This research brief was authored by Child Trends with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Authors look at how maternal emotional support affects child development using data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health. Results show that emotional support is important for child development as children with mothers with high support had higher social competence and school engagement. Children from more disadvantaged families who had emotional support were more likely to have low externalizing behavior, fewer depressive symptoms, and were less likely to repeat a grade. Thus, emotional support may be an important protective factor for families.

The Future of Children released a new volume, which is focused on children with disabilities. Authors explore not just one type of disability, but cross-cutting themes of children with disabilities on a broad level. The researchers contributing to this volume analyze childhood disabilities and the prevalence, nature, treatment, costs, and consequences. Researchers also provide information on how this issue relates to the nation's education, health insurance, and medical systems.

The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) hosted a webinar that provided ideas and resources to guide work with fathers who are returning to the community from prison. This webinar offered participants an improved knowledge and understanding of: Federal Department of Justice prisoner re-entry priorities, supports, and guidance; research findings from a review of prisoner re-entry programs; and effective strategies and lessons learned from programs having success helping fathers who are returning from prison. The NRFC is funded through the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) and serves as a national resource for fathers, practitioners, programs/Federal grantees, States, and the public at-large who are serving or interested in supporting strong fathers and families.

The Employment and Training Administration released Training and Employment Notice (TEN) TEN 45-11, to share with the workforce system a joint memorandum by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture, the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, and the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality to agency leadership recommending they encourage their respective field staff build on or create new partnerships to employ young Americans this summer. This memorandum also provides the workforce system with information on partnering with public land management agencies and conservation corps to create or expand summer employment opportunities for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) youth and young adults on public lands.

This paper is from the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and authors use data from the Current Population Survey to summarize labor market trends in the U.S. over the past 30 years. The data show unevenness in labor market performance across demographic groups as inequality has increased. A specific finding from the current recession is that all groups suffered but young, less educated men were affected most significantly.

This summary is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and provides 2011 data on employment in the United States. In 2011, 11.5 percent of families included an unemployed person, falling from 12.4 percent in 2010. The labor force participation rate for mothers with children under age 18 was 70.6 percent in 2011. Authors report on data related to employment, unemployment, and family relationships that are collected as part of the Current Population Survey, which includes 60,000 households.

In April 2012, the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse hosted a Technical Assistance Webinar, "Achieving Economic Stability: Strategies for Successfully Connecting Dads to Jobs." This Webinar presented information and strategies to help participants improve their knowledge and understanding of: Federal Department of Labor priorities and programs; employment partnering opportunities for Responsible Fatherhood programs; practical ideas from research to help fathers find and keep jobs; and, promising practices and lessons learned from programs that have successfully helped fathers achieve economic stability. Presenters included:

• Ben Seigel: Deputy Director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor;
• Dr. Ronald Mincy: Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, New York; and
• Bob and Kathy Lambert: Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors, Connections to Success, St. Louis, Missouri.

This Webinar highlighted the "Skills to Pay the Bills" curriculum, which was developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). During this Webinar, presenters provided an explanation of why the curriculum was necessary, how it was developed, and additional companion resources that are forthcoming. Mr. Michael Huberman began the discussion by sharing that employers indicate that soft-skills are essential to success in both attaining and maintaining employment. Ms. Lisa Stern of Concepts, Inc. discussed how the curriculum was developed. Feedback was solicited from the field and led to the development of a curriculum that was flexible, but structured, and focused on interactive activities rather than reading. Ms. Mary Coody, Project Director, Madison County High School/High Tech shared her experience using the "Skills to Pay the Bills" curriculum during a 4-6 week pilot with high school students of various ages and disabilities.

From the Urban Institute, this issue brief is part of the Perspectives on Low-Income Working Families series. Author Sheila R. Zedlewski discusses lessons learned since the welfare reform of 1996, which changed welfare from an entitlement program to a time-limited, employment program. Drawing from a series of research briefs, this article is a synthesis of research on TANF that provides a background on the TANF program as well as recommendations for strengthening the TANF program.