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)
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…
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…
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)
This research summary largely focuses on the benefits that dads can bring to their children's and their partner's lives, as well as to the wider economy. (Author abstract)
The role of noncustodial fathers in the lives of low-income families has received considerable attention from policymakers and programs in recent years. While child support enforcement efforts have increased dramatically in recent years, there is evidence that many low-income fathers cannot afford to support their children financially without impoverishing themselves or their families. To address these complex issues, a number of initiatives have focused on developing services to help low-income fathers become more financially and emotionally involved with their families, and to help young…
Father-child relationships are not static even under the best of circumstances (Belsky, 1984). They require frequent adjustments and adaptations as both father and child change and develop and experience different circumstances, challenges, and resources (Palkovitz, 1987). Other family relationships shift as well, and as a result, fathers and families experience transitions within fathering continuously. Palkovitz & Palm (2005) list a range of triggers for transitions in paternal involvement, including child development, family crisis, individual changes in the father, cohort or…
This guide is intended to assist the grantees of the Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Grant Program (Supervised Visitation Program or SVP) that want to enhance the safety and well-being of women and children by working more deliberately with abusive fathers who use the centers to visit their children. Although fathers are not always the visiting parents and, in fact, in some centers mothers make up almost half of the visiting caseload, this document was designed to target in particular visiting fathers who have been violent with their intimate partners. (Author abstract)
This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine differences in the parenting behaviors of resident biological and social fathers on measures of engagement, shared responsibility, and cooperation in parenting. Regression, difference-in-difference, and decomposition techniques are used. Results suggest that biological and social fathers differ significantly on most parenting measures (and in some unexpected ways), but that a considerable portion of these differences can be explained by differences in the background characteristics of the individuals and…
Although developing-country research has found that spending on children's food, healthcare, and education varies depending on which parent controls income, developed-country research on child wellbeing tends to ignore intrahousehold allocation. This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 820 couples) to analyze how mothers' versus fathers' control of money affects U.S. children's food insecurity. Results show children are least likely to experience food insecurity when parents' income is pooled and controlled by their mother and most likely to do so when…
