Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mar 1, 2022
Objective:Ethnic-racial minority children in the United States are more likely to experience fath... more Objective:Ethnic-racial minority children in the United States are more likely to experience father loss to incarceration than White children, and limited research has examined the health implications of these ethnic-racial disparities. Telomere length is a biomarker of chronic stress that is predictive of adverse health outcomes. We examined whether paternal incarceration predicted telomere length shortening among youth from childhood to adolescence, whether maternal depression mediated the link, and whether ethnicity-race moderated our results.Method:Research participants were 2,395 families in the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a national and longitudinal cohort study of primarily low-income families from 20 large cities in the United States. Key constructs were measured when children were on average ages 9 (2007–2010) and 15 (2014–2017).Results:Children who experienced paternal incarceration exhibited shorter telomere lengths between ages 9 and 15, and changes in maternal depression mediated our finding. Specifically, mothers who experienced a partner’s incarceration were more likely to have depression between children’s ages 9 and 15. In turn, increases in maternal depression between children’s ages 9 and 15 predicted more accelerated telomere length shortening among children during this period. Paternal incarceration was more prevalent and frequent for ethnic-racial minority youth than for White youth.Conclusion:Paternal incarceration is associated with a biomarker of chronic stress among children in low-income families. Rates of paternal incarceration were more prevalent and frequent among Black American and multi-ethnic-racial families than among White Americans. As a result, the criminal justice system’s mass incarceration crisis is likely shaping intergenerational ethnic-racial health disparities.
This article develops a model that relates decadal changes in neighborhood poverty rates to metro... more This article develops a model that relates decadal changes in neighborhood poverty rates to metropolitan‐wide economic changes and the neighborhood's demographic profile, predetermined poverty rate, and locational characteristics. The model is estimated for the 1980–1990 period using metropolitan census tracts as proxies for neighborhoods. This national sample of tracts is stratified into predominantly white, African‐American, Hispanic, and mixed subsamples.Results indicate
Using previously unavailable data of fathers' residence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellb... more Using previously unavailable data of fathers' residence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and multiple imputation of missing fathers to select unemployment rates in fathers' labor markets, our study estimates the reduced-form association between aggregate unemployment and child support compliance. The period of analysis is from 1998 to 2010 which includes the great recession. Previous research used unemployment rates in mothers' location to represent relevant labor market conditions finding no significant results. Using a fixed effects panel logit model, we found that the association between aggregate unemployment and child support compliance is negative, but sensitive to the unemployment measure. This association is always larger in magnitude and significance when using the unemployment rate at fathers' rather than at mothers' location. A 5 percentage-point increase in unemployment, which captures the effect of the great recession, is associated with a 30-32 percentage-point decrease in the probability of complying with child support obligations. The association of the unemployment rate at mothers' location is weaker and not statistically significant. Thus, using a measure of unemployment at mothers' and not at fathers' labor market provides inaccurate estimates of the effect of unemployment on compliance that reflect attenuation bias and measurement error.
Efforts to capture before and after visitation trajectories of fathers in romantic Visiting Paren... more Efforts to capture before and after visitation trajectories of fathers in romantic Visiting Parent Unions (VPUs) are sensitive to sample composition, estimator, visitation measure and theoretical perspective. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine extensive, intensive and sleepover margins of nonresident father involvement to reconcile theoretical and empirical differences in previous studies. We use generalized estimating equations (GEE) to address the non-normal distribution of visitation measures. At the extensive and the intensive margin we find VPU visitation levels before and after breakups are similar to and sometimes higher than ex-cohabiter levels. VPU visitation levels are always lower at the sleepover margin relative to ex-cohabiters. Our results challenge previous studies linking race and VPU status, confirm most previous perturbation results at extensive and intensive margins, and contribute a new result at the sleepover margin. We find the Baby Father Hypothesis to be relevant and fruitful for subsequent research. Until 2007 the Current Population Survey emulated the U.S. Census and counted children of cohabiting couples as children raised by a single parent (Kennedy & Fitch, 2012; Kreider, 2008). Since then the CPS asks co-resident adults whether they are cohabiting partners and if children are present it asks both adults whether they are the biological parent (Kennedy & Fitch, 2012). Although helpful for more accurate estimates of children living with cohabiting parents, the survey misses cases where children have romantically involved parents who maintain separate residences, termed part-time or visiting parents (Knab & McLanahan, 2006). The Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCWS) does identify children born to visiting parents (Osborne & Mclanahan, 2007) (hereafter Visiting Parent Unions [VPUs]) and monitors changes in their status over nine years. The FFCWS data indicate that thirty percent of urban children are born within visiting parent unions (Osborne, 2005) and in 2000 13% of all births nationally were to VPUs (authors' calculations based on FFCWS national weights). In comparative perspective Kiernan et al. (2006) estimate that 18% of births in the United Kingdom are to visiting parent unions and the Jamaican national census reports that 31% of births there are to VPUs (Gooden, 2009). Given their relationship with the mother it is not surprising that romantically involved fathers visit their nonresident children at least a few times a week (Cabrera, Ryan, Mitchell,
View related articles View Crossmark data book provides a strong context for the reader to unders... more View related articles View Crossmark data book provides a strong context for the reader to understand the report's major impact on policy-making and on the national dialogue concerning race.
Using a sample of 735 two-parent families drawn from the FFCWS, we examined the direct and indire... more Using a sample of 735 two-parent families drawn from the FFCWS, we examined the direct and indirect associations between fathers’ permanent earnings during the early childhood and children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes at ages 5 and 9 through parental investments, family processes, and children’s skills at age 3. We found that fathers’ earnings in the early years were significantly related to children’s language skills at age 5 but not to aggressive behavior or to any outcomes at age 9. The association between earnings and language skills at age 5 and math and reading at age 9 were mediated by cognitively stimulating materials and children’s language skills at age 5. The effect sizes are small and the mediating effects of fathers’ earnings on reading and math are only for children of the highest earning fathers. For two-parent families, policies to increase fathers’ earnings alone will have little impact on children’s development.
Background: High income is a protective factor against suicidality for children, youth, and adult... more Background: High income is a protective factor against suicidality for children, youth, and adults, however, recent research has documented weaker health effects of high income for Black than White individuals, a pattern also called marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs). Objectives: In this study, we tested racial variation in the association between high income and suicidality in a national sample of 9-10-year-old Black and White American children. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which included 7298 White or Black children between the ages of 9 and 10. Of all the participants, 5652 were White and 1646 were Black. The predictor variable was family income, treated as a continuous measure. Race was the moderator. The outcome variable was suicidality, treated as a dummy variable, reflecting any positive suicidal thoughts or behaviors endorsed over the lifecourse. Covariates included sex, age, family...
The hypothesis that marriage increases men's earnings has contributed to legislative support for ... more The hypothesis that marriage increases men's earnings has contributed to legislative support for the Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI). However, previous studies of this phenomenon have not controlled for many relevant characteristics that select men into marriage, nor have they focused on low-income, unmarried fathers-the population targeted by HMI. We use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which measures many previously unobserved confounders, to test for a relationship between marriage and earnings. We use a variety of analytic strategies to control for selection (including differencing and propensity scores) and find no evidence of an effect of transitions to marriage on the earnings of unmarried fathers that differs from zero, either for the full sample or subsamples defined by race-ethnic category and baseline cohabitation status.
The term "underclass" is often used to describe concentrations of inner-city Blacks in urban neig... more The term "underclass" is often used to describe concentrations of inner-city Blacks in urban neighborhoods where social problems are common, mostly in large metropolitan areas. The most widely used empirical measurements of underclass are the spatial concentrations of poverty and social problems. Characterizing the underclass as almost entirely a minority problem may result from focusing on large metropolitan areas. There is uncertainty about the actual racial and ethnic compositions of the underclass. Analyzing differences in the spatial concentrations of poverty and social problems in small, middle-sized, and large metropolitan areas, and separating Hispan±e: Americans, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites reveals the composition of the underclass more accurately. Data are analyzed from the Urban Institute Underclass Data Base, which contains tabulations from over 42,000 tracts from the 1980 census and ovEr 34,000 in the 1970 census. As the size of the metropolitan area falls, the Black share of population in underclass neighborhoods falls, but the White and Hispanic American shares rise. If one looks beyond Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, underclass neighborhoods are most likely to be populated by Blacks, then Whites, and then Hispanic Americans. By ignoring small and middle-sized metropolitan areas, scholars and journalists have ignored the White underclass. Statistical data are provided in 12 tables. There are 25 references. (SLD)
Using a sample of 692 children in mother-headed families drawn from the FFCWS, we examined the di... more Using a sample of 692 children in mother-headed families drawn from the FFCWS, we examined the direct and indirect associations between nonresident fathers’ financial support during early childhood and children’s cognitive, behavioral, and achievement outcomes at ages 5 and 9 through parental investments, family processes, and children’s skills at age 3. We found significant direct effects of fathers’ financial support: measured continuously on children’s math and reading scores at age 9 and above the median on reading achievement at age 9. Financial support well-above the median was also significantly associated with math achievement at age 9 and both aggressive behavior and receptive vocabulary at age 5. Children’s language skills mediated the associations between financial support, measured continuously and provided through a formal order/agreement and math and reading achievement at age 9 and the association between financial support above the median and reading achi...
This testimony is based on the collective knowledge of its signers who are individual service pro... more This testimony is based on the collective knowledge of its signers who are individual service providers and researchers who have worked independently for decades on issues relevant to low-income fathers and their families. More recently, we have worked together as members of the Strengthening Fragile Families Initiative (SFFI), a multi-year initiative of the Ford Foundation. Our testimony today reflects our own opinions. It does not in any way represent those of our respective organizations or the Initiative. SFFI was launched during the early 1990s, when welfare reform discussions were just beginning to take place. At that time, welfare reforms were focused on getting custodial parents to work and noncustodial parents to pay child support. The purpose of SFFI was to encourage research, policy development, and service delivery to move beyond this framework, with particular attention on unwed parents who are working together to raise their children, whom we refer to as fragile families. These families are at risk of being poor and in need of work supports, but our current income security system is not set up to serve these families. After many years of work in this area, we make the following recommendations to Congress regarding TANF reauthorization. Revise the Fourth Goal of TANF to Include Responsible Fatherhood. The Administration has recommended that Congress add "responsible fatherhood" to the fourth goal of TANF, which promotes the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. We agree wholeheartedly with this idea. States are already using TANF funds to encourage nonresident fathers to pay child support and become more actively involved in their children's lives by offering them employment services and relationship-building services. Adding responsible fatherhood to this goal would simply affirm what states are already doing and possibly encourage more to act.
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2004
edited by Obie Clayton, Ronald B. Mincy, and David Blankenhorn. New York: Russell Sage Foundation... more edited by Obie Clayton, Ronald B. Mincy, and David Blankenhorn. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003, 179 pp.The literature on African American families continues to expand with recent scholarship exploring specific areas of black family life. The various roles African American males play in family life is one of these growing areas. We may have now reached a point where new books and articles have to meet increasingly higher standards of depth and insight since they typically are no longer "the only piece available" on a given subject.I say this to preface this review of Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Strategies for Change, an edited volume from Russell Sage Foundation. The editors, Obie Clayton, Ronald Mincy, and David Blankenhorn, have garnered nine articles from a veritable "Who's who" of scholars writing on African American fatherhood. How much readers get from this volume will depend on their familiarity with the topic and their level of involvement in the fatherhood field.The editors state that the book is primarily concerned with the question "What is the role of black fathers in the lives of their children?" They also seek to stimulate a debate about the consequences of radical changes in family formation patterns, particularly among African Americans (e.g., high rates of children living in households without their fathers). The chapters are grouped into three parts entitled "Declines in marriage within African American families," "Marriage from an economic perspective," and "Contemporary issues of fatherhood."A potential strength of edited volumes is that they can present a broad range of topics from several perspectives. With skillful planning and coordination between authors, the result can provide readers with a good overview of various aspects of a given field or a particular corner of a larger discipline. This can be especially useful for students or new professionals who seek to gain an understanding of complex social phenomena like fatherhood.There are some excellent chapters in the book that bring valuable new insights into the challenges facing African American men seeking to build strong families. Reed (Chapter 7) is particularly successful in articulating the true impact of "fatherlessness," while placing it in the larger context of macro-social forces that shape many black men's choices and behaviors. This chapter also does a masterful job of illuminating how failures of the social-support networks to support low-income communities of color often contribute to the obstacles black fathers face.Horn (Chapter 8) explores the important question of whether programs promoting father involvement really work. By limiting its focus, the chapter does a good job providing the reader with clear examples of lessons that we have learned from several recent program evaluations. Morrison-Gonzalez (Chapter 6) also provides a detailed case study of how a private, nonprofit agency and a university collaborated to generate interest in fatherhood initiatives. The conclusion to this chapter seemed a bit abrupt, but the author's intention may have simply been to report on the collaboration and thereby suggest a possible direction for others to follow. …
Workforce 2000 (Johnston and Packer, 1987) a widely circulated study supported by the U.S. Depart... more Workforce 2000 (Johnston and Packer, 1987) a widely circulated study supported by the U.S. Department of Labor, was greeted with vastly different responses. Most Americans. Especially in the business community, bemoaned the substantial "skills mismatch" predicted by this study. By contrast, the black and Hispanic communities greeted the report with enthusiasm because the report suggested that America could no longer afford 10 waste its human resources. According to the report, thirty percent of the new jobs created by the year 2000 will require workers with a four year college degree. Further, blacks, Hispanics, and other "non-traditional” workers will represent eighty-five percent of the new workforce. Thus, the tragic human waste represented by growing mortality, joblessness, incarceration and drug abuse among young black males is a threat to not only the black community but also to American economic competitiveness. These conclusions seemed to provide the "sil...
Over 50% of the 1.5 million people in federal and state correctional facilities have children und... more Over 50% of the 1.5 million people in federal and state correctional facilities have children under age 18. Many of these incarcerated parents are fathers of color. Infrequent physical contact and engagement of fathers triggered by incarceration may present a great degree of disadvantage among their children. Therefore this study examined the literacy trajectory of African American boys whose fathers experience incarceration and to what extent does co-parenting between fathers and mothers intervene or moderate the effects of incarceration. The study analyzed five waves of the Fragile Families study, which provided measures of paternal incarceration and vocabulary of focal children in the study. The findings provided that paternal incarceration consistently had a negative effect on focal sons' educational outcomes across four waves of data. There was general agreement across fathers' and mothers' reports assessing the co-parenting relationship, in which fathers tended to assess the co-parenting relationships slightly stronger than did mothers. The study findings suggest that mothers and fathers co-parenting relationship did not have a sizable or significant direct influence on sons' educational outcomes across waves. However, the co-parenting construct did decrease the effect of incarceration on sons' outcomes. The study informs intervention policy and practice, which should promote enhanced co-parenting strategies that will minimize parental conflict and build parenting consensus and agreement during early and primary education engagement.
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mar 1, 2022
Objective:Ethnic-racial minority children in the United States are more likely to experience fath... more Objective:Ethnic-racial minority children in the United States are more likely to experience father loss to incarceration than White children, and limited research has examined the health implications of these ethnic-racial disparities. Telomere length is a biomarker of chronic stress that is predictive of adverse health outcomes. We examined whether paternal incarceration predicted telomere length shortening among youth from childhood to adolescence, whether maternal depression mediated the link, and whether ethnicity-race moderated our results.Method:Research participants were 2,395 families in the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a national and longitudinal cohort study of primarily low-income families from 20 large cities in the United States. Key constructs were measured when children were on average ages 9 (2007–2010) and 15 (2014–2017).Results:Children who experienced paternal incarceration exhibited shorter telomere lengths between ages 9 and 15, and changes in maternal depression mediated our finding. Specifically, mothers who experienced a partner’s incarceration were more likely to have depression between children’s ages 9 and 15. In turn, increases in maternal depression between children’s ages 9 and 15 predicted more accelerated telomere length shortening among children during this period. Paternal incarceration was more prevalent and frequent for ethnic-racial minority youth than for White youth.Conclusion:Paternal incarceration is associated with a biomarker of chronic stress among children in low-income families. Rates of paternal incarceration were more prevalent and frequent among Black American and multi-ethnic-racial families than among White Americans. As a result, the criminal justice system’s mass incarceration crisis is likely shaping intergenerational ethnic-racial health disparities.
This article develops a model that relates decadal changes in neighborhood poverty rates to metro... more This article develops a model that relates decadal changes in neighborhood poverty rates to metropolitan‐wide economic changes and the neighborhood's demographic profile, predetermined poverty rate, and locational characteristics. The model is estimated for the 1980–1990 period using metropolitan census tracts as proxies for neighborhoods. This national sample of tracts is stratified into predominantly white, African‐American, Hispanic, and mixed subsamples.Results indicate
Using previously unavailable data of fathers' residence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellb... more Using previously unavailable data of fathers' residence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and multiple imputation of missing fathers to select unemployment rates in fathers' labor markets, our study estimates the reduced-form association between aggregate unemployment and child support compliance. The period of analysis is from 1998 to 2010 which includes the great recession. Previous research used unemployment rates in mothers' location to represent relevant labor market conditions finding no significant results. Using a fixed effects panel logit model, we found that the association between aggregate unemployment and child support compliance is negative, but sensitive to the unemployment measure. This association is always larger in magnitude and significance when using the unemployment rate at fathers' rather than at mothers' location. A 5 percentage-point increase in unemployment, which captures the effect of the great recession, is associated with a 30-32 percentage-point decrease in the probability of complying with child support obligations. The association of the unemployment rate at mothers' location is weaker and not statistically significant. Thus, using a measure of unemployment at mothers' and not at fathers' labor market provides inaccurate estimates of the effect of unemployment on compliance that reflect attenuation bias and measurement error.
Efforts to capture before and after visitation trajectories of fathers in romantic Visiting Paren... more Efforts to capture before and after visitation trajectories of fathers in romantic Visiting Parent Unions (VPUs) are sensitive to sample composition, estimator, visitation measure and theoretical perspective. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine extensive, intensive and sleepover margins of nonresident father involvement to reconcile theoretical and empirical differences in previous studies. We use generalized estimating equations (GEE) to address the non-normal distribution of visitation measures. At the extensive and the intensive margin we find VPU visitation levels before and after breakups are similar to and sometimes higher than ex-cohabiter levels. VPU visitation levels are always lower at the sleepover margin relative to ex-cohabiters. Our results challenge previous studies linking race and VPU status, confirm most previous perturbation results at extensive and intensive margins, and contribute a new result at the sleepover margin. We find the Baby Father Hypothesis to be relevant and fruitful for subsequent research. Until 2007 the Current Population Survey emulated the U.S. Census and counted children of cohabiting couples as children raised by a single parent (Kennedy & Fitch, 2012; Kreider, 2008). Since then the CPS asks co-resident adults whether they are cohabiting partners and if children are present it asks both adults whether they are the biological parent (Kennedy & Fitch, 2012). Although helpful for more accurate estimates of children living with cohabiting parents, the survey misses cases where children have romantically involved parents who maintain separate residences, termed part-time or visiting parents (Knab & McLanahan, 2006). The Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCWS) does identify children born to visiting parents (Osborne & Mclanahan, 2007) (hereafter Visiting Parent Unions [VPUs]) and monitors changes in their status over nine years. The FFCWS data indicate that thirty percent of urban children are born within visiting parent unions (Osborne, 2005) and in 2000 13% of all births nationally were to VPUs (authors' calculations based on FFCWS national weights). In comparative perspective Kiernan et al. (2006) estimate that 18% of births in the United Kingdom are to visiting parent unions and the Jamaican national census reports that 31% of births there are to VPUs (Gooden, 2009). Given their relationship with the mother it is not surprising that romantically involved fathers visit their nonresident children at least a few times a week (Cabrera, Ryan, Mitchell,
View related articles View Crossmark data book provides a strong context for the reader to unders... more View related articles View Crossmark data book provides a strong context for the reader to understand the report's major impact on policy-making and on the national dialogue concerning race.
Using a sample of 735 two-parent families drawn from the FFCWS, we examined the direct and indire... more Using a sample of 735 two-parent families drawn from the FFCWS, we examined the direct and indirect associations between fathers’ permanent earnings during the early childhood and children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes at ages 5 and 9 through parental investments, family processes, and children’s skills at age 3. We found that fathers’ earnings in the early years were significantly related to children’s language skills at age 5 but not to aggressive behavior or to any outcomes at age 9. The association between earnings and language skills at age 5 and math and reading at age 9 were mediated by cognitively stimulating materials and children’s language skills at age 5. The effect sizes are small and the mediating effects of fathers’ earnings on reading and math are only for children of the highest earning fathers. For two-parent families, policies to increase fathers’ earnings alone will have little impact on children’s development.
Background: High income is a protective factor against suicidality for children, youth, and adult... more Background: High income is a protective factor against suicidality for children, youth, and adults, however, recent research has documented weaker health effects of high income for Black than White individuals, a pattern also called marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs). Objectives: In this study, we tested racial variation in the association between high income and suicidality in a national sample of 9-10-year-old Black and White American children. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which included 7298 White or Black children between the ages of 9 and 10. Of all the participants, 5652 were White and 1646 were Black. The predictor variable was family income, treated as a continuous measure. Race was the moderator. The outcome variable was suicidality, treated as a dummy variable, reflecting any positive suicidal thoughts or behaviors endorsed over the lifecourse. Covariates included sex, age, family...
The hypothesis that marriage increases men's earnings has contributed to legislative support for ... more The hypothesis that marriage increases men's earnings has contributed to legislative support for the Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI). However, previous studies of this phenomenon have not controlled for many relevant characteristics that select men into marriage, nor have they focused on low-income, unmarried fathers-the population targeted by HMI. We use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which measures many previously unobserved confounders, to test for a relationship between marriage and earnings. We use a variety of analytic strategies to control for selection (including differencing and propensity scores) and find no evidence of an effect of transitions to marriage on the earnings of unmarried fathers that differs from zero, either for the full sample or subsamples defined by race-ethnic category and baseline cohabitation status.
The term "underclass" is often used to describe concentrations of inner-city Blacks in urban neig... more The term "underclass" is often used to describe concentrations of inner-city Blacks in urban neighborhoods where social problems are common, mostly in large metropolitan areas. The most widely used empirical measurements of underclass are the spatial concentrations of poverty and social problems. Characterizing the underclass as almost entirely a minority problem may result from focusing on large metropolitan areas. There is uncertainty about the actual racial and ethnic compositions of the underclass. Analyzing differences in the spatial concentrations of poverty and social problems in small, middle-sized, and large metropolitan areas, and separating Hispan±e: Americans, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites reveals the composition of the underclass more accurately. Data are analyzed from the Urban Institute Underclass Data Base, which contains tabulations from over 42,000 tracts from the 1980 census and ovEr 34,000 in the 1970 census. As the size of the metropolitan area falls, the Black share of population in underclass neighborhoods falls, but the White and Hispanic American shares rise. If one looks beyond Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, underclass neighborhoods are most likely to be populated by Blacks, then Whites, and then Hispanic Americans. By ignoring small and middle-sized metropolitan areas, scholars and journalists have ignored the White underclass. Statistical data are provided in 12 tables. There are 25 references. (SLD)
Using a sample of 692 children in mother-headed families drawn from the FFCWS, we examined the di... more Using a sample of 692 children in mother-headed families drawn from the FFCWS, we examined the direct and indirect associations between nonresident fathers’ financial support during early childhood and children’s cognitive, behavioral, and achievement outcomes at ages 5 and 9 through parental investments, family processes, and children’s skills at age 3. We found significant direct effects of fathers’ financial support: measured continuously on children’s math and reading scores at age 9 and above the median on reading achievement at age 9. Financial support well-above the median was also significantly associated with math achievement at age 9 and both aggressive behavior and receptive vocabulary at age 5. Children’s language skills mediated the associations between financial support, measured continuously and provided through a formal order/agreement and math and reading achievement at age 9 and the association between financial support above the median and reading achi...
This testimony is based on the collective knowledge of its signers who are individual service pro... more This testimony is based on the collective knowledge of its signers who are individual service providers and researchers who have worked independently for decades on issues relevant to low-income fathers and their families. More recently, we have worked together as members of the Strengthening Fragile Families Initiative (SFFI), a multi-year initiative of the Ford Foundation. Our testimony today reflects our own opinions. It does not in any way represent those of our respective organizations or the Initiative. SFFI was launched during the early 1990s, when welfare reform discussions were just beginning to take place. At that time, welfare reforms were focused on getting custodial parents to work and noncustodial parents to pay child support. The purpose of SFFI was to encourage research, policy development, and service delivery to move beyond this framework, with particular attention on unwed parents who are working together to raise their children, whom we refer to as fragile families. These families are at risk of being poor and in need of work supports, but our current income security system is not set up to serve these families. After many years of work in this area, we make the following recommendations to Congress regarding TANF reauthorization. Revise the Fourth Goal of TANF to Include Responsible Fatherhood. The Administration has recommended that Congress add "responsible fatherhood" to the fourth goal of TANF, which promotes the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. We agree wholeheartedly with this idea. States are already using TANF funds to encourage nonresident fathers to pay child support and become more actively involved in their children's lives by offering them employment services and relationship-building services. Adding responsible fatherhood to this goal would simply affirm what states are already doing and possibly encourage more to act.
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2004
edited by Obie Clayton, Ronald B. Mincy, and David Blankenhorn. New York: Russell Sage Foundation... more edited by Obie Clayton, Ronald B. Mincy, and David Blankenhorn. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003, 179 pp.The literature on African American families continues to expand with recent scholarship exploring specific areas of black family life. The various roles African American males play in family life is one of these growing areas. We may have now reached a point where new books and articles have to meet increasingly higher standards of depth and insight since they typically are no longer "the only piece available" on a given subject.I say this to preface this review of Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Strategies for Change, an edited volume from Russell Sage Foundation. The editors, Obie Clayton, Ronald Mincy, and David Blankenhorn, have garnered nine articles from a veritable "Who's who" of scholars writing on African American fatherhood. How much readers get from this volume will depend on their familiarity with the topic and their level of involvement in the fatherhood field.The editors state that the book is primarily concerned with the question "What is the role of black fathers in the lives of their children?" They also seek to stimulate a debate about the consequences of radical changes in family formation patterns, particularly among African Americans (e.g., high rates of children living in households without their fathers). The chapters are grouped into three parts entitled "Declines in marriage within African American families," "Marriage from an economic perspective," and "Contemporary issues of fatherhood."A potential strength of edited volumes is that they can present a broad range of topics from several perspectives. With skillful planning and coordination between authors, the result can provide readers with a good overview of various aspects of a given field or a particular corner of a larger discipline. This can be especially useful for students or new professionals who seek to gain an understanding of complex social phenomena like fatherhood.There are some excellent chapters in the book that bring valuable new insights into the challenges facing African American men seeking to build strong families. Reed (Chapter 7) is particularly successful in articulating the true impact of "fatherlessness," while placing it in the larger context of macro-social forces that shape many black men's choices and behaviors. This chapter also does a masterful job of illuminating how failures of the social-support networks to support low-income communities of color often contribute to the obstacles black fathers face.Horn (Chapter 8) explores the important question of whether programs promoting father involvement really work. By limiting its focus, the chapter does a good job providing the reader with clear examples of lessons that we have learned from several recent program evaluations. Morrison-Gonzalez (Chapter 6) also provides a detailed case study of how a private, nonprofit agency and a university collaborated to generate interest in fatherhood initiatives. The conclusion to this chapter seemed a bit abrupt, but the author's intention may have simply been to report on the collaboration and thereby suggest a possible direction for others to follow. …
Workforce 2000 (Johnston and Packer, 1987) a widely circulated study supported by the U.S. Depart... more Workforce 2000 (Johnston and Packer, 1987) a widely circulated study supported by the U.S. Department of Labor, was greeted with vastly different responses. Most Americans. Especially in the business community, bemoaned the substantial "skills mismatch" predicted by this study. By contrast, the black and Hispanic communities greeted the report with enthusiasm because the report suggested that America could no longer afford 10 waste its human resources. According to the report, thirty percent of the new jobs created by the year 2000 will require workers with a four year college degree. Further, blacks, Hispanics, and other "non-traditional” workers will represent eighty-five percent of the new workforce. Thus, the tragic human waste represented by growing mortality, joblessness, incarceration and drug abuse among young black males is a threat to not only the black community but also to American economic competitiveness. These conclusions seemed to provide the "sil...
Over 50% of the 1.5 million people in federal and state correctional facilities have children und... more Over 50% of the 1.5 million people in federal and state correctional facilities have children under age 18. Many of these incarcerated parents are fathers of color. Infrequent physical contact and engagement of fathers triggered by incarceration may present a great degree of disadvantage among their children. Therefore this study examined the literacy trajectory of African American boys whose fathers experience incarceration and to what extent does co-parenting between fathers and mothers intervene or moderate the effects of incarceration. The study analyzed five waves of the Fragile Families study, which provided measures of paternal incarceration and vocabulary of focal children in the study. The findings provided that paternal incarceration consistently had a negative effect on focal sons' educational outcomes across four waves of data. There was general agreement across fathers' and mothers' reports assessing the co-parenting relationship, in which fathers tended to assess the co-parenting relationships slightly stronger than did mothers. The study findings suggest that mothers and fathers co-parenting relationship did not have a sizable or significant direct influence on sons' educational outcomes across waves. However, the co-parenting construct did decrease the effect of incarceration on sons' outcomes. The study informs intervention policy and practice, which should promote enhanced co-parenting strategies that will minimize parental conflict and build parenting consensus and agreement during early and primary education engagement.
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Papers by Ronald Mincy