Experts
News
- Dads Home with Kids Peaked During The COVID-19 Pandemic – But Not for The Reason You ThinkA briefing paper prepared by Arielle Kuperberg, University of North Carolina – Greensboro, Sarah Thébaud, University of California, Santa Barbara, Kathleen Gerson, New York University, and Brad Harrington, Boston College, for the Council on Contemporary… Read more: Dads Home with Kids Peaked During The COVID-19 Pandemic – But Not for The Reason You Think
- Childcare Challenges During the Pandemic and Their Impact on Parents and Care ProvidersA briefing paper prepared by Liana Christin Landivar, Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, and Pilar Gonalons-Pons, University of Pennsylvania for the Council on Contemporary Families online symposium The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of… Read more: Childcare Challenges During the Pandemic and Their Impact on Parents and Care Providers
- Executive Summary: The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Gender EqualityPrepared by Daniel L. Carlson, University of Utah, and Richard J. Petts, Ball State University, for the Council on Contemporary Families symposium The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Gender Equality (PDF). The COVID-19 pandemic… Read more: Executive Summary: The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Gender Equality
- Best for Whom? Breastfeeding and Child Development
In a new brief report from CCF, Jessica Su finds that breastfeeding benefits are modest, and reach some children more than others - Mothers Are the Primary Earners in Growing Numbers of Families with Children
A new study estimates that about 70% of U.S. moms can expect to be primary financial providers before their children turn 18. - “The Tool We Have”: Why Child Protective Services Investigates So Many Families and How Even Good Intentions Backfire
A briefing paper prepared by Kelley Fong from the Georgia Institute of Technology. - Long-term Risks to Children from Economic Toll of COVID-19
Although children appear to be less vulnerable than adults to serious COVID-19 medical complications, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that they are disproportionately endangered by the pandemic’s economic toll. - When “Helicopters” Go to School: Who Gets Rescued and Who Gets Left Behind?
When “Helicopters” Go to School: Who Gets Rescued and Who Gets Left Behind? A briefing paper prepared by Jessica McCrory Calarco, Indiana University, for the Council on Contemporary Families. We’ve all read about – and… Read more: When “Helicopters” Go to School: Who Gets Rescued and Who Gets Left Behind? - 10 Scary Facts About Child Poverty
October 28, 2019 A fact sheet prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families by Dr. Jennifer Glass, Executive Director, Council on Contemporary Families and Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin. Believe it or… Read more: 10 Scary Facts About Child Poverty - Parents Can’t Go It Alone–They Never Have: What to Do for Parents to Help Our Next Generation
Parents Can’t Go It Alone introduces you to important new work about what parents need to meet their goals and successfully raise the next generation. - Why No One Can “Have It All” and What to Do About ItA briefing paper prepared by Kathleen Gerson, New York University, for the Council on Contemporary Families’ Symposium Parents Can’t Go It Alone—They Never Have. If debates about women’s rights, relationships between the sexes, and worsening… Read more: Why No One Can “Have It All” and What to Do About It
- Who Goes to Jail for Child Support Debt?
A Research Brief Prepared for the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center Research Brief Series Elizabeth Cozzolino Introduction Child support enforcement aims to increase child well-being by ensuring that noncustodial parents contribute to children’s… Read more: Who Goes to Jail for Child Support Debt? - What are the Effects of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Depression and Thoughts of Death on Their Children’s Level of Parental Connectedness?
A Research Brief Prepared for the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center Research Brief Series Susan De Luca, Yan Yueqi, and Yolanda Padilla Introduction Mental health outcomes such as depression are often passed… Read more: What are the Effects of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Depression and Thoughts of Death on Their Children’s Level of Parental Connectedness? - Is Dropping out of High School More Likely after Stressful Life Events?
A Research Brief Prepared for the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center Research Brief Series Veronique Dupéré, Eric Dion, Tama Leventhal, Isabelle Archambault, Robert Crosnoe, and Michel Janosz Introduction High school dropout is… Read more: Is Dropping out of High School More Likely after Stressful Life Events? - Stephanie Coontz Weighs In On Ivanka Trump’s Defense of Paid Family Leave
In a letter to The Wall Street Journal, Ivanka Trump defended the Trump administration’s proposed family leave program, stating that it is not an “entitlement” program, but an “investment” in working families. In a new… Read more: Stephanie Coontz Weighs In On Ivanka Trump’s Defense of Paid Family Leave - Gender Revolution and the Restabilization of Family Life
Gender Revolution and the Restabilization of Family Life A briefing paper prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families by Frances Goldscheider, College Park Professor of Family Science, University of Maryland August 26 is Women’s… Read more: Gender Revolution and the Restabilization of Family Life - “Daddy’s Home!” Increasing Men’s Use of Paternity Leave
“DADDY’S HOME!” INCREASING MEN’S USE OF PATERNITY LEAVE This briefing is based on a study by Dr. Ankita Patnaik. The original paper is available here and is forthcoming in the Journal of Labor Economics. This research was… Read more: “Daddy’s Home!” Increasing Men’s Use of Paternity Leave - CCF Civil Rights Symposium: The State of Latino Children
By Rogelio Sáenz University of Texas at San Antonio Latinos are increasingly driving the demographic fortunes of the United States. Between 2000 and 2011, the number of white children in the country declined by 4.9… Read more: CCF Civil Rights Symposium: The State of Latino Children - Was the War on Poverty a Failure? Or are Anti-Poverty Efforts Simply Swimming Against a Stronger Tide?
This month marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of an “unconditional war on poverty.” Yet this month also marks over a quarter century since President Ronald Reagan’s 1988 announcement that the war on poverty was over, and that poverty had won. In this report, University of Maryland sociologist Philip Cohen examines the many early victories, as well as the setbacks in the War on Poverty. - Promoting marriage among single mothers: An ineffective weapon in the war on poverty?This month marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of an “unconditional war on poverty.” Yet this month also marks over a quarter century since President Ronald Reagan’s 1988 announcement that the war on poverty was over, and that poverty had won. Many politicians blame the resurgence of poverty on the spread of unwed motherhood and conclude that promoting marriage among low-income individuals would do more to reduce poverty than government investments. In this report, Ohio State University sociologist Kristi Williams examines how efforts to get impoverished single mothers to marry are unlikely to make much of a dent in poverty rates and may even have some harmful outcomes for mothers and children alike.
- 50th Anniversary of the War on Poverty: Have we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory?This month marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of an “unconditional war on poverty.” Yet this month also marks over a quarter century since President Ronald Reagan’s 1988 announcement that the war on poverty was over, and that poverty had won. To mark the anniversaries of these very different points in the government’s role in poverty reduction, two researchers from the Council on Contemporary Families assess where we have come from and where we stand today.
- Children in families with same-sex parents
CCF’s Dawn Braithwaite was on KFOR’s Lincoln Live radio show discussing children in families with same-sex parents. Listen to the interview on their website (after clicking, scroll down and select “Children in Gay Families”). Tweet - Joshua Coleman on NPR: parenting and empty nests
Joshua Coleman, CCF Co-Chair, was on NPR’s forum and on North Carolina’s KQED Radio discussing parenting and empty nests. It’s late August and flocks of future college freshmen have begun their migration to campuses around the country. For parents… Read more: Joshua Coleman on NPR: parenting and empty nests - Myths About Later Motherhood: Fact Sheet
July 25, 2012 Download Fact Sheet as a PDF Download Fact Sheet as a Word Document Today, almost 40 percent of all babies in the United States are born to women over 30, and almost… Read more: Myths About Later Motherhood: Fact Sheet - CCF Gender Revolution Symposium: The Beat Goes On
By Barbara Risman, Ph.D. Professor and Head of Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago Phone: 919 349 0090 Email: brisman@uic.edu The gender revolution continues in many areas even if it has slowed down in others.… Read more: CCF Gender Revolution Symposium: The Beat Goes On - Homesick Kids and Helicopter Parents: Are Today’s Young Adults Too Emotionally Dependent on Parents?
As colleges across the country begin the new school year, we hear a chorus of warnings about a generation of young adults unable or unwilling to “leave the nest.” Phrases are bandied about: “Failure to launch”; “the Peter Pan syndrome”; “boomerang kids” who can’t seem to leave home and establish an independent life. Undergirding these warnings is a fear that the younger generation is growing soft, losing the pioneer independence and rugged individualism that once built this nation. But a glance at the past suggests it may not be the behavior of youths that has changed so much as the response by adults. Only over the past 90 years did American culture come to define young adults’ continued reliance on parental guidance and their longing to return home as a sign of psychological maladjustment. - Sandwich Generation Month: July 2011
Since 2009, 20 states and 11 cities have designated July as Sandwich Generation Month, to recognize the dedication of Americans who are caring for their children and their own aging parents at the same time. Currently about 7 percent of employed men and women, or about 9.8 million people out of the 139.3 million employed persons in June 2011, are official members of the sandwich generation, but a much higher proportion of Americans have already experienced or will eventually experience this stressful combination of care-giving responsibilities. With the number of Americans aged 65 and older projected to increase from 40 million in 2010 to 88.5 million by 2050, the ranks of sandwich generation caregivers are poised to expand significantly. - How Do We Teach Children the Most Important Life Skills?
Download Full Report as a PDF Download Full Report as a Word Document For the past two decades, parents have felt ever-increasing pressure to buy expensive, high-tech learning toys and enroll their children in special… Read more: How Do We Teach Children the Most Important Life Skills? - Child’s Play: It’s Serious Business
Isabelle Cherney, Ph.D. Michael W. Barry Professor Director, Honors Psychology Program Professor of Psychology Creighton University Download Full Report as a PDF Download Full Report as a Word Document Have you ever asked yourself why… Read more: Child’s Play: It’s Serious Business - Remember Stepmothers on Mother’s DayIt’s hard to know just how many stepmothers there are, because census figures don’t count stepmothers who don’t live in the same house with their children. In addition, stepmothers are not always made by an official marriage. Today many divorced parents live together without getting re-married. And of course, many lesbian couples include a stepchild and stepmother: When women make commitments to other women they become stepmothers to other women’s children too.
- News You Can Use: Are Babies Bad for Marriage?
In the mid-20th century, marital counselors often advised couples that parenthood would increase their marital satisfaction and adjustment, and polls showed that most Americans believed that true marital happiness depended on having a child. But over the past three decades, a series of studies, including two by Philip and Carolyn Cowan and another 25 studies in 10 industrialized countries, have discovered the opposite. On average, satisfaction with marriage for men and women goes down after the birth of a first child and continues to fall over the next 15 years. - International Report Card on Parenting Policies: U.S. Gets a “Gentleman’s C”
By Rebecca Ray, Research Assistant Center for Economic and Policy Research Janet C. Gornick, Professor of Political Science and Sociology Graduate Center, the City University of New York John Schmitt, Senior Economist Center for Economic… Read more: International Report Card on Parenting Policies: U.S. Gets a “Gentleman’s C” - Mother’s Day Fact Sheet on Day CareMay 11, 2008 Download Full Report as a PDF Download Full Report as a Word Document Valerie Adrian Research Intern Council on Contemporary Families Stephanie Coontz Professor of History and Family Studies The Evergreen State… Read more: Mother’s Day Fact Sheet on Day Care
- Recent Changes In Fertility Rates In The United States: What Do They Tell Us About Americans’ Changing Families?
Download Full Report as a PDF Download Full Report as a Word Document The number of births in the US increased by 3 percent in 2006, and has now reached levels not seen since the… Read more: Recent Changes In Fertility Rates In The United States: What Do They Tell Us About Americans’ Changing Families? - Teen Pregnancy and Poverty: 30-Year-Study Confirms That Living in Economically-Depressed Neighborhoods, Not Teen Motherhood, Perpetuates Poverty
For the past 15 years, political pundits have been telling us a dark fairy tale about American teens, blaming who have babies out of wedlock. This assumption guided the welfare reform act of 1996, which promised to write America a happy ending by getting teens to stop having babies, get married, and thus end poverty. But a new longitudinal study by Frank Furstenberg shows that fairy tales have no place in the realm of policy-making. His data reveal that teen childbearing is NOT the reason that many Americans have been trapped in poverty over the past three decades. - Understanding Low-Income Unmarried Couples with Children
Download Full Report as a PDF Download Full Report as a Word Document Why do so many low-income couples postpone marriage but fail to postpone childbearing? Which couples eventually do marry? Why do the rest… Read more: Understanding Low-Income Unmarried Couples with Children - The Impact of Divorce on Children’s Behavior Problems
Download Full Report as a PDF Download Full Report as a Word Document This paper summarizes the argument and findings of a longer and more technical paper that won the 2007 Graduate Student Paper Award… Read more: The Impact of Divorce on Children’s Behavior Problems
