Recent Research Reports and News: August
2002
Fathers—Research | Children
& Families | Fatbers/Mothers
in Prison | Census Data
| Systemic Barriers
| Welfare Reform
| NCOFF Abstracts
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Fatherless homes no longer on rise, Cheryl Wetzstein, The
Washington Times, April 9, 2002.
Article Excerpt:
The decades-long rise in father absence has stopped, the National
Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) says in its fourth edition of "Father
Facts," which is being released today.
From 1960 to 1996, the number of children who lived in homes without
a father or a stepfather rose steadily, from 7 million to 20 million,
the 182-page report said.
Since the mid-1990s, though, the number and proportion of children
in father-absent homes has leveled off, while the number of children
living with both parents has remained fairly constant.
"Nobody knows for sure why" the numbers have stabilized, "but the
fatherhood movement surely deserves some credit," Wade F. Horn,
former NFI president, and researcher Tom Sylvester wrote in the
report's introduction.
Still, "there will be little reason to celebrate if fatherlessness
merely levels off at historically high levels," wrote Mr. Horn,
who is now assistant secretary for children and families at the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Research shows that "the most effective pathway to involved fatherhood
is marriage," said NFI President Roland C. Warren, who added that
he hoped the new NFI report would inform Capitol Hill discussions
about welfare reform and government-funded marriage promotion.
"Father Facts" is a compilation of the latest data regarding fathers,
mothers, children, family well-being, marriage and divorce, "fragile
families," child custody, child support, stepfamilies and adoption.
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Marriage and Fatherhood are Associated With Lower Testosterone
in Males, Peter B. Gray, Sonya M. Kahlenberg, Emily S. Barrett,
Susan F. Lipson, and Peter T. Ellison, Evolution and Human Behavior,
Volume 23, Issue 3, May 2002, Pages 193-201.
Abstract In order to study the hormonal correlates of the tradeoff
between mating and parenting effort in human males, we examined the
salivary testosterone (T) levels of 58 Boston-area men who were either
unmarried (n=29), married without children (n=14), or married with
children (n=15). Additionally, we asked participants to complete a
questionnaire that surveyed their demographic, marital, and parenting
backgrounds. We tested the hypotheses that (1) T levels will be lower
in married than in unmarried men and (2) married men with children
will have lower T levels than unmarried men and married men without
children. We also tested a series of hypotheses relating variation
in parenting and spousal relationships to T. We found that married
men with and without children had significantly lower evening T than
unmarried men. No significant differences in T were found among the
groups in morning samples. Among married men without children, higher
scores on a "spousal investment" measure and more hours spent with
a man's wife on his last day off work were both associated with lower
T levels. We suggest that lower T levels during the day among fathers
may facilitate paternal care in humans by decreasing the likelihood
that a father will engage in competitive and/or mating behavior.
For a copy of the complete article contact Elsevier
publishers, or contact your local library.
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Pathways to Aggression through Inhibited Temperament and Parental
Violence, Malcolm Watson, Brandeis University and Kurt Fischer,
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, August
21, 2002.
Press Release: "Reserved Children More Likely to Be Violent
than Their Outgoing Peers: Race, Gender, and Family Income Have
Little Effect"
According to a study by researchers at the Harvard Graduate School
of Education (HGSE) and Brandeis University, one of the greatest predictors
of violence and aggression in children is their level of inhibition
or social withdrawal. The study, which was funded by the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development, was presented at
the Society for Research in Child Development's biannual conference
and the European Conference of Developmental Psychology. (Read an
executive summary of the research findings.)
HGSE's Kurt Fischer and Brandeis' Malcolm Watson, the study's
co-investigators, tracked 440 children and adolescents over seven
years to determine what causes children to become aggressive and
violent. They found that two characteristics strongly predict the
development of aggression. Violence in the home, including physical
parental punishment, was the strongest predictor of aggression in
the child.
While that indicator already is well-known, the second finding
was unexpected: inhibited temperament was the second strongest predictor
of aggression and violence in children. "Inhibition stood alone
as the one personality characteristic that predicted aggression,
which suggests possible connections with the isolated, alienated
children who have committed school attacks," says Fischer.
Fischer and Watson also expected to find that demographic and
socio-economic factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic
status would lead to aggression, as earlier studies had indicated;
instead, they found that these factors had little influence in whether
or not a child became violent later in life. "The standard stuff
in the literature suggests that poor kids, kids from discriminated-against
groups, and boys are more likely to be aggressive, but our findings
don't support this," adds Fischer.
"We were startled with the results because many people believed
that high inhibition would accompany low aggression," says Watson.
"We found just the opposite. The more inhibited kids are, the more
likely they are to be aggressive." Inhibited children in this study
were characterized as socially withdrawn, uncomfortable or distressed
in new situations, and anxious about making new friends or trying
new activities. Examples of aggressive behavior included fighting
and lashing out at their peers both physically and verbally, insulting
them, hitting and pushing them, attacking them with weapons, and,
in extreme cases, criminal aggression, including murder.
The researchers advise parents, teachers, and other caregivers
not to assume children and adolescents are fine just because they
are not unruly or rebellious. "In schools, teachers tend to 'oil
the squeaky wheel,' attending to outspoken trouble makers," adds
Watson, "but quiet students may be having trouble adjusting as well."
Fischer and Watson recommend that teachers, school counselors, and
parents attend to students who seem withdrawn, offering them opportunities
to connect through clubs, study groups, and other social and academic
outlets.
This study was conducted over seven years on a group of 440 children
and adolescents from Springfield, Massachusetts, which is socioeconomically
and racially similar to many other areas of the country and can
be deemed a "representative" sample. The children, who ranged in
age from 7 to 13 years when the study began, come from a diverse
set of socio-economic backgrounds. An equal number of white, African-American,
and Latino boys and girls were chosen to participate. Data were
gathered through in-depth interviews with the children and their
mothers.
For a copy of the Executive Summary, visit the Harvard
Graduate School of Education web site. For information on obtaining
a copy of the full report, please call the Graduate School at 617-496-1884.
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Effect of Mandatory Parental Notification on Adolescent Girls'
Use of Sexual Health Care Services, Diane M. Reddy, Raymond
Fleming, and Carolyne Swain, Journal of the American Medical Assn.,
2002;288:710-714, August 14, 2002.
Publisher Abstract:
Context:**Mandatory parental notification for
adolescents to obtain prescribed contraceptives is a controversial
issue. Recently, legislation that would prohibit prescribed contraceptives
for adolescents without parental involvement was introduced in 10
states and the US Congress.
Objective:**To determine the effect of mandatory parental
notification for prescribed contraceptives on use of sexual health
care services by adolescent girls.
Design, Setting, and Participants:**Girls younger than 18
years and seeking services at all 33 Planned Parenthood family planning
clinics in Wisconsin (n = 1118) were surveyed during the spring
of 1999. A response rate of 85% was achieved, yielding a sample
of 950 girls.
Main Outcome Measures:**Percentages of girls who reported
that they would stop using all sexual health care services, delay
testing or treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or other
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), or discontinue using specific
(but not all) services because of parental notification.
Results:**Fifty-nine percent (n = 556) indicated they
would stop using all sexual health care services, delay testing
or treatment for HIV or other STDs, or discontinue use of specific
(but not all) sexual health care services if their parents were
informed that they were seeking prescribed contraceptives. Eleven
percent indicated they would discontinue or delay STD tests or treatment,
even though the survey made it clear that mandatory parental notification
would occur only for prescribed contraceptives. Analyses comparing
girls of different ages and races and from urban vs rural clinics
showed that, although the 17-year-olds and African American girls
were significantly less likely to stop using sexual health care
services with mandatory parental notification, roughly half of the
17-year-olds (56%) and African American girls (49%) indicated that
they would stop using all sexual health care services, delay testing
or treatment for HIV or other STDs, or discontinue use of specific
(but not all) services with mandatory parental notification.
Conclusion:**Mandatory parental notification for prescribed
contraceptives would impede girls' use of sexual health care services,
potentially increasing teen pregnancies and the spread of STDs.
For a copy of the full text, please access from the JAMA
web site, (purchase the full text of a journal article for $9
(Pay Per View.) or contact your local library.
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Spouse Abuse in South Asian Marriages May Be High, Jeff
Lemberg, Women's E News, July 21, 2002.
Article Excerpt:
The abuse was so bad at times, Shirpa Vajeeb often didn't know when
one day ended and the next began. Life for the Indian immigrant had
become a prison, her punishment for marrying an abusive man she did
not know and moving with him to a country even less familiar.
For eight years Vajeeb was a prisoner of domestic violence, trapped
in a complex web of cultural expectations, familial duties and U.S.
immigration laws.
"If I did something wrong, if I make any mistake, he would
ground me," said Vajeeb, 29, who asked that her real name not
be used, out of fear for her safety and that of her 7-year-old daughter.
"It got worse after I had my child. He wouldn't let me talk
to friends; he would disconnect our long-distance service so I couldn't
talk to my family . . . And, yes, sometimes he would hit me."
"It took me several years to leave," she added. "I've
just always believed that once you're married, you stay married."
Vajeeb's story of verbal, mental and physical abuse by the man
her parents arranged for her to marry in the early 1990s may be
remarkable only because it is apparently so commonplace among the
rapidly growing numbers of South Asian women, both legal and undocumented,
living in the U.S.
In a study published in the April edition of the Journal of the
American Medical Women's Association, "Intimate Partner Violence
Against South Asian Women in Greater Boston," Dr. Anita Raj
of Boston University and Dr. Jay Silverman of Harvard University
found that 40 percent of the 160 South Asian women they surveyed
in communities throughout the Boston area in 1998 were victims of
"male-perpetrated intimate partner violence." Of those
women, 90 percent had been abused within the past year. Nearly 75
percent of the women reporting abuse were married, more than half
(51.6 percent) had children, and two-thirds of those who reported
physical abuse also reported sexual abuse.
According to the study's findings, few women sought aid from social
service organizations and many held self-blaming attitudes. Only
11 percent of those who suffered or continue to suffer from domestic
abuse pursued some form of counseling and 16 percent said they sometimes
deserve to be abused by their male partners.
"We believe it's an issue in every community," said
Raj, 31, whose study focused largely on immigrant women from India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. "But I think it's
always a surprise to see how pervasive it is." ...
For a copy of the complete article, visit the Women's
E News web site. For a copy of the original study, visit the
Journal of
the American Medical Women's Association. (Access to is $16
to one online issue of the journal and $20 for one print issue.)
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Does Divorce Make People Happy? Findings from a Study of Unhappy
Marriages, Institute for American Values, July 11, 2002.
Call it the "divorce assumption." Most people assume that a person
stuck in a bad marriage has two choices: stay married and miserable
or get a divorce and become happier.1 But now come the findings from
the first scholarly study ever to test that assumption, and these
findings challenge conventional wisdom. Conducted by a team of leading
family scholars headed by University of Chicago sociologist Linda
Waite, the study found no evidence that unhappily married adults who
divorced were typically any happier than unhappily married people
who stayed married.*
Even more dramatically, the researchers also found that two-thirds
of unhappily married spouses who stayed married reported that their
marriages were happy five years later. In addition, the most unhappy
marriages reported the most dramatic turnarounds: among those who
rated their marriages as very unhappy, almost eight out of 10 who
avoided divorce were happily married five years later.2
The research team used data collected by the National Survey of
Family and Households, a nationally representative survey that extensively
measures personal and marital happiness. Out of 5,232 married adults
interviewed in the late Eighties, 645 reported being unhappily married.*
Five years later, these same adults were interviewed again. Some
had divorced or separated and some had stayed married.**
The study found that on average unhappily married adults who divorced
were no happier than unhappily married adults who stayed married
when rated on any of 12 separate measures of psychological well-being.
Divorce did not typically reduce symptoms of depression, raise self-esteem,
or increase a sense of mastery. This was true even after controlling
for race, age, gender, and income. Even unhappy spouses who had
divorced and remarried were no happier on average than those who
stayed married. "Staying married is not just for the childrens'
sake. Some divorce is necessary, but results like these suggest
the benefits of divorce have been oversold," says Linda J. Waite.
Why doesn't divorce typically make adults happier? The authors
of the study suggest that while eliminating some stresses and sources
of potential harm, divorce may create others as well. The decision
to divorce sets in motion a large number of processes and events
over which an individual has little control that are likely to deeply
affect his or her emotional well-being. These include the response
of one's spouse to divorce; the reactions of children; potential
disappointments and aggravation in custody, child support, and visitation
orders; new financial or health stresses for one or both parents;
and new relationships or marriages.
The team of family experts that conducted the study included Linda
J. Waite, Lucy Flower Professor of Sociology at the University of
Chicago and coauthor of The Case for Marriage; Don Browning, Professor
Emeritus of the University of Chicago Divinity School; William J.
Doherty, Professor of Family Social Science and Director of the
Marriage and Family Therapy program at the University of Minnesota;
Maggie Gallagher, affiliate scholar at the Institute for American
Values and coauthor of The Case for Marriage; Ye Luo, a research
associate at the Sloan Center on Parents, Children and Work at the
University of Chicago; and Scott Stanley, Co-Director of the Center
for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver.
For a copy of the complete Press Release and to order the complete
report for $7.00, visit the IAV
web site.
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Policies That Improve Family Income Matter for Children, Improving
Children's Economic Security: Research Findings About Increasing
Family Income Through Employment Series, Policy Brief #1, Nancy
K. Cauthen, National Center for Children in Poverty, August 2002.
Report Excerpt:
With an unparalleled focus on employment, the 1996 federal welfare
reforms changed the nature of cash assistance programs for low-income
families. By the end of the decade, welfare caseloads had reached
their lowest level since 1969. Prior to these changes, employment
rates among single mothers had begun to rise, and the trend continued
throughout the 1990s. At the same time, child poverty declined steadily,
reaching its lowest level since 1979, and the percent of low-income
children living in families with at least one working parent increased.
Although researchers disagree about the precise causes of these
trends, the trends themselves have focused new attention on low-income
families in the work force. Observers across the political spectrum
have recognized that low-wage employment—even if full-time—may
be insufficient to meet a family’s basic needs. This recognition
has led to new thinking about the role of government policies in
helping low-income working families move toward economic security.
This policy brief series focuses on state policy options that have
the potential to improve children’s economic security by increasing
family income. More specifically, the series examines policies that
seek to increase family income by encouraging, supporting, and rewarding
work. These include:
• Earned income tax credits
• Financial work incentive programs
• Minimum wage standards
• Unemployment insurance
• Child care subsidies
• Housing assistance
• Public health insurance
• Food stamps
The purpose of this series is to synthesize what is known from
research about the effectiveness of each of these policies in increasing
parental employment —either by increasing incentives to work
or decreasing work disincentives—and increasing family income.
Although income is only one component of family economic security,
it is arguably the most basic. And research shows that income has
critical implications for children’s development.
The series seeks to identify promising policy options for state-level
policymakers and those who seek to influence them.1 Although some
of the research examined focuses on federal policies—such as
the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and federal minimum
wage standards—the findings have implications for state policies
as well.
This introductory brief sets the stage for research syntheses on
each of the eight policies listed above. The first section discusses
how income fits into a broader concept of family economic security.
It also addresses the role that public policies can play in helping
families to achieve economic security. The second section summarizes
research on the effects of family income on children’s development.
This body of research strongly suggests that helping families to
improve their incomes will benefit children.
For a copy of the complete brief in PDF format, visit the NCCP
web site.
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Earned Income Tax Credits, Improving Children's Economic
Security: Research Findings About Increasing Family Income Through
Employment Series, Policy Brief #2, Nancy K. Cauthen, National
Center for Children in Poverty, August, 2002.
Report Excerpt:
This policy brief is the second in a series that synthesizes research
findings about public policies that have the potential to improve
childrenis economic security. More specifically, the series provides
research findings about the ability of each of eight policies to increase
family income by encouraging, supporting, and rewarding parental employment.
Policies examined in the series include:
i Earned income tax credits
i Financial work incentives
i Minimum wage standards
i Unemployment insurance
i Child care subsidies
i Housing assistance
i Public health insurance
i Food stamps.
Why Policies that Improve Family Income Matter for Children
A large and expanding body of research documents the associations
between iincome povertyi and a wide-ranging set of negative child
development outcomes. Poverty can impede childrenis cognitive development
and their ability to learn. It can contribute to behavioral, social,
and emotional problems. And poverty can contribute to poor health
among children as well. Research also indicates that the strength
of the effects of poverty on childrenis health and development depends
in part on the timing, duration, and intensity of poverty in childhood.
The risks posed by poverty appear to be greatest among children
who experience poverty when they are young and among children who
experience persistent and deep poverty.
Recent experimental findings offer the strongest evidence to date
that raising the incomes of low-income families can positively affect
child development, especially for younger children. Studies of experimental
welfare programs that increase family income through employment
and earnings supplements have shown positive effects on children.
The most consistent finding is improvement in school achievement
among elementary school-age children. Although the effects on childrenis
behavior and childrenis health are not uniform across experimental
programs that increase family income, observed effects have been
either positive or neutral. In contrast, experimental welfare programs
that increase employment but not income have shown few effects on
children, and observed effects tend to be mixed (i.e., not uniformly
positive or negative). Moreover, findings from welfare- to-work
experiments show that when programs reduce income, outcomes for
children are sometimes, although not always, negative.
For a copy of the complete brief in PDF format, visit the NCCP
web site.
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Promoting the Emotional Well-Being of Children and Families–
Policy Paper #3, Ready to Enter: What Research Tells Policymakers
About Strategies to Promote Social and Emotional School Readiness
Among Three- and Four-Year-Old Children, C. Cybele Raver and
Jane Knitzer, National Center for Children in Poverty, July 2002.
This policy paper focuses on what emerging research tells policymakers
about why it is so important to intervene to help young children at
risk for poor social, emotional, and behavioral development and what
kinds of research-based interventions seem most effective. It addresses
the relationship between early academic learning and emotional development;
the prevalence of emotional problems in preschool-aged young children
and young children who are exposed to multiple family and environmental
risk factors; and the emerging but still limited research on the efficacy
of preventive and early interventions explicitly targeted to address
the social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties of young children,
particularly in the context of early care and education settings.
For a copy of the complete paper in PDF format, visit the NCCP
web site.
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Secondary Sexual Characteristics in Boys: Estimates From the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, 1988-1994,
Herman-Giddens, Marcia E. ; Wang, Lily; and Koch, Gary, Archives
of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 155(9):1022-1028, September
2001.
Publisher Abstract:
Background: Descriptive data on pubertal stages for a representative
population of racially and ethnically diverse boys in the United States
have not been published to our knowledge.
Objective: To determine at what ages boys in the United States
reach each of the 5 sexual maturity stages for genital and pubic hair
growth.
Design and Setting: Cross-sectional survey from the National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III), 1988-1994.
Participants: A population-based sample of 2114 boys aged 8
to 19 years representing 16 575 753 boys according to NHANES III sampling
strategies. The sample included white, African American, and Mexican
American boys.
Main Outcome Measures: Sexual maturity stages for genital maturation
and pubic hair growth.
Results: The median (equivalent mean) ages at stage 2 for pubic
hair development of white, African American, and Mexican American
boys were 12.0 (95% confidence interval [CI], 11.7-12.3), 11.2 (95%
CI, 10.9-11.4), and 12.3 (95% CI, 12.1-12.6) years, respectively,
and at stage 2 for genital growth were 10.1 (95% CI, 9.6-10.6), 9.5
(95% CI, 8.9-10.0), and 10.4 (95% CI, 9.6-11.1) years, respectively.
All 3 groups were significantly taller and heavier than boys in previous
NHANES reports and showed earlier genital maturation and pubic hair
growth than previous studies based on Tanner staging. Statistically
significant differences among the 3 racial/ethnic groups were found
in the median ages of onset of pubic hair growth and genital development
at stage 5 with and without controlling for height and weight, indicating
an earlier age of attainment for the African American boys.
Conclusions: The median (mean) ages at the onset of genital and
pubic hair growth were younger than in past studies. Additional studies
are required to further evaluate these findings and to explore the
public health implications.
For a copy of the complete article visit the American
Medical Association web site (articles are $9.00), or contact
your local library.
New Citations from NCOFF's
FatherLit Database
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