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Journal Article The current study compared cardiovascular risk profiles and trajectories (i.e., within-person changes) of women who were married or cohabitating and who had high relationship satisfaction with those of women with moderate or low satisfaction and with those of women who were single, divorced, and widowed. Participants were 493 women from the Healthy Women Study, a prospective investigation of health during and after the menopausal transition. Risk factors were measured across more than 5 occasions and 13 years, on average. Data were analyzed using a multilevel modeling technique. Overall,…
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Journal Article By age 3, children from privileged families have heard 30 million more words than children from underprivileged families. Longitudinal data on 42 families examined what accounted for enormous differences in rates of vocabulary growth. Children turned out to be like their parents in stature, activity level, vocabulary resources, and language and interaction styles. Follow-up data indicated that the 3-year-old measures of accomplishment predicted third grade school achievement.
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Journal Article This pilot study combined narrative and quantitative data to explore the factors enabling and motivating singleAfrican American fathers to take full custody of one or more of their children. The size and selection of the sample does not allow for generalization, since most of the men were college-educated and financially stable. The findings indicated a distinction between enabling and motivating factors. Factors that appeared to enable full custody included employment and secure housing, as they were present for all of the fathers before they took custody. Adult age at the time of their…
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Journal Article Written for lawyers, judges, and child welfare professionals, this article considers the parental role of men who batter their spouses and partners. Parenting styles of batterers, their impact on the relationship between the mother and child, and the risk for children living in a violent home are discussed. Post-separation issues and litigation tactics used by batterers in child custody cases and other legal processes are identified, including threats made to the mother, failure to pay child support, manipulation of children, and income advantage. The article also profiles programs that work…
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Journal Article Approximately 1.7 million men were incarcerated during 1997, many of whom were fathers. The impact of paternal imprisonment is especially significant for African Americans who are disproportionately represented in the prison system. Although prevailing public opinion considers African American fathers to be uninvolved in the lives of their children, research has found that unmarried black men are more likely to spend time with their children and maintain attachments than unmarried men of other races. This article describes the barriers to paternal involvement for African American men in…
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Journal Article Fatherhood is a topic of national conversation that is receiving considerable media attention. The number of single and noncustodial fathers is on the rise, and social workers will have increased contact with these men in the future. It is important for social work professionals to learn more about fatherhood, given the growing relevance of this topic. The social work literature is an important source of information where social workers can gather information about fatherhood. In this article, the authors examine how the social work literature describes fathers, especially noncustodial…
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Journal Article For the past decade our nation has turned its focus to personal responsibility and has subsequently formulated policies that have reformed welfare and strengthened child support enforcement. Parents are held more accountable for the support of their children, regardless of their income levels or age. Teen fathers continue to present dilemmas for policymakers because of their status as minors, lack of understanding of the policy implications for parenthood, lack of skills, and high unemployment rates. Young men face several barriers to involvement with their children, including physical…
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Journal Article The purpose of this study was to investigate how people make judgements about the likelihood of child abuse by stepfathers and biological fathers. One hundred eighty-six university students were asked to indicate whether they believed that: (1) girls who live with stepfathers were at higher, about the same, or lower risk for sexual abuse compared with girls who live with biological fathers; and (2) boys who live with stepfathers were at higher, about the same, or lower risk for physical abuse compared to boys who live with biological fathers. Students were also asked to explain how they…
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Journal Article The importance of fathers in their children's upbringing is increasingly recognised in child and youth care practice. Yet professional interventions in families often focus on men as problems. The experiences of fathers in community settings are applied to a child and youth care context. Workers are challenged to consider the role fathers play in their children's lives and how CYC principles might provide a basis for including men in their thinking about their work with children, youth, and their families. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article Thirty inner-city fathers of preschoolers described how they see their role in promoting their children's mental health. Fifteen were very involved fathers with a strong sense of competence, and 15 were uninvolved fathers with a weak sense of competence. Through qualitative analysis of the interviews, we developed a typology consisting of five profiles of fathers. The fathers had two contrasting concepts of their children's mental health: one focused on fitting into society and meeting expectations, the other on expressing individuality and independence. The implications for promoting fathers…
