Stories of living on welfare are told by five women and their children. Each represents a group of women who use Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The reasons these women have turned to public aid, and their means of achieving self-sufficiency illustrate why welfare policy and family policy must be redefined to account for the differences…

This collection addresses child custody decisions and the resultant outcomes for children and their families. The first section of the book examines aspects of the legal decision-making process as well as legislative guidelines affecting custody and post-divorce issues. The second section focuses on post-divorce family patterns for fathers,…

The United States is rapidly becoming a fatherless society. Fatherlessness is the leading cause of declining child well-being, providing the impetus behind social problems such as crime, domestic violence, and adolescent pregnancy. Challenging the basic assumptions of opinion leaders in academia and in the media, this book debunks the prevailing…

The concern of this work is the influence of child development research on social policy. Papers were chosen because they illustrate that there should be a symbiotic relationship between social action on one hand and child development research and its underlying theory on the other. (Author/CS)

Major changes are taking place in western families which affect the way professionals interact with families. Drawing on a multidisciplinary team of scholars, this book presents a synthesis of the demographic, theoretical, and research data on the various permutations of the single parent family. Topics include economics, single custodial or…

The decision to divorce is grueling for most parents, who usually worry heavily about the impact of divorce on their children. The study described in this book was undertaken to discover what circumstances of family life after divorce are associated with good adjustment on the part of children, so that both parents and professionals can enhance…

In the area of child rearing, U.S. society has largely allowed "expert" ideas and theories to dominate public discussion and literature on child development, at the expense of the attitudes and experiences of those women actually involved with child rearing. This book argues the need for a feminist discussion of childrearing because of the…

Opponents of the legal recognition of homosexual unions have based their arguments in part on the premise that children brought up by parents of the same sex face significant social and psychological disadvantages. Presenting a longitudinal study of 25 children raised in lesbian mother families, and a comparison group raised by single heterosexual…

This book presents research results relating to historical trends in the AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) caseload, the personal characteristics and patterns of welfare participation in a nationally representative sample of young women followed over a 13-year period, and an evaluative survey of the effectiveness of past education,…

Noting that the preceding two decades have seen a dramatic growth in the proportion of families that are headed by women, this book explores the causes and implications of this development. The book bring together information on the past and present prevalence of mother-headed families in different countries. It then considers the various…

Single parent families, usually headed by women, are transitional in two important senses: they frequently represent a transitional stage between marriages; and they are a symptom of the transition from a "distributive" family structure, in which a man provides resources for financially dependent women and children, to a form characterized by less…

This book examines conceivable links between young male criminality and physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; lack of mentoring by older males; the inculcation of shame by adults; child poverty and neglect; social and political disenfranchisement; inappropriate, inadequate, and ineffectual education; spiritual impoverishment; father absence; lack…

A total of 30 women from a large eastern state who were identified as being single heads of households and who were receiving some form of public assistance, raising one or more children under the age of 18 years, and either currently or previously employed were interviewed regarding their demographics, work experiences, and past and present life…

This paper presents a review of commonly used family models which illustrate the wide range of differences in definition of the American family. Its purpose is to help assure that national family policy is based on a definition of family made in the broadest possible context. The major part of the paper discusses five commonly used models. The…

Past research on African American single mothers and their families has been conducted using conventional paradigms based upon models of the dominant culture. This practice has resulted in the creation of stereotypes and misconceptions about "the Black family." In this collection of original work by an interdisciplinary group of…