From the Journal of Contemporary Social Services, this newsletter includes a variety of relevant topics for low-income families. The feature topic of this issue is fathering and fatherhood, and authors also include articles on an upcoming resource entitled “Working but Poor.”

This research brief from Child Trends offers an overview of a growing body of research on men’s pregnancy intentions. New research suggests that men’s pregnancy intentions and prenatal behaviors may have implications for fathers’ later involvement with their children. Utilizing data from the 9-month Resident Father Survey of the 2001 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), authors provide information on the effects of prenatal intentions and behaviors.

The African American Healthy Marriage Initiative is a component of the ACF Healthy Marriage Initiative and promotes a culturally competent strategy for fostering healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood, improving child well-being, and strengthening families within the African American Community. This newsletter is from the African American Healthy Marriage Initiative for the month of May. It provides information on Black Marriage Day and an overview of events from the month of March.

This report is from the National Center on Children in Poverty, and provides information on state policy choices surrounding early childhood policies. State polices regarding early childhood are affected by federal changes in programs such as Medicaid and the Child Care and Development Fund, and this leads to variance across the country.

This report from the Office of Research, Planning, and Evaluation provides a conceptual framework for healthy marriage education intervention with low-income married step-couples based on research and practice lessons. Authors provide background data on divorce and remarriage, information on the characteristics of stepfamilies and trends in stepfamily prevalence, research findings on stepfamily dynamics, the quality of relationships among stepfamily couples and outcomes for children, and information learned from practitioners.

Isabel Sawhill, of the Brookings Institution, testified before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss poverty reduction strategies. She cited three priorities to alleviate poverty in the United States: expanding early childhood education, reducing teen pregnancy and early, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and encouraging work.

This fact sheet, from the National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Residential Fathers, provides information on the “What about the Dads?” study. This study included research on 1,958 children who were removed from the home where the father did not reside. By engaging the fathers of children in foster care, child and father relationships can be improved, and children can gain access to additional benefits.

This is a fact sheet on the Quality Improvement Center on Non-resident Fathers, which was designed to promote additional knowledge development regarding the engagement of non-resident fathers and their children who are involved in the child welfare system. The project will determine what impact non-residential father involvement has on child welfare outcomes.

The Institute for Research on Poverty authored this discussion paper on the impact of policies, such as child support orders, divorce policies, custody regulations, on the wellbeing of children and families. Authors use information on the marital status of parents to assess how children are affected by a change in status.

This Fragile Families Brief, from the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University, focuses on how fathers’ risk factors are related to father involvement and relationship status among unmarried couples. Risk factors identified include physical abuse, substance abuse, and incarceration. Authors use qualitative and quantitative data on these risk factors to examine child involvement and the relationships among unmarried couples.