This review provides summaries of impact, implementation, and descriptive studies that have examined responsible fatherhood and related family strengthening programs that target and serve low-income fathers.

This report focuses on the role of partners and spouses in the decision-making processes of social service clients. Using survey data, direct observation of couple interactions, and physiological measurement, findings suggest that the decisions of individuals receiving public...

This issue brief, the first in a series from our Building Strong Families project, focuses on program design. The brief is based on a conceptual framework that identifies factors to consider in developing programs and services to strengthen relationships in unmarried parent families. The...

An implementation study of the Building Strong Families (BSF) programs indicates that many unmarried couples are interested in services to strengthen their relationships around the time of their child’s birth. More than 5,000 couples volunteered for the BSF study across eight states. Although...

Policy interest in preparing prisoners for reentry has grown significantly in recent years, fueled in part by research showing that marital and parent-child relationships are at high risk of disruption during incarceration and reentry, and by research suggesting that healthy marriage is...

Welfare reform in Iowa succeeded in getting welfare recipients into training and then into jobs. However, the reforms did not always succeed in raising family income and may have reduced it for some families. Furthermore, researchers noted negative impacts on some measures of family and child...

As nonmarital childbearing has increased, so has concern for the attendant consequences. Mathematica’s evaluation of the Building Strong Families (BSF) project, the centerpiece of a broader policy strategy to support healthy marriage, is determining whether well-designed interventions can help...