Parents and Children Together: The Complex Needs of Low Income Men and How Responsible Fatherhood Programs Address Them

Broad changes in family demographics have left many children without the support or involvement of their fathers. As a result of high rates of nonmarital births and divorce, millions of American children do not live with both of their parents. OPRE Report 2018-18, prepared for the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families, has two goals: to develop a greater understanding of programmatic features that lead to strong engagement and participation by fathers, and to provide context for the evaluation’s forthcoming results on how fathers’ outcomes were affected by the programs.  As a result of their findings, authors made recommendations to better engage fathers, help them overcome barriers, build parenting skills, improve economic stability, and increase assistance for child support modification.