Public policies and father involvement

The last two decades have been marked by a series of social and policy deve lopments that are changing both how men see themselves as fathers and how p olicies conceptualize and encourage their involvement in the lives of child ren and families. This paper focuses on several areas of intersection betwe en research on fathers and policy. The paper first summarizes the research that led to the current political and social interest in fathers. The paper then describes the Fatherhood Initiative, a set of activities that stemmed from a 1995 memorandum from President Clinton. This Initiative led to coor dinated efforts by U.S. Federal Statistical agencies to collect better data about fathers. The paper concludes with a discussion of what we know about the effects on father involvement of policies such as welfare reform, chil d support, work place policies, responsible fatherhood programs, and other fatherhood interventions. Examples of new programs and initiatives on fathe r involvement are also given.