INTRODUCTION

Recent interest in the subject of fatherhood notwithstanding, the problems of fathers, and in particular young fathers, have generally been overlooked in matters of public policy. In fact, the quality of political attention given young fathers has, if anything, grown somewhat negative in recent years, a trend evident in federal welfare reform legislation, which tends to cast young men as irresponsible losers or even sexual predators while resolutely demanding that they pay up. While such a negative approach might be justified in a minority of cases, in general it neither encourages healthy family formation where chances for it exist nor addresses the very real problems that many young fathers must overcome if they are to become effective parents to their children.

In its effort to make adequate provision for the children of poor parents, society, it must be noted, has taken an altogether different tack toward young mothers. In Massachusetts and most other states, young low-income mothers are typically eligible for a wide range of services, including child care, education, case management and job training. While they often come from similarly disadvantaged backgrounds, young fathers are offered few such services, and almost none that exclusively focus on their status as parents. In light of society's increasing insistence that these young men play an active role in supporting their children, such scant attention to their needs can prepare them only for failure. And the question of failure is a serious one, because, as a critical mass of literature now clearly indicates, when fathers fail, they do not fail alone. Their children often fail as well, and in ways that ripple through succeeding generations.

The purpose of this report is to present young fathers in a more complete and fully human way than has generally been done in the past, to allow them to explain in their words the forces that shape and sometimes limit their potential as fathers. Our hope is that policymakers can take from the report a new appreciation of the lives of these young men, and that by doing so they will be better prepared to formulate policies helpful to all members of young families.

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