Brief
This information sheet discusses the balance fathers need to find between work obligations and family responsibilities, and proposes a new perspective that integrates career choices with family involvement. Key considerations that fathers should think about are listed, along with actions fathers can take to make sure they are balancing work and family, criteria for evaluating a family-friendly workplace, and tips for connecting with children.
Brief
With advice to fathers ranging from how to speak to toddlers so that they listen, to how to avoid gender stereotyping in young children, to how to maintain a connection with teenagers, FatherNeed is a resource for all dads -- including divorced fathers, fathers of adopted children, stepfathers, and fathers of special-needs children -- as well as moms who want kids who are meaningfully connected to their fathers. (Author abstract, modified)
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…
Other
The Rochester Youth Development Study and the Pittsburgh Youth Study examined risk factors for teenage paternity, specifically the role of delinquency in early fatherhood. Both studies concluded that early delinquency is a highly significant risk factor for becoming a teen father. In addition, the Rochester study reported that the possibility of teen paternity rises dramatically as risk factors accumulate, and the Pittsburgh study found that teen fatherhood may be followed by greater involvement in delinquency. (Author abstract, modified).
Report, Other
As part of the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998, Congress established a medical child support working group to identify barriers to medical support enforcement and to recommend ways to address them. This webpage report is an effort to provide greater background on one such barrier - the lack of access by many nonresident parents to employment-based health care coverage. The report develops a national estimate of the extent to which nonresident fathers have access to employment-based health care coverage, and considers the potential for increasing the number of children…
Brief
This brief argues that welfare reform has not gone far enough to encourage two-parent families and responsible fatherhood. In fact, some of its own policies discourage this behavior. Furthermore, many poor families with young children are already struggling to stay together against the odds. Eventually, the majority of these families break up. By intervening early, government could help these fragile families scale the most common barriers to remaining intact over the long haul. (Author abstract)
Brief
The rise in single parenthood in the U.S. is well-known. Today, nearly a third of all children born in the United States are born to unmarried parents; the proportions are even higher among poor and minority populations--40 percent among Hispanics and 70 percent among African Americans. Yet, we know very little about these families, particularly about the fathers. Consequently, much of what we read in the newspapers or hear on television about unwed parents is based on anecdotal rather than scientific evidence. This policy brief is intended to dispel three common myths about unwed fathers and…
Brief
This document offers a brief examination of the key policy issues surrounding the EITC and marriage penalties. The EITC is designed to support low income working families with children. It provides a subsidy (up to $3,816 in 1999) for families with children and low earnings. Current research shows that the EITC has been successful in raising the income of such families, increasing rewards/incentives to work among many low skill workers, and in stimulating greater work effort by single parents. (Author abstract).
Other
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…
Unpublished Paper
The Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study is designed to collect information about the men who father children outside marriage and the nature of their relationships with their children and their children's mothers. The research will follow a new birth cohort of approximately 4,700 children, including 3,600 children born to unmarried parents representative of nonmarital births in each of 20 cities and in U.S. cities with populations over 200,000. Both mothers and fathers will be followed for at least 4 years, and in-home assessments of children's health and development will be carried…
