Just Get Me to the Church: Assessing Policies to Promote Marriage among Fragile Families

This article examines alternative approaches to encourage family formation among fragile families, including higher cash benefits, more liberal acceptance of welfare applications, more effective child support enforcement, and efforts to increase education and employment of low-income parents. We examine these approaches by refining and expanding previous work on a generalized logit model of the mothers’ actual family formation outcomes, in a hierarchy that includes father absence, father involvement, cohabitation, and marriage. Refinements involve measurements of family formation that make our results more comparable to other studies and new controls for previous fertility with the father of the focal child and with another partner (multiple partner fertility). We estimate these models using interim data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being 12 month follow-up Survey. The results indicate that, unlike their effects on mature families, cash benefits increase the odds of family formation (short of marriage) among fragile families and effective child support enforcement increases the odds of marriage. However, the father’s employment status outweighs the effects of these traditional income security policies on family formation, because it affects outcomes all along the hierarchy, including marriage, and its effects are larger. Unlike previous research, our data on previous fertility enables us to separate the effects of previous children in common from multiple partner fertility on family formation. Both significantly affect family formation (though in opposite directions), but even after including these variables, blacks, who are more likely to bring children from previous unions into a new union, have substantially lower odds of cohabitation and marriage than non-Hispanic whites.

The M Word: The Rise and Fall of Interracial Coalitions On Fathers And Welfare Reform

Buoyed by the success of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), whose time limits and work requirements played a large role in the reduction of the welfare rolls, conservative advocates of welfare reform are now moving to ensure that our welfare system reflects traditional family values as well. Responding to this sentiment, the Bush Administration is encouraging states to use TANF to support marriage promotion efforts and the Administration's 2002 budget includes $100 million in support of demonstration projects to promote marriage (source). By contrast, the$60 million President Bush had committed to support efforts to promote responsible fatherhood, not restricted to marriage, has been pared back to $20 million, along with cutbacks in other domestic initiatives that are needed to pay for the "war against terrorism."

Mussel Survivorship, Growth Rate and Shell Decay Rate in the New River Basin of Tennessee: an Experimental Approach Using Corbicula fluminea

The New River Basin (NRB) of Tennessee is home to a number of rare endemic aquatic communities. One such community of particular importance to the area, experiencing a precipitous population decline due to the fouling and pollution of their freshwater systems, is that of freshwater mussels (Bogan 2006). This study in the NRB involves measuring the mortality rates of live Asian clams (Corbicula fluminea) assemblages and the shell decay rates of their death assemblages. This study also examines the decay rates of the native Villosa iris to gather information on molluscan health and the ability of their shells to be incorporated into the freshwater record, or to be used by other organisms for ecological engineering. A common property of aquatic systems influenced by anthropogenic activity is increased conductivity (a proxy correlated to the ability of water to pass an electric current because of increased metal and dissolved solids concentrations) which studies show may impair clam health and enhance shell decay rates. Our study of five impacted streams within the NRB and a control stream of similar geology tests this correlation. Silos containing live Corbicula fluminea were placed in several localities in streams of the NRB that receive mining drainage as mine drainage is commonly associated with elevated conductivity. To measure the effects of this anthropogenic activity on shell decay rates, mesh bags containing shells of Corbicula fluminea and Villosa iris were placed in several localities in creeks of the NRB that receive varying degrees of mine drainage. The weight of these shells were periodically measured, over the course of 120 days, to determine the rate of decay. I found that growth and mortality rates of the life assemblages are correlated with the conductivity and water temperature levels that the living clams are exposed to, and that shell decay rates did not correlate with conductivity but were influenced by calcium levels and water velocity

Parental Incarceration and Child Wellbeing: Implications for Urban Families

Using a population-based, longitudinal family survey (N=4,898), we identify a set of economic, residential, and developmental risks particular to the children of incarcerated parents. We use parental reports of incarceration history, demographic background, and a rich set of child and family outcomes, in a series of multivariate regression models. Children of incarerated parents face more economic and residential stability than their counterparts. Children of incarcerated fathers also display more behavior problems, though other developmental differences are insignificant. Several family differences are magnified when both parents have been incarcerated. We find that incarceration identifies families facing severe and unique hardship. Given the prevalence of incarceration, this means a large population of children suffers unmet material needs, residential instability, and behavior problems. These risks may be best addressed by using the point of incarceration as an opportunity for intervention, and the administration of age-appropriate social services.

Understanding the Education Trajectories of Young Black Men in New York City: Elementary and Middle-School Years

Making targeted decisions about how, when, and where to intervene to improve educational outcomes for black males requires understanding the complex pathways that shape these outcomes. This study, undertaken for the Black Male Donor Collaborative, uses longitudinal data on a cohort of black males from New York City Schools to gain insights about the different possible student paths, with specific focuses on middle school and math scale scores

A Study of Factors Involved in Establishing a Satisfactory Thermal Environment in the Classroom

Introduction: Since the dawn of civilization, man has wrestled with the weighty problems of government, war, science, philosophy, and religion. Perhaps no problem has taxed man\u27s ingenuity as much, however, as that of determining and maintaining the proper thermal environment for the various activities in which he has engaged. Indeed, some sociologist believer that the satisfactory solution of this problem has often aided man in the solution of his other problems. Although the term thermal environment is a comparatively recent addition to the vocabulary of school administrators and teachers, the control of temperature, humidity, cleanliness, and movement of air, aspects of our environment which the word thermal implies, has long been of concern to man. Primitive man was not able to control his thermal environment in any way, however, and was forced to adapt himself to the environment. From our ancestors\u27 crude attempts to adapt to the thermal environment evolved our present forms of shelter and clothing. Only after discovery of fire did man begin to progress in his quest for some type of positive control over various elements of his thermal environment. From the early control of external cold by positive heating of the air, thermal control has now evolved to such a state that air can be treated so as to control simultaneously its temperature, humidity, cleanliness, and distribution within a given building so that the comfort, health, and efficiency of its occupants are kept at the optimum. Since thermal control has now reached such an advanced state, to what extent is the thermal environment being controlled in the thousands of classrooms in the United States? Indeed, what is an adequate thermal environment for optimum working and learning efficiency? What type of school building and heating and ventilating equipment best provide an adequate thermal environment? Are public school educators cognizant of the many factors involved in determining and maintaining an adequate thermal environment? This study was concerned with investigating the problem area suggested by the preceding questions

Unmarried Fathers’ Earnings Trajectories: Does Partnership Status Matter?

Married men earn more than unmarried men. Previous research suggests that marriage itself causes some of the difference, but includes few men who fathered children out of wedlock. This paper asks whether increasing marriage (and possibly cohabitation) following a non-marital birth is likely to increase fathers’ earnings and labor supply. The analyses are based on a new birth cohort study the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study which follows unmarried parents for the first five years after their child’s birth. Results provide some support for the idea that increasing marriage will lead to increased fathers’ earnings.Cohabitation, marriage, income, men, males, earnings, income, children

Beyond Absenteeism: Father Incarceration and its Effects on Children’s Development

High rates of incarceration among American men, coupled with high rates of fatherhood among men in prison, have motivated recent research on the effects of parental imprisonment on children’s development. We contribute to this literature using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the effects of paternal incarceration on developmental and school readiness outcomes for approximately 3,000 urban children. We estimate cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models that control not only for fathers’ basic demographic characteristics and a rich set of potential confounders, but also for several measures of pre-incarceration child development, and family fixed effects. We find that paternal incarceration is positively associated with children’s externalizing problems at age five. Results are mixed with respect to attention problems, and we find some evidence that children of incarcerated fathers experience less anxiety than their peers. The observed effects of incarceration on child behavioral problems are significantly stronger than the effects of other forms of father absence, suggesting that children with incarcerated fathers may require specialized support from caretakers, teachers, and social service providers.Fragile families, childbearing, nonmarital childbearing, fartherhood, fathers, incarceration

Advancing Postsecondary Success for Men of Color through Policy and Systems Change

Completion of higher education is of particular value to men of color. Through this achievement, they unlock their own potential, improve their career options and lifetime earnings, and enable themselves to best contribute to their families and communities. Beyond individual benefits, completing a postsecondary education is important to the overall prosperity and vitality of our nation, better enabling communities to create, innovate, sustain, and persevere. The skills and experiences acquired through the completion of a higher education degree or credential help to strengthen the nation's labor force and economic systems and contribute to every part of our national fabric. Moreover, children whose parents hold postsecondary degrees have better health outcomes and educational advantages. Often, they maintain or improve upon the economic status of their parents. So, it stands to reason that an investment in increasing the number of boys and men of color who complete higher education is an investment in our future collective and societal well-being