Research Reports and News Posted September
2001:
Fathers--Research
| Children & Families
| Census Data
| Systemic Barriers
| Welfare Reform
| NCOFF Abstracts
The following recent working papers have been posted by the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, located at Princeton, University:
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Exploring Relationship Satisfaction Using Item Response Theory: A Fathers' Perspective, Working Paper #01-09-FF, Melvin N. Wilson, Anthony Chambers, Karen M. Schmidt, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, May 2001.
Report Excerpt:
Recent societal concerns over increasing out-of-wedlock births, mother-only families, and welfare-dependant families have brought the role of fathers to the forefront of the political zeitgeist (Bowman, 1993; Marsiglio, 1995; Wilson, 1987). Within the broader group of all fathers, research has documented that young, low-income fathers are an important subgroup to study because they have unique experiences that affect their parental involvement (McAdoo, 1990; Miller, 1997), which can have deleterious effects on child development.
Collectively, little is known about the effects of low-income fathers' presence in the family. Previous research focused on middle class, two parent families (Cowan and Cowan, 1987; Jackson, 1974; Willie, 1976). In addition, previous research used the traditional model of viewing families, which included cohabitation, conception, and childbirth all occurring in the context of marriage. However, when studying low-income families, the traditional framework prevents researchers from examining poverty among low-income men who live with their parents or in a different household, and it does not describe the complexity of relationships within never-married families. As an improvement in our knowledge base, the current study proposes a framework that focuses on low-income, never-married African-American couples which consists of children born outside of marriage to disadvantaged parents (Mincy, 1996). This framework uses the never-married African-American couple as the unit of analysis.
In addition to the above framework, it is necessary to further delineate the theoretical model that will be employed in interpreting the data. Prior to the mid 1980s, research on African-American families largely ignored, distorted, or minimized the parenting role of African-American men by using European-American, middle-class, western and mainstream families as the primary frame of reference for normality. The models failed to acknowledge the great diversity within African-American families. Assuming that all low-income, African-American fathers are the same is a vast assumption that ethnographic studies have suggested is not true. In fact, studies have indicated that young, low-income, African-American fathers are a diverse group (Miller, 1994). Being able to delineate the differences within a population, like young, fathers, is important in order to understand the complexities of their day-to-day lives. Moreover, being able to understand the differences that exist among young, fathers is important in order to make between group comparisons meaningful. That is, if making socio-economic and/or racial comparisons, which are common among psychologists, are going to be meaningful, there must be an understanding of each respective population so that we know what we are comparing. As such, one of the goals of the current study is to examine the differences that exist among young, low-income, fathers. Hence, contemporary models, like the ecological model, will be employed to interpret the data because the model operates on the assumption that sociocultural context is important and acknowledges both the positive and negative aspects of sociocultural outcomes that affect fatherhood (Cochran, 1997).
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Welfare Reform, Fertility, and Father Involvement, Working
Paper #01-13-FF, Sara S.McLanahan, Marcia J. Carlson, Center for Research
on Child Wellbeing, September, 2001.
Article Summary:
Recognizing that most poor families are single-parent families, the
federal welfare reform law of 1996 emphasized the responsibility of
both parents to support their children. In addition to strengthening
the child support enforcement system, the law included several provisions
to decrease nonmarital childbearing and to promote two-parent families.
This article focuses on the important role fathers play in children's
lives and how public policies have affected childbearing and father
involvement. Key observations are:
- Children in father-absent families often have fewer economic and
socio-emotional resources from their parents, and do not fare as
well on many outcome measures, as children living with both biological
parents.
- Efforts to reduce the rising number of father-absent families
by focusing on preventing unwanted pregnancy among unmarried women,
especially teen girls, have met with some success, particularly
those programs seeking to alter adolescents' life opportunities
in addition to providing education or family planning services.
- Efforts to encourage greater father involvement by focusing almost
exclusively on increasing absent parents' child support payments
reap only minimal benefits for poor children, because their absent
parents often have few resources and little incentive to make support
payments.
- To date, efforts to increase the emotional involvement of unmarried
fathers with their children have produced disappointing results,
but new research suggests that such programs can make a difference
when they target fathers and begin at the time of a new child's
birth.
Many children will spend some time living away from their fathers,
deprived of the financial and emotional resources fathers can provide.
Because of the importance of fathers to child well-being, the authors
conclude that new directions in research and public policies are needed
to encourage greater father involvement across the wide diversity
of family arrangements that exist in society today.
The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation
Act (PRWORA) represented an historic shift in our nation's policy
toward poor families and children.1 In addition to requiring that
low-income parents assume greater responsibility for their own economic
wellbeing through increased work, the reform legislation included
provisions to discourage births outside of marriage, to promote and
strengthen two-parent families, and to encourage father involvement
(at least with respect to financial support). These provisions reflect“and
contribute to a growing awareness of the importance of fathers for
children.
Until recently, discussions about welfare policy for low-income
families have largely excluded fathers, except with respect to their
frequent failure to pay child support. Despite rising concern since
the 1980s about the negative consequences of childbearing outside
of marriage and single parenthood (particularly for children, but
also for society), most policy and research about families on welfare
has focused only on single mothers. However, research on fatherhood
in the last decade has pointed to the range of contributions that
fathers can make in their children's lives, as well as to the barriers
that some fathers face to providing economic and emotional support
for their children.
This article draws on recent research to examine the role of fathers
in children's lives and how policy may affect father involvement.
The first section reviews the recent demographic trends affecting
low-income families, followed by an outline of the evidence concerning
how father involvement affects fertility and child well-being. Policies
to decrease nonmarital fertility and increase father involvement are
described, along with suggestions about how programs can better address
the needs of disadvantaged fathers and families to promote child well-being.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF format, visit the CRCW
web site.
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Shared Parenting In Fragile Families, Working Paper #01-16-FF,
Marcia Carlson, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, April 2001
Abstract:
This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study
to examine the frequency of parent-child interaction in several areas
across a range of family types. Overall, we find that few individual
characteristics of mothers or fathers are consistently associated with
how often parents engage in activities with their one-year-old children.
The nature of parents' relationship, however, does appear to be important
for parenting. Non-resident fathers exhibit significantly lower levels
of interaction with their children in activities such as care giving,
playing and cognitive stimulation, than resident fathers. In addition,
the father's supportiveness toward the mother affects several mother-child
and father-child activities. Future research with a larger sample and
a greater number of comparable parenting items will be useful for improving
our understanding of how mother-father relationships, mothers' parenting,
and fathers' parenting are linked to each other and, ultimately, to
children's wellbeing.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF format, visit the CRCW
web site.
Cohabitation: An Elusive Concept, Working Paper #01-07-FF, Julien O. Teitler and
Nancy E. Reichman, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, March 2001.
Report Excerpt:
As rates of out of wedlock births in the US have increased over the past two decades, rates of cohabitation among unwed parents also have risen and unwed parenthood has become decreasingly synonymous with single parenthood. Recent results from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study demonstrate that most unwed fathers are involved with the mothers and their children at the time of the birth and that they have intentions to remain involved as parents in the future (McLanahan et al., forthcoming; Teitler, forthcoming). While analyses of the Fragile Families data have dispelled the myth of the absent father, they have raised new conceptual and methodological questions about the relationships between unwed parents. The conceptual questions have implications for how we characterize parents' relationships and the methodological questions have to do with how we measure cohabitation.
As we focus more attention on unwed parents and their living arrangements and relationships, it becomes increasingly clear that cohabitation is an ambiguous concept that is difficult to measure. Since romantically involved coup les may not spend every night together all the time, characterizing survey respondents as living together based on the traditional concept of full time cohabitation may inaccurately depict levels of father involvement with mother and child.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF format, visit the CRCW web site.
The following recent working papers have been posted by the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, located at Princeton, University:
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The Living Arrangements of New Unmarried Mothers, Working
Paper #01-15-FF, Wendy Sigle-Rushton and Sara McLanahan, Center for
Research on Child Wellbeing, July 2001.
Abstract:
We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to describe
the living arrangements of new, unwed mothers and to examine the determinants
of those living arrangements. Our analysis goes beyond previous studies
in several ways. First, we examine a wide diversity of living arrangements
for a homogenous sample of recent, unwed mothers. Second, our analysis
of the determinants of single mothers' living arrangements includes
information on fathers' as well as mothers' characteristics. We also
have data on the quality of the parents' relationship. Previous studies
have lacked information on the characteristics of non-resident fathers
and couple relationships, both of which are likely to affect decisions
about living arrangements. We find that the characteristics of both
partners have significant and, sometimes different, effects on the living
arrangements of single mothers. In addition, women who reported being
in a high quality, supportive relationship were much more likely to
cohabit. These findings highlight the importance of looking beyond strictly
human capital explanations of marriage, cohabitation, and living arrangements.
Emotional capital may be equally, if not more important, than human
capital to the development of successful relationships.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF format, visit the CRCW
web site.
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The Effect of Maternal Employment on Nonmarital Teenage Childbearing,
Working paper #01-14, Leonard M. Lopoo, Center for Research on Child
Wellbeing, August, 2001.
Abstract:
Maternal employment could affect nonmarital teenage childbearing through
a reduction in supervision, a role model effect, or a childcare effect.
Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988,
this analysis shows that maternal employment reduces the likelihood
of nonmarital teenage childbearing for non-African American teenagers
by 26 percent and reduces the likelihood among poor, non-African American
teenagers by nearly half. Indirect evidence suggests that the childcare
effect is the primary explanation for the negative effect. Maternal
employment does not appear to affect nonmarital childbearing among African
American teenagers regardless of socioeconomic status.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF format, visit the CRCW
web site.
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Gay and Lesbian Families in the United States: Same-Sex Unmarried
Partner Households, David M. Smith, Human Rights Campaign and
Gary J. Gates, The Urban Institute, August 22, 2001
Introduction:
The 2000 U.S. Census Bureau figures for same-sex unmarried partner
households provide researchers and policy makers with a wealth of
information about a previously unrecognized constituency. These numbers
provide policy makers at every level of government compelling arguments
for why they need to take care of the policy needs of gay and lesbian
families as they live in nearly every corner of every county in America.
The notion that gay and lesbian people only live on the coasts in
major urban areas has been dispelled by these U.S. Census Bureau statistics.
The geographical diversity of where gay and lesbian families are living
is striking. From big cities to small farming towns, from the deep
South to the Pacific Northwest, gay and lesbian families are part
of the American landscape.
These figures will change the debate for many Americans — from
an abstract controversy read about in newspapers or seen in noisy
debates on television to a discussion about real families, real people
and real lives.
To date, the U.S. Census Bureau has only released counts of gay and
lesbian coupled households, but as more information is released, we
will be able to determine the number of children living in these households,
income, racial profile, home ownership and other important demographics.
These facts will help us dispel stereotypes and present a fuller,
more accurate picture of the gay and lesbian family in America.
For a copy of the full report in PDF format, visit the Human
Rights Campaign's web site, or the Urban
Institute's web site.
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Transitions to Adulthood for Adolescent Mothers, Ariel Kalil,
Center for Human Potential and Public Policy, Harris Graduate School
of Public Policy, Univ. of Chicago.
Constructing a definition of oneself is a critical process in a teen's
life. For teen mothers, who must straddle the world of adolescence and
adulthood, this process can be especially difficult. Often at risk for
school dropout, depression, and poverty, teen mothers may need more
support in making the transition to successful adulthood.
Ariel Kalil, assistant professor in the Irving B. Harris Graduate
School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, has begun
to examine this transition among low-income teen mothers. Using in-depth
surveys and interviews, she is exploring how these young mothers construct
a definition of themselves and how that definition plays out in their
lives. She reported initial findings at a Center for Human Potential
and Public Policy briefing, November 29, 2000.
For more information on this ongoing study, visit the Harris
School web site.
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The Integration of Immigrant Families in the United States,
Michael Fix, Wendy Zimmermann, and Jeffrey S. Passel, Urban Institute,
July 2001.
Introduction:
What do we know about the integration of immigrant families within the
United States“the progress these families are making and their reception
in the communities where they settle? How are immigrants affected by
the nation's integration policies or lack thereof? What directions might
immigrant integration and the policies governing it take in the future?
In examining these issues, this paper proceeds from two straightforward
assumptions:
- The nation may be ready for a period of constructive engagement
on the issue of how best to integrate immigrant families into U.S.
society.
- A basic mismatch exists between the nation's essentially liberal,
if highly regulated immigration policies and its historically laissez-faire
immigrant policies. That is, despite the fact that the nation admits
more immigrants who are on track for citizenship than any other
country, U.S. immigrant integration policies have essentially been
ad hoc and small-scale.
We begin the paper by noting several reasons for starting a discussion
of the integration of immigrant families now. We proceed to examine
some of the demographic imperatives for an integration agenda and
selected trends in immigrant integration. With these trends in mind,
we explore some of the conceptual and design issues that should inform
an integration agenda for immigrant families. We then document trends
in recent spending on immigrant integration and conclude by touching
on several substantive areas and issues that we believe bear further
work.
Because the reach of the paper is rather broad, we should note several
of its limitations. The paper relies heavily on analyses conducted
by the Urban Institute, and as such our themes and findings are drawn
less from the rich literature on integration than our own institution's
analyses. We also acknowledge that our demographic measures and our
metrics of integration do not include several important trends such
as political participation. Despite our own past emphasis on the merits
of disaggregating the immigrant population by legal status, duration
of residence, national origin, and the like, we have presented more
aggregated findings than we might have preferred, owing to data and
resource limits.
The reader will find that we do not advance a firm, narrowly drawn
definition of immigrant family integration“the term will have different
meanings for different people. We do believe, however, that a definition
should involve not only an accounting of immigrants' mobility over
time, but encompass notions of community change as well.
New Citations from
NCOFF's FatherLit Database
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