National Center on Fathers and Families
About Our Publications
In recent years family issues have sparked wide-scale debate. Research on families has grown beyond its early roots in psychology and sociology to include a growing interdisciplinary focus that attempts to respond to massive changes in the needs, structures, poverty levels, and formation patterns of families and the policies designed to remedy the increasingly difficult issues many face.
The issues defining and surrounding research and practice on fathers and families are complex. NCOFF's publications are developed out of Seven Core Learnings, research issues drawn from the experiences of practitioners and program agencies. Nested in each of the Core Learnings and NCOFF's publications, are multiple questions about the problems facing young fathers, mothers, and families; the needs of programs and the practitioners; changes in national, state, and local policies; and the nature of the tasks facing society.
Data is sparse on families that deviate from "traditional, intact" family forms such as families headed by adolescent or young, adult never-married, and/or poor mothers. Research on families of color, outside of poverty studies, are conspicuously absent from the knowledgebase. The work of the National Center on Fathers and Families (NCOFF) uses the strengths and voids in these discussions as a launching pad to develop a framework for research, practice, and policy. NCOFF promotes building a field in which the needs of children and families are the core of the discourse, and research and practice cohere to craft the language and activities associated within that discourse.
Embedded in NCOFF's mission and expressed throughout our publications is a vision in which fathers, families, and communities are positioned to ensure the well-being of children and are able to translate their hopes and the possibilities that accompany those hopes into human and social prosperity. A well-coordinated national effort on fathers and families will give support and a collective voice to programs, encourage research, and contribute to responsive policy formulation. Such a vehicle would provide the appropriate context for experience-sharing among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers; identification of basic research, program, and policy-related issues; surfacing of new research issues, and increased opportunities for communication, cooperation, and collaboration.
Types of publications:
-
NCOFF Briefs provide summaries of literature reviews, research reports,
and working papers published by NCOFF. A select number of briefs provide
introductory summaries of emerging practice and policy-focused issues
in the field.
-
The Literature Reviews, a series of commissioned papers by distinguished
scholars, offer a broad overview of the issues involved in each of
the Core Learnings and the current state of research in these areas.
They suggest implications and direction for future research efforts.
-
The Working Papers and Monographs are intended to highlight critical
and emerging topics in the field that have received minimal attention
and to complement issues identified in the NCOFF FatherLit Database
and Core Learnings. Monographs may take the form of papers by a single
author, an edited volume of papers, or a list of recent books and
papers along with book reviews by our research staff. These book reviews
will often be in the form of "meta-reviews", reporting on scholarly
and popular reviews of the books in question.
-
The State Policy Series brings together representatives from executive
and state branches of government with researchers and practitioners
serving fathers and families. It addresses the need for policymakers
to exchange ideas on programmatic and legislative initiatives related
to father and family issues in their respctive states. These meetings
are summarized in a body of reports. The State Policy Series documents
are available online.
-
The Roundtable Series is based on NCOFF's Seven Core Learnings and
consists of meetings of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers
in critical discussion of research issues surrounding fathers and
families. The discourse of these meetings is summarized in reports.
Synoposes of the Roundtable Series documents can be obtained online;
the full reports can be obtained by calling NCOFF.
-
Other practice and policy reports reflect NCOFF's continued commitment
to building practice-focused research and research-informed practice
and policy. Through these reports, NCOFF aims to share ideas, examine
current practice, and determine future action. Synoposes of other practice
and policy reports can be obtained online; the full reports can be obtained
by calling NCOFF.
-
The Fatherlit Database reflects NCOFF's ongoing effort to
compile, abstract, and annotate the existing literature on a variety
of father and family support issues, drawn from multiple disciplines
including psychology, sociology, education, legal studies, economics,
and anthropology. The materials included in the Database focus around
NCOFF's Seven Core Learnings. The Database is constantly growing,
and now contains over 7,800 citations. FatherLit is accessible through
the web at both the NCOFF
website and the Father
& FamilyLink website. It is also available on CD-ROM. The
CD-ROM file can be downloaded
from the NCOFF website.
Document Availability
Most documents are available on our website. If a document is
not available through the web, please contact us for further information
on obtaining it.
National Center on Fathers and Families
University of Pennsylvania
Graduate School of Education
3440 Market Street, Suite 450
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3325
Phone: (215) 573-5500
Fax: (215) 573-5508
Webpage: www.ncoff.gse.upenn.edu
Email: mailbox@ncoff.gse.upenn.edu
Date Posted: 8/25/97; Date Revised: 9/99, 7/10/2001
http://fatherfamilylink.gse.upenn.edu
Copyright ©, 1998 National
Center on Fathers and Families / Trustees
of the University of Pennsylvania.
|
