Responsible Fatherhood
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Responsible Fatherhood is a concept that describes involved parenting by noncustodial fathers and represents the antithesis of the concept of the stereotyped "deadbeat dad". Today, the majority of American children will spend some part of their childhood in a single parent household – typically without a father. Over the past three decades nonprofit organizations, foundations, activists, government agencies, and policymakers have grown increasingly interested in finding ways to protect the well-being of children in single families and have developed programs for noncustodial fathers across the nation. The goals of responsible fatherhood initiatives include increasing child support collections, furthering understanding of the important roles fathers can play, and increasing fathers’ participation in the lives of their children.
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[edit] The rise of single-parent homes
The number of children living in single-parent households has increased dramatically since the 1960s. Approximately 9% of children under 18 lived with a single parent in 1960; by 2000 this rate increased to nearly 27% [1]. The largest growth occurred between 1970 and 1985, when the growth of single-mother families leveled off [2]. Today, most American children will spend part of their childhood in a single-parent household [3].
This shift is attributed to a variety of widely recognized social changes that occurred in American society in the 1960s and 1970s: changing sexual mores increased the prevalence of extramarital sexual activity and decreased the stigma surrounding out-of-wedlock births; American attitudes about marriage and divorce changed; and women made economic gains that increased their independence and ability to leave unhappy marriages.
While the social science community of the 1960s and 1970s initially regarded single-mother households as “just another alternative family form,” evidence began to surface in the late 1970s demonstrating that children raised in households where the father was absent were disadvantaged relative to other children [4].
[edit] The benefits of father involvement
The involvement of caring, responsible fathers offers many positive benefits for children. Typically, children who grow up with an involved father do better in school, are less likely to drop out, have higher self-esteem, experience fewer emotional and behavioral problems, are less likely to engage in criminal behavior, and are less likely to engage in high risk behaviors such as drug use and early sexual activity [5]. Mothers who receive financial support from their children’s fathers during pregnancy are less likely to have low birth weight babies – a risk factor that can contribute to lifelong health problems [6]. Despite economic gains for women, children with disengaged fathers are five times more likely to live in poverty [7].
There is some evidence that there are gender-based responses to father absence as well. Daughters of uninvolved fathers are more likely to begin childbearing at a younger age and to bear children outside of marriage [8]. Some researchers have suggested that father absence has stronger negative psychological effects on boys than girls [9].
[edit] Responsible fatherhood initiatives
Not every adult is physically and mentally capable of serving as a parent. Some men have insurmountable personal barriers – violent behavior, mental health disorders, or severe substance abuse problems – that greatly reduce the likelihood they will become responsible, involved fathers.
For relatively normal men who have had children with a clever and abusive woman, the responsible father's best choice, despite his normalicy, may be to walk away from the bad situation if it seems doomed to only get worse. Various abuses by the woman, such as false accusation of incest, false reports that the children are injured or dead, and the constant strain of living with someone whom you know can turn on you at any moment can lead to exceptional but criminal behavior on the man's part.
Fortunately, this is not the case for most adults. Most fathers want to be involved in their children’s lives and support their children’s physical, mental, and financial needs. Nevertheless, many men face personal barriers such as poverty, unemployment, and limited education. Responsible fatherhood initiatives can help these men overcome their obstacles and achieve their parenting goals.
Social scientists, policymakers, and fathers’ rights activists started developing programs to counter the negative effects of father absence in the late 1970s. Examples include:
Teen Fathers Collaboration (1983-1985) Eight-site national demonstration designed to help teen fathers support their children’s social, emotional, and financial wellbeing. Programming included parenting classes, vocational training, job placement, tutoring, counseling, and family planning services.
Young Unwed Fathers Pilot Project (1991-1993) Six-site national demonstration. This project explored the effects of introducing responsible fatherhood programming into workforce programs. All sites provided education and employment assistance, case management, and fatherhood programming. Some sites also provided legal services.
Parents’ Fair Share (1991-2001) Seven-site national demonstration. Goals included increasing the employment and earnings of low-income noncustodial parents of children receiving welfare, increasing child support payments, and supporting/improving parenting behavior. Services included employment and training, flexible child support enforcement, mediation, and peer support.
Partners for Fragile Families (1996-Present) Ten-site national demonstration designed to help noncustodial fathers assume legal, financial and emotional responsibility for their children, increase the number of services available through community-based organizations, and aid in the development of family-friendly policies, programs and cooperative agreements between service providers and public agencies. Services provided include job readiness, job placement, counseling, and parenting skills.
Derived from Supporting Responsible Fatherhood in Austin, Texas: An Analysis of Current Programs and Opportunities by Sarah Looney (2004). Used with author’s permission.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- [1] Wendy Sigle-Rushton and Sara McLanahan, Father Absence and Child Well-being: A Critical Review (October 2002), p. 2. Online. Available: http://www-cpr.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan-smeedingconference/mclanahan-siglerushton.pdf. Accessed: June 7, 2004.
- [2] Ibid., pp. 2-3.
- [3] Paul Legler, Low-Income Fathers and Child Support: Starting Off on the Right Track (Policy Studies, Inc., 2003), p. 1. Online. Available: http://www.aecf.org/publications/data/right_track.pdf. Accessed: June 7, 2004.
- [4] Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, “Dan Quayle Was Right,” Atlantic Monthly vol. 271, no. 4 (April 1993); Sigle-Rushton and McLanahan, Low-Income Fathers and Child Support, pp. 1-2.
- [5] Baron, Juliane and Kathleen Sylvester. Expanding the Goals of ‘Responsible Fatherhood’ Policy: Voices from the Field in Four Cities. Social Policy Action Network, December 2002, p. 5; Sigle-Rushton and McLanahan, Father Absence, pp. 7-13.
- [6] Baron and Sylvester, Expanding the Goals, p. 5; Pouncy, Hillard and Jeffery Marvin Johnson. “Developing Creative Ways to Address the Needs of Fathers and Fragile Families: A View from the Field,” Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, vol. 4, (1998), p. 10.
- [7] Baron and Sylvester, Expanding the Goals, p. 4.
- [8] Sigle-Rushton and McLanahan, Father Absence, p. 11; Angela Boyd, Fatherhood Fact Sheet (Social Policy Action Network, October 2003). Online. Available: http://www.span-online.org/father_fact_sheet.pdf. Accessed: June 5, 2004.
- [9] Sigle-Rushton and McLanahan, Father Absence, p. 10.
