Limited emphasis is placed on understanding the gendered pathways that influence mental health, especially long-term cumulative impacts of gender-based inequalities. Exposure to early child marriage (marriage by age 15) may exaggerate exposure to gender-based mental health risk-factors, providing an opportunity to understand the multi-layered…

Though considerable research links both a lack of self-control and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to a variety of negative health and behavioral outcomes, few studies to date have explored whether ACEs are associated with deficits in self-control. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW; n = 3,444) and a life…

The Elizabeth Wisner Social Welfare Center for Families and Children is a community-based research center within the School of Social Work at the Tulane University. The Wisner Center primarily supports research projects that examine the causes and consequences of intimate partner violence, promote the development of new frameworks for…

The randomized trial is the gold standard in scientific research and is used by several fields to study the effects of media. Although useful for studying the immediate response to media exposure, the experimental approach is not well suited to studying long-term effects or behavior outside the laboratory. The "natural experiment" approach, a…

Because fathers are clearly important to family well-being, including fathers in services for families seems a straightforward idea. How hard can it be? Yet across health, education, and welfare services it is still mothers who attend and engage on behalf of their infants and children. The Family Action Centre, located on the east coast of…

Stable, healthy marriages and relationships can bolster the economic security and well-being of adults and children. However, reality is much more complex. Relatively few children currently live in families with married parents in which only the father is employed. In fact, more than half of U.S. children today will spend at least part of their…

This paper reports on collaborative research conducted with ChildLine Scotland, a free, confidential, telephone counselling service, using their database. We focussed on children's calls about parental health and well-being and how this affected their own lives. Children's concerns emerged within multi-layered calls in which they discussed…

Family arguments by the age of 15 and family physical violence by the age of 18 is found to significantly compromise key domains of adult functioning at age 30. The findings are based on data from 346 participants whose psychosocial development has been followed since age 5.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence (defined as any physical violence during the last 12 months or previously) among mothers who maltreat their children, and to examine whether mothers' experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) are associated with repeated reports (rereports) of children to Child Protective…

Two community-based group therapies, emotion focused versus goal oriented, are compared among women exposed to intimate partner violence (n = 46) and their children (n = 48) aged between 6 and 12 years. A series of repeated measures analyses are employed to evaluate the effects of time from baseline to postintervention following random assignment.…

This publication is intended to help ensure full and prompt implementation of the improvements in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act for children being raised by grandparents and other relatives. It was prepared by 18 organizations, many of whom have been working individually and together for a number of years to…

Clearly, the issues in this year's KIDS COUNT Data Book essay represent some of the most formidable barriers facing parents who are trying to connect to the workforce. Substance abuse, domestic violence, prior incarceration, and depression can potentially paralyze even the most eager and enterprising parents and jeopardize the economic security…

This paper is a review of current research on the effects of children's exposure to domestic violence in the home in regard to their psychological well-being. Specific areas of focus include studies that examine general effects of witnessing domestic violence, the presence of trauma-like and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, potential…

Asserting that the welfare reform proposals of the mid-1990s drew attention to the problem of domestic violence among individuals receiving public assistance who are among the poorest of the poor, this report examines what is known from past research on domestic violence that may inform policies related to marriage and child well-being. In…

The Fathering Indicators Framework (FIF) is an evaluation tool designed to help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers conceptualize, examine, and measure change in fathering behaviors in relation to child and family well-being. This report provides a detailed overview of the research and theory informing the development of the FIF. The FIF…