Recent Research Reports and News: January
2003
Fathers—Research | Children
& Families | Fatbers/Mothers
in Prison | Census Data
| Systemic Barriers
| Welfare Reform
| NCOFF Abstracts
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The Challenge of Helping Low-Income Fathers Support Their Children:
Final Lessons from Parents' Fair Share, Manpower Demonstration
Research Corp., November 2001.
Report Excerpt:
Fathers provide important financial and emotional support to their
children. Yet low-income noncustodial fathers, with low wages and
high rates of joblessness, often do not fulfill their parenting
roles. The child support system has not traditionally helped these
men to do so, since its focus has been on securing financial support
from fathers who can afford to pay. Meanwhile, fathers who cannot
pay child support accumulate debts that can lead them to evade the
system and its penalties altogether - and further limit their contact
with their children.
Parents' Fair Share (PFS) was designed as an alternative to standard
enforcement. Launched in 1994 in seven sites, PFS was a national
demonstration program that aimed to help low-income noncustodial
fathers find more stable and better-paying jobs, pay child support
on a consistent basis, and become more involved parents. Funded
by the organizations listed at the front of this monograph, PFS
provided employment and training services, peer support groups,
voluntary mediation between parents, and modified child support
enforcement.
Besides designing the PFS demonstration, MDRC evaluated it. Between
1994 and 1996, each of more than 5,500 fathers was randomly assigned
to PFS or a control group, and the program's effects were estimated
by comparing how the two groups fared over a two-year period. This
monograph synthesizes the demonstration's key findings and uses
them to formulate several recommendations for the next generation
of fatherhood programs.
Key Findings As a group, the fathers were very disadvantaged,
although some were able to find low-wage work fairly easily. PFS
increased employment and earnings for the least-employable men but
not for the men who were more able to find work on their own. Most
participated in job club services, but fewer than expected took
part in skill-building activities. PFS encouraged some fathers,
particularly those who were least involved initially, to take a
more active parenting role. Many of the fathers visited their children
regularly, although few had legal visitation agreements. There were
modest increases in parental conflict over child-rearing decisions,
and some mothers restricted the fathers' access to their children.
Men referred to the PFS program paid more child support than men
in the control group. The process of assessing eligibility uncovered
a fair amount of employment, which disqualified some fathers from
participation but which led, nonetheless, to increased child support
payments.
Recommendations for Future Programs:
How to increase employment and earnings: Structure the program
to encourage longer-term participation and to include job-retention
services. Provide the fathers who cannot find private sector employment
with community service jobs or stipends, or combine part-time work
with training. Use providers who have experience working with very
disadvantaged clients. Earmark adequate funding for employment services.
How to increase parental involvement: Increase fathers'
access to their children by involving custodial mothers in the programs
and providing the fathers with legal services to gain visitation
rights. Be aware of the potential for increased parental conflict.
How to increase child support payments: Mandate fathers'
participation in employmentrelated activities to increase payments
among low-income caseloads. Encourage active partnership of fatherhood
programs with the child support system.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF format, visit the MDRC
web site.
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Serving Parents Who Leave Prison: Final Report on the Work
and Family Center, Jessica Pearson and Lanae Davis, Center for
Policy Research, December 2001.
Executive Summary Excerpt:
This report focuses on the characteristics and experiences of 350
clients seen during August 1999 to March 15, 2001, at the Work and
Family Center, a multi-agency collaboration to enhance the successful
reintegration of offenders upon their release from Colorado prisons.
All clients in the study had minor-aged children and were known
to the child support agency in Colorado. They were offered assistance
with employment, child support issues, and family reintegration.
Mirroring the evaluation methodology used in studies of responsible
fatherhood programs, this assessment draws on information collected
from a variety of sources including: (1) intake forms completed
by clients when they visited the WFC covering demographics, criminal
history, family composition, living arrangements, and interest in
various services; (2) telephone interviews conducted with clients
six months following their initial visit to the WFC; and (3) reviews
of automated records maintained by child support, employment, and
criminal justice agencies to gauge patterns of child support payment,
earnings, and return to prison. The study yielded the following
results:
* After a slow start, the WFC succeeded in cultivating a steady stream
of referrals from many different sources in the criminal justice system
and the community. On its two-year anniversary, the WFC was serving
an average of 70 new clients per month, who reported learning about
the facility from a variety of sources both within and outside of
the criminal justice system.
* The WFC serves a varied clientele that resembles the parole population
released to Denver but is a less violent and lower risk group than
Coloradois inmate population. The average WFC client in this study
was a 35-year-old male, repeat offender, with a variety of racial
and ethnic characteristics who had committed a drug crime or a burglary
or theft. On average, clients had served 2.8 years and faced 2.3 years
of parole. While 30 percent reported committing a violent crime, this
was the case for 43.8 percent of Coloradois inmate population. Most
WFC clients reported having a GED and being employed full-time before
going to prison.
* Many WFC clients reported regular contact with their children before
going to prison, but little contact during their incarceration. Although
more than half of WFC clients said they had lived with their children
before going to prison, and nearly half of those who did not cohabit
with their children reported seeing them often, most WFC clients
reported that they never saw their children while in prison.
* When they visited the WFC, clients were living in a variety of
community and halfway house settings, and levels of contact with children
were far lower than they had been prior to incarceration. When they
visited the WFC, 41 percent reported that they had not had contact
with any of their children since their release.
* WFC clients faced many financial pressures and had limited resources.
When they visited the WFC, two-thirds of clients owed child support
and had an average total monthly support obligation of $295, plus
an arrears obligation of $16,651. Seventy percent reported being required
to pay restitution, with the average amount being $3,144. At their
initial visit, half of the clients were employed full-time, earning
an average of $9.00 per hour. Forty percent said they were unemployed,
with the remainder working part-time or at pick-up jobs.
* Paroled and released offenders came to the WFC for assistance with
issues pertaining to their employment and financial situation, with
child support being the most frequently mentioned type of desired
help. Paroled and released offenders came to the WFC wanting help
with child support (69%), transportation (57%), clothing (50%), employment
(47%), and housing (41%). At their initial visit, very few reported
wanting help getting to see their children or improving relationships
with their children or the other parent, although 29 percent met with
the mental health specialist and 16.3 percent met with a family law
attorney for help with custody or visitation. The popularity of the
WFC’s child support services reflects the fact that parole officers
and community corrections agents tended to recommend the WFC to clients
with child support problems, and the evaluation focused exclusively
on clients with minor-aged children who were known to the child support
agency.
* Although nearly all WFC clients find jobs on their own, they report
high levels of satisfaction with the employment service they receive
at the WFC, with a small, non-representative sub-group of interviewed
clients showing significantly higher earnings two quarters following
their visit to the WFC. Nearly all interviewed WFC clients who saw
an employment specialist said the intervention had been “very”
or “somewhat” helpful, although only 20 percent (11 clients)
reported that WFC staff had helped them find a job. Among the sub-group
of clients seen at the WFC by June 30, 2000, and interviewed six months
later, rates of full-time employment rose from 48 to 65 percent and
quarterly earnings noted on wage records supplied by employers were
significantly higher. At the same time, 60 percent of interviewed
clients reported that their salary still did not cover their financial
needs.
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Mortality, severe morbidity, and injury in children living
with single parents in Sweden: a population-based study, Gunilla
Ringbäck Weitoft, Anders Hjern, Bengt Haglund, Måns Rosén,
Centre for Epidemiology, National Board of Health and Welfare, Stockholm,
Sweden, Lancet 2003; 361: 289-95, January 25, 2003.
Summary
Background: Growing up with one parent has become increasingly
common, and seems to entail disadvantages in terms of socioeconomic
circumstances and health. We aimed to investigate differences in mortality,
severe morbidity, and injury between children living in households
with one adult and those living in households with two adults.
Methods: In this population-based study, we assessed overall
and cause-specific mortality between 1991 and 1998 and risk of admission
between 1991 and 1999 for 65 085 children with single parents and
921 257 children with two parents. We estimated relative risks by
Poisson regression, adjusted for factors that might be presumed
to select people into single parenthood, and for other factors,
mainly resulting from single parenthood, that might have affected
the relation between type of parenting and risk.
Findings: Children with single parents showed increased
risks of psychiatric disease, suicide or suicide attempt, injury,
and addiction. After adjustment for confounding factors, such as
socioeconomic status and parents' addiction or mental disease, children
in single-parent households had increased risks compared with those
in two-parent households for psychiatric disease in childhood (relative
risk for girls 2·1 [95% CI 1·9-2·3] and boys 2·5
[2·3-2·8]), suicide attempt (girls 2·0 [1·9-2·2],
boys 2·3 [2·1-2·6]), alcohol-related disease (girls
2·4 [2·2-2·7], boys 2·2 [2·0-2·4]),
and narcotics-related disease (girls 3·2 [2·7-3·7],
boys 4·0 [3·5-4·5]). Boys in single-parent families
were more likely to develop psychiatric disease and narcotics-related
disease than were girls, and they also had a raised risk of all-cause
mortality.
Conclusions: Growing up in a single-parent family has disadvantages
to the health of the child. Lack of household resources plays a
major part in increased risks. However, even when a wide range of
demographic and socioeconomic circumstances are included in multivariate
models, children of single parents still have increased risks of
mortality, severe morbidity, and injury.
What puts children of lone parents at a health disadvantage?
Commentary, Lancet 2003; 361, January 25, 2003.
The health disadvantage of lone mothers in industrialised countries
has raised questions about the health of the children who live with
them.1-5 Few studies, however, have analysed the health of children
living with lone, compared with two parents, with sufficient sociodemographic
data to adjust for key confounding and mediating factors. The paper
in today's Lancet by Gunilla Ringb?ck Weitoft and colleagues is, therefore,
important, not least because it is longitudinal, achieves almost complete
population coverage, and links national registers to attach extensive
socioeconomic data to health outcomes. The investigators followed
up the mortality, severe morbidity, and hospital inpatient use of
nearly a million Swedish children over 9 years.
The main findings are that, after controlling for confounders,
Swedish children of lone parents have more than double the risk
of psychiatric disease, suicide or attempted suicide, and alcohol-related
disease; and more than three times the risk of drug-related disease
compared with their counterparts in two-parent households. Boys
in lone-parent families also had increased risk of all-cause mortality.
The question is what causes this health disadvantage? The investigators
test various explanatory hypotheses and conclude that lack of household
resources, as measured by receipt of social benefit and renting
rather than owning a home, has a major role in accounting for these
increased risks.
For a copy of the full article and commentary, visit The
Lancet web site. Note: Registration is required.
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Youth who ìAge Outî of Foster Care: Troubled Lives, Troubling
Prospects, Richard Wertheimer, Child Research Brief, Child Trends,
December 2002.
Overview:
When children are abused, neglected, or abandoned by their parents
or when parents’ owndifficulties (such as drug addiction, mental
illness, and incarceration) leave them unable to provide adequate
care, other relatives often step in. If no family members are able
to take in these children, a court often places them in the care of
other families or in institutions. And so, they enter the foster care
system. Today, more than 500,000 children in America live in foster
care ? about 8 out of every 1,000 children.1 This is a vulnerable
population. Children who enter foster care have emotional, behavioral,
developmental, and health problems that reflect the difficult family
and environmental circumstances that caused them to be removed from
their homes in the first place. Most of the children in foster care
return to their families or are adopted (often by their foster parents),
but not all. In 2000, more than 19,000 of the oldest children left
foster care ? or ìaged outî in the parlance of child protective services
? and many were pretty much on their own.2 Usually, this happened
when they turned 18.3
If foster children, in general, are a population at risk, youth
who age out of the system may be even more so. Research suggests
that without the extended support most families provide young people
in the transition to adulthood, youth leaving foster care face enormous
challenges in building successful lives. They are less well prepared
educationally, have a harder time embarking on a productive career,
are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, and are more likely
to be involved with the legal system. However, it is worth recalling
that many of the problems evidenced by foster children have their
roots in experiences that occurred before they entered the foster
care system.
Various strategies may be effective in reducing the number of
young adults aging out of foster care, including ensuring that every
child born in America is a ìwantedî child, improving the home environments
of children at risk of abuse and neglect, and accelerating the permanent
placement of foster children when it is clear that their home environments
pose too great a risk for them to return. And various approaches
are being taken to help these vulnerable young people as they must
navigate the waters of early adulthood largely on their own. Some
of these approaches appear promising, but rigorous research is needed
to confirm that what we think may work does, in fact, help this
vulnerable population.
For a copy of the complete brief in PDF format, visit the Child
Trends web site.
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Ten Reasons to Keep the Focus on Teen Childbearing, Child
Trends, December 2002.
In this special report, Child Trends draws on the latest statistical
data and research to show why it would be premature - even foolhardy
- to push teen childbearing off the nation's radar screen. This
report sets forth the ten reasons that we, as researchers concerned
with child well-being, find most compelling.
This report is available from Child Trends for $10. Please, visit
the Child
Trends web site for more information.
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Children in Poverty: Trends, Consequences, and Policy Options,
Kristin Anderson Moore, and Zakia Redd, Child Trends, November 2002.
Overview:
The percentage of U.S. children living in poverty in 2001 remained
the lowest it’s been in nearly a quarter of a century. Nevertheless,
a large number of children – one in six – are still poor,
and the child poverty rate is no longer declining. Recently released
U.S. Census data1 show that the percentage of children living in
families with incomes below the poverty line remained virtually
unchanged between 2000 and 2001 (from 16.2 percent to 16.3 percent,
a statistically insignificant difference).2 Moreover, the number
of children living in poverty remains quite high. In 2001, 11.7
million children were living in poverty,3 as were 11.6 million children
in 2000.
Child poverty warrants attention, especially in light of a growing
body of research that links poverty with lower levels of child well-being.
For a variety of reasons, when compared with children from more
affluent families, poor children are, for example, more likely to
demonstrate low academic achievement, to drop out of school, and
to have health, behavioral, and emotional problems. These linkages
are particularly strong for children whose families are trapped
in poverty for a long time.
This Research Brief brings together 2001 Census data to present
a statistical portrait of children in poverty in the United States,4
updating a similar brief Child Trends produced in 1999. The brief
also draws on available research studies to highlight some of the
consequences of poverty for children and to consider program and
policy approaches that seem to hold promise for decreasing poverty
among low-income children and their families
For a copy of the complete brief in PDF format, visit the Child
Trends web site.
New Citations from NCOFF's
FatherLit Database
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