This report is the latest in a series based on the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities. Results of the survey show that in 1999 state and federal prisons held an estimated 721,500 parents of minor children. A majority of state (55 percent) and federal (63 percent) prisoners reported having a child under the age of 18. Forty-six percent of the parents reported living with their children prior to incarceration. The survey estimates that 336,300 U.S. households with minor children are affected by the imprisonment of a resident parent. The parents reported having…
The third in a series of biennial reports describes state programs and efforts intended to promote healthy child development and family relationships, school readiness, and economic security. State profiles highlight programs funded in fiscal year 2000 that focus on child development and family relationships in the general population. Policies regarding wage and income supports, child care assistance, and health and nutrition assistance also are identified as initiatives supporting economic security. Nationwide, the states utilized four types of programs to serve infants and toddlers and…
The executive summary of the National Center for Children in Poverty's 2000 report finds several important developments since the mid-1990s that have critical implications for young children and their families. The survey finds the number of working mothers continues to increase, with 59 percent of mothers with infants under one year working outside the home in full- and part-time jobs. Seventy-three percent of mothers with children over the age of one year held some job, and fifty-two percent were full-time workers. The 1996 welfare reform act has played a key role in this increase, however…
State and local policymakers are advised to follow a six-step strategy for developing initiatives to promote father-child relationships: teach men to be good parents; help fathers improve relationships with the mothers of their children; facilitate employment for low-income fathers; allocate federal funds to programs for fathers; enhance the child support system; and increase public awareness about the value of fathers. This guide describes the considerations for each step and recommends action strategies for government officials. Suggestions include: integrate fatherhood modules into sex…
The Children's Commission of Queensland in Australia is working with the Queensland Government's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Board to strengthen Indigenous families affected by the incarceration of a father. Indigenous people are imprisoned at a rate that is 13 times that of the non-Indigenous population. Many of the incarcerated men are fathers with children who experience the grief of parental separation, financial difficulties, and social stigma from the community. Recognizing that attempts to support Indigenous people must be designed in the context of cultural…
This Australian pilot program seeks to promote cooperative post-separation parenting, through education and communications training, to reduce reliance on family courts in resolving conflicts involving the terms of court orders. Most parents using the courts for such conflicts are non-residents and while such cases represented a small number of the overall caseload, they take up a disproportionate amount of court time and resources. The Anglicare program uses the term cooperative parenting rather than co-parenting or joint parenting to describe positive post-separation parenting by both…
The commissioner of the first independent commission on children in Australia, established in Queensland in 1996, presents an overview of the agency's child and family welfare efforts and describes a new program to encourage support for fathers. The aim of the Focus on Fathering Project is to increase understanding about the importance of fathers in children's lives and to promote fathering education and support programs. The program takes a multidisciplinary approach to the problems of fatherless children and high-risk families, with a strong educational aspect and a research component to…
This paper discusses some of the key issues facing fathers in Australia, including changing concepts about the role of the fathers and the potential impact of these changes on children. Recent fathering studies in Australia and the United States are discussed, as are statistics showing 19.3 percent of Australian families with children under age 15 are headed by a single woman compared to 1.9 headed by a father. The authors argue the concept of social fatherhood, including all responsibilities and activities fathers are expected to perform, has more influence on children than biological…
An examination of data from several large surveys of Australian families and child support records suggests unwed noncustodial fathers are significantly less involved as parents to their children than are divorced fathers without custody. Although almost one-third of children in Australia are born out of wedlock, no longitudinal survey data is available on characteristics of unwed noncustodial Australian fathers, or their role in their children's lives. As a result, any social policy directed at children of unwed parents must be developed without a baseline for future comparison studies, the…
Research indicates certain qualities of the parental relationship can serve as a benchmark for the degree of involvement of unwed fathers and their children. This paper explores characteristics of parental relationships and unwed paternal involvement, as well as other causal factors that can affect the role of unwed fathers in their children's lives. The authors examined data in the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a large longitudinal study of parental relationships, involvement, and child well-being and development. A total of 3,600 children born to unmarried parents in 20 large…
