On May 16, 2002, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4737, the Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2002, which, among other things, amends the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to encourage states to make more efforts to promote marriage and, to a lesser extent, responsible fatherhood. The bill also earmarks substantial funds -- $1.6 billion -- focused almost exclusively for the promotion and support of marriage. In this paper, we describe and analyze the various family formation provisions in H.R. 4737 and offer recommendations for how the…
This paper provides an overview of family matters during incarceration as one means of informing public debate and actions in this emerging area of social policy and practice. The problems that families face when a parent is incarcerated and the strategies they use to manage those problems are described. The relevance of the maintenance of prisoners' family and parental relationships to societal and family goals are discussed and the ways in which social policies and administrative practices hinder or support family maintenance are examined. (Author abstract)
The following is a list of suggestions that you can use to maintain the attachment to your children from inside a prison. (Author abstract)
Low-income families in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio were interviewed twice during a 16-month period about children's living arrangements. At the time of the first interview, 57 percent of children were living with their mother, who was neither married nor cohabitating. Twenty percent of children lived with two married, biological parents; five percent lived with two cohabitating biological parents; five percent lived with a mother who was married to a nonbiological father; nine percent lived with neither parent; and two percent lived with a mother who was cohabitating with a man who was…
This report summarizes the findings of a study of father involvement in Early Head Start Programs, conducted as part of the national Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Officials from 261 Early Head Start programs completed an Internet-based survey about the characteristics of fathers, strategies for involving fathers, goals for father involvement, level of father involvement, characteristics of staff, and barriers to involving fathers. Respondents reported that an average of 44.6 percent of children served have a resident father and 24.9 percent have an involved nonresident…
Federal policies are promoting father involvement in families to improve developmental, academic, and economic outcomes for children. This information packet provides an overview of issues related to fatherhood initiatives for providers and consumers of social services. It includes a fact sheet of statistics about effects of fatherlessness, a summary of policies and legislation, and lists of references and web resources. The innovative Georgia Fatherhood Program also is profiled.
The Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund supports a variety of programs that promote father-child relationships, including the Fatherhood Initiative and the Fathers and Family Network for professionals. This guide describes services sponsored by the Fatherhood Initiative and provides information about additional resources for fathers and professionals. The directory lists programs offered throughout Massachusetts, as well as national organizations, web sites, and books about fathering. Activity and idea pages recommend strategies for becoming a better father, meeting the developmental needs of…
This report contends that father absence matters. While the poverty rate for two-parent families is 8.4%, it is 31.3% in divorced families and 64.1% where parents never married. Children raised without fathers perform more poorly in school, develop emotional problems, engage in risky behavior, and experience more violence. Children raised with fathers have higher self-esteem, learn better, and are less likely to be depressed. Some 23 million children live in homes without fathers. This report, tracing the history, accomplishments, and current needs of the fatherhood field, is addressed to…
Data was used from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities to investigate risk factors that are present in the lives of incarcerated parents and their children, and how these differentially relate to children's living arrangements. The final sample for the study included 6,870 fathers and 2,047 mothers who were incarcerated in State or Federal prison in 1997. Results indicate children are increasingly likely to be placed with someone other than a parent, and are particularly likely to be placed in foster or agency care, as the number of risk factors rises. The…
In this paper, we review what is known about the life chances of children raised in single mother families and the extent to which these children are disadvantaged relative to their peers. Because we are concerned about life chances, most of the outcomes we consider are measured in adolescence and early adulthood. While there is good evidence that father absence has negative consequences for young children, our main concern is whether or not these disadvantages persist into adulthood. We begin the next section by showing the changes in children's family structure between 1960 and 2000. Next,…
