Engaging fathers in the post-divorce family

Data we collected in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of divorcing families provide an empirical basis for understanding the dynamics of divor ced fathering, Our findings focus on the difficult circumstances of divorce d fathers, rather than on their defective characters. We find that fathers continue visiting and paying at high levels when they perceive that they re tain some degree of paternal authority. The loss of this sense of paternal authority appears to occur, in part, because fathers perceive that the lega l system and their divorce settlements were unfair to them. We also find th at the custodial mother, who sometimes sees little value in the father's in volvement, limits the father's role within the post-divorce family. These f indings formed the theoretical foundation for an intervention we developed for recently divorced fathers called DADS FOR LIFE. This 8-week program foc uses on retraining divorced fathers' attitudes and motivations by teaching them skills to manage conflict with the custodial mother, and giving them p arenting tools to use during visitation. We are in the process of a randomi zed trial to evaluate this program.