Publications - fatherhood programs

Many fathers who participate in fatherhood programs do not live with all of their children. They often seek help from fatherhood programs to navigate the child support system, determine how they can spend more time with their children, or improve their coparenting relationships. Unfortunately, it can be quite complicated for programs to provide this assistance, Read More

Coparenting between mothers and nonresident fathers is a consistent predictor of positive father involvement and is shown to have a direct positive impact on children’s behavioral outcomes. While many fatherhood programs attempt to improve coparenting relationships using father-only interventions, the information on their effectiveness is mixed. Couple interventions may be more effective than father-only approaches Read More

The Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN) examined state approaches to supporting fatherhood programs and including fathers in state agencies, departments, programs, and policies that affect children and families. The goal of the investigation is to stimulate replication of effective approaches in state settings. Our review covered four large-scale federal grant or demonstration programs dealing Read More

This brief reviews some of the ways in which federal, state, and local initiatives in the U.S. have attempted to ensure that father involvement is reflected in programs and policies dealing with children and families. The examples provided are not comprehensive but cover much of the national activity that exists at the state level and illustrate the various ways in which Read More

Research with fathers enrolled in fatherhood programs is often limited to measuring the amount of child involvement, since there are few existing quality measures that have been rigorously tested for use with low-income, nonresident fathers who are primarily unmarried. In this FRPN research brief we examined two short measures assessing the quality of father-child relationships Read More

Child support agencies struggle to find ways to reach young men and communicate with them about paternity and child support before they become embroiled in the child support system. The outreach efforts conducted to date at hospitals and birthing centers, prenatal programs, and WIC programs, are typically sparsely attended by men (See companion article, “Outreaching Read More

There are several reasons that programs serving fathers should be concerned with intimate partner violence (IPV). The widespread nature of the problem makes it a logical topic for fatherhood programs to cover when dealing with parental conflict. Evidence suggests that men who have engaged in IPV may have significant parenting difficulties that need to be addressed and fatherhood programs offer a forum Read More

The Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN) convened a workgroup of experts in the field of fatherhood and father involvement to develop a research agenda that defines the state of the current research in this area, identifies extant gaps in this research, and generates suggestions for future research. The goal is for the workgroup’s ideas Read More

The difficulties facing young economically disadvantaged unwed parents and their children – who are referred to as “fragile families” for lack of a better phrase – require a coordinated and constructive response from family focused practitioners, researchers and policy makers. Over the past decade, the federal government has been experimenting with educational programs directly intended Read More

This brief, written for the Fatherhood Research and Practice Network, offers a set of recommendations about how to build knowledge on effective programs and policies to improve the economic condition of disadvantaged fathers. After an introductory section, the brief begins with a short summary of findings from key past evaluations of employment-oriented programs for fathers or, in Read More