The Father Absence Crisis [Infographic]

Research shows when a child grows up in a father-absent home, he or she is...

Posted by Melissa Steward from the National Fatherhood Initiative

The good news is, we can all help. How? By focusing on creating generations of responsible, involved fathers. Whether you are with an organization that serves fathers and families, or you are a father yourself, it's important to carry the message of the value of fathers to our nation.
To help you share this message, we created a simple yet powerful infographic outlining the father absence crisis in America, and how it's affecting our children.
Won't you take this to heart and help promote responsible fatherhood? The children of our future will thank you.

 (You can find even more data and statistics here in Father Facts 7.)

Research shows when a child grows up in a father-absent home, he or she is...

• 1) Four Times More Likely to Live in Poverty: Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• 2) More Likely to Suffer Emotional and Behavioral Problems: Children of single mothers show higher levels of aggressive behavior than children born to married mothers. (Journal of Marriage and Family)
• 3) Two Times Greater Risk of Infant Mortality: Infant mortality rates are nearly two times higher for infants of unmarried mothers than for married mothers. (National Center for Health Statistics)
• 4) More Likely to go to Prison: One in five prison inmates had a father in prison. (Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs)
• 5) More Likely to Commit Crime: Study of juvenile offenders indicated that family structure significantly predicts delinquency. (Journal of Youth and Adolescence)
• 6) Seven Times More Likely to Become Pregnant as a Teen: Teens without fathers are twice as likely to be involved in early sexual activity and seven times more likely to get pregnant as an adolescent. (Child Development Journal)
• 7) More Likely to Face Abuse and Neglect: Compared to children living with married biological parents, those whose single parent had a live-in partner had more than 8 times the rate of maltreatment overall, over 10 times the rate of abuse and more than 6 times the rate of neglect. (Child's Bureau)

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Things I Wish He Knew

Our Letters of Truth: Fathers to Sons & Sons to Fathers

by J. Wright Middleton (Author), Daniel Middleton (Author), Keenon Mann (Contributor), Marquan Newman (Contributor), PerduInk . (Contributor), Herb Middleton (Contributor), Donte Skinner (Contributor), Josh Minor(Contributor), Gregory Jones (Contributor), Akin - (Contributor), Meqai Herder (Contributor), Marc Antoine (Contributor), Kelvin Lesene Jr (Contributor)

The bond between a father and son is very important and for many reasons that bond or lack thereof can be the greatest thing in life or the most devastating. "Things I Wish He Knew" Our Letters of Truth From A Male Perspective is a compilation book of letters written from fathers to their sons & vice versa. The purpose of this book is to allow men a platform to step out from the shadows of hidden unspoken words and speak directly or indirectly to their father and/or son. It may be something they've never got the chance to say, are too afraid to say or don't know how to say. I wanted to provide an opportunity for all men to shed light and give voice of praise, appreciation, hurt, disappointment, wisdom or instruction.

DFFC Kent County President Keenon Mann, academic advisor of the Georgetown campus, is a contributing author to "Things I Wish He Knew: Our Letters of Truth," a compilation of personal letters written from fathers to their sons and vice versa.

For more, check it out on Amazon at Congratulations, Keenon!

How Dads View Co-Parenting

Posted by Christopher A. Brown

One of the best ways to help dads become more involved in the lives of their children is to ensure that the co-parenting relationship between dad and mom is a good one.

That's because one of the primary barriers to many dads' involvement is restrictive gatekeeping behavior on the part of their children's mom. If you're not familiar with the term "restrictive maternal gatekeeping," it refers to actions that a mom takes to unnecessarily restrict a dad's access to their children. This behavior most often occurs when dad doesn't live with mom and his children, but it also occurs in homes where mom and dad are married or cohabit.

So where do you start to ensure dad and mom have a good co-parenting relationship? Learn what the research says about co-parenting, including how dads and moms view co-parenting.

• Cooperative (high levels of cooperation, low levels of conflict),
• Conflicted (low levels of cooperation, high levels of conflict), or
• Disengaged (low levels of cooperation, low levels of conflict).

A new study from the federally-funded Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation sheds light on how dads view co-parenting. (This evaluation focuses on measuring the implementation and outcomes of four fatherhood programs funded by the federal government in 2011.) Researchers conducted two rounds of in-depth interviews with 87 resident and nonresident dads enrolled in these programs. Based on these interviews, the researchers classified each dad-mom relationship as:

They found a fairly even distribution of these relationships in the sample. What makes this research most helpful for you, however, is the richness of the qualitative data on how dads in each type of relationship differ in their views on co-parenting and engage in parenting with mom. Those findings are too extensive to recount here, so please download the report to increase your knowledge in this vital area. But in addition to this rich data, the researchers made two recommendations that will help your organization to more effectively serve dads:

• Offer services to help dads navigate and potentially improve relationships with moms.
• Help nonresident dads obtain the legal agreements that can structure and support greater involvement with their children. 

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