This Best Practices Tool-Kit aims to systematically identify empirical evidence regarding prison programs and practices for incarcerated parents and their children. It highlights several practices and program strategies that are proven, promising or exemplary best practices and provides references for more extensive reading, if desired. The objective of the tool kit is to offer a sound evidence base that will better inform policymakers, practitioners and researchers on prison programs and practices geared toward building the parental skills of incarcerated parents. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article This article discusses the challenges of theorizing and modeling father-child relationships in a developmentally sensitive context. Challenges to the creation of comprehensive theories are briefly discussed and concerns with conceptualizations of father involvement are reviewed. An alternative view of father-child relationships is garnered from meta-analytic perspectives. Affective climate, behavioral style and relational synchrony are identified as factors that always matter in father-child relationships regardless of the age of gender of the child, the context of fathering, or moderating…
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Journal Article Theory and research suggest that the transition to parenthood is a major life transition, and that adaptation to the parenting role is influenced by a complex set of factors, including the relationship with the child's mother, family of origin, and how the father is situated within sociocultural contexts. The father-mother relationship is particularly important for men making the transition to fatherhood. This study examined patterns of fathering among young fathers (15?24 years) and investigated how fathers' relationships with the mothers of their young children (infants and toddlers) were…
This paper explains the different ways that parents benefit from participating in the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program (HIPPY), a home-based early intervention program that helps parents teach skills important to school readiness and success to their 3 to 5-year-old children. This free service is delivered by HIPPY home visitors who live in targeted high-need communities. The paper begins by explaining the HIPPY model and findings on the effectiveness of the HIPPY program. A chart is then provided that lists the reasonable, anticipated outcomes that will result…
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Journal Article Using longitudinal data from a sample of 451 families with a child in eighth grade at the time of study, three research questions have been addressed: First, the study explored the ways in which mothers and fathers differ with regard to four parenting styles. Second, the study examined the manner in which individual parenting styles combine to form family parenting styles. Finally, the study investigated the extent to which these various styles are related to delinquency, depression, and school commitment for adolescents. Regardless of reporter, the most common family parenting styles are…
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Journal Article This paper highlights a number of promising services and supports for incarcerated parents and recommends what attorneys representing or working with incarcerated parents and their children can do to minimize harm to children. (Author abstract)
This report, prepared for the Public Health Agency of Canada, Population Health Fund Project: Father Involvement for Healthy Child Outcomes: Partners Supporting Knowledge Development and Transfer, explored the question: What are the theoretical and empirical foundations for justifying investments in promoting and reinforcing positive father's involvement as indirect investments in children's health? One objective of this report is to bring forward some possible conceptual frameworks for generating hypotheses about how fathers may contribute to children's health. A second objective is to bring…
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Journal Article Data from the Fragile Families and Child-Well-being Study were used to examine predictors of involvement among fathers of young children ( N=2,215) born to adolescent and young adult mothers (ages 14-25; N=2,850). Participants were interviewed immediately following their baby's birth and at 3-years postpartum regarding co-parental relationship quality, fathers' caretaking behavior ("father involvement"), and fathers' provision of material support for the child ("in-kind" support). Early postnatal and 3-year postpartum parental relationship quality and father-child cohabitation predicted 3-…
The different role(s) men have in fathering, ideology building and as a spouse/mate has changed with societal demands and the evolving definition of being a Man. This fatherhood survey was created to gauge what men throughout Delaware felt about: the institution of marriage and the influence of government and religion on their raising a family. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article The present study examined the relationship between concurrent measures of adolescent fathers' parenting stress, social support, and fathers' care-giving involvement with the 3-month-old infant, controlling for fathers' prenatal involvement. The study sample consisted of 50 teenage father-mother dyads. Findings from multivariate regression revealed that fathers' parenting stress was significantly and negatively related to fathers' care giving as perceived by both fathers and mothers. The relationship between support for father involvement provided by the young man's parents and father…
