teens. The paper describes events leading up to the award, and the nature of request for proposals (RFP). Grant proposals should cover: a statement of need; methodology; data collection and analysis; evaluation; and budget. The objectives stated in the pregnant adolescent project proposal include: weekly home visits; monthly group meetings; health services for mother and baby; and media campaigns regarding child abuse and adolescent pregnancy prevention.…
This chapter focuses on the construction of risk indices and their use in predicting correlates of child maltreatment by exploring the relationship between the indices and the outcome measures of the Adolescent Parent Services Evaluation. This 3-year evaluation, which began in the fall of 1987, compared seven new parent programs in seven States offering education support services for pregnant and parenting adolescents. A total of 488 adolescents participated in the study. Using a nonequivalent control group design with each site serving as a comparison group for the others, researchers…
