The fathers loved their children and wanted better lives for them than they themselves have had. In particular, they wanted to make sure that their children finished school and avoided involvement with gangs and drugs. Significantly, almost all the young men also wanted to do a better job of parenting than their own fathers had done; some, in fact, seemed motivated as parents almost soley by that desire.

The young fathers understood their emotional and financial responsibilities as parents. In fact, most of the fathers felt they were doing a reasonably good job of fulfilling those responsibilities, but believed they could do an even better job if they had some assistance.

The young men's problems frequently mirrored those of uneducated, unskilled older fathers, but were exacerbated by their youth and by a lack of guidance from concerned adults in the community. Indeed, contacts with helping professionals - with teachers, police and state social service workers, for instance - were most often negative, and seemed merely to underscore the young men's sense of frustration and isolation. Because of their hostile experiences with "the system," many of the young fathers felt alone with their problems and unsure where to go for help or advice.

The young fathers were generally unaware of father-related programs, groups or services that might be available to them, and thus had had little or no chance to meet and talk with other young fathers. Even fathers who attended the same school or job program had often failed to identify one another as fathers, a fact that underscores the social isolation typically experienced by young fathers.

The young fathers were often unclear about regulations concerning paternity and child support, and if given a choice preferred that financial, custody and visitation arrangements be made privately rather than by a court. To the extent that young fathers were participating in the system, they seemed decidedly suspicious of it, either because they perceived it as unfair to them or because they felt unable to resolve problems easily and quickly. At least one young father said the bureaucratic tangle was enough in itself to cause a father to "give up" trying to make support payments.

Introduction | The Project | Their Own Fathers | Becoming A Father | Life With Children | Family Conflict | Violence and the Children | In School | Money | The Law | Housing | Jobs and Dream Jobs | Improving the System | Findings | Recommendations