Field Studies
A Qualitative Study of the Educational Aspirations of Young Black Bermudian Males
Intervention Studies
Evaluation of the Center for Urban Families’ Baltimore Responsible Fatherhood Project
Observational Studies
The Effects of Child Support Arrears on Formal and Informal Labor Force Participation
The Effects of Nonresident Father Closeness on Young Adult Daughter’s Sexual Behavior
The Effects of Father Involvement on Adolescent Outcomes
Metropolitan Unemployment Rates and Child Support Non-Compliance Rates
Promising Income Support Policies for Low-Income Men and Families: Tax and Transfer Programs
Trajectories of Young Black Males in the New York City Public Schools
A Qualitative Study of the Educational Aspirations of Young Black Bermudian Males
In order to further understand the quantitative findings revealed in the CRFCF examination of the 2000 Census of Population and Housing for Bermuda, this study explores the educational and career aspirations of young Bermudian Black men from their own perspectives. The quantitative study reveals that the unemployment rate of young Bermudian Black men is almost double the unemployment rate of young White Bermudian men and that Black Bermudian males also obtain less education than their same-age peers, both male and female. Findings suggest that while obtaining more education would increase the earnings and decrease unemployment among young Black Bermudian men, they would still earn less than their White counterparts. This study explores how young Black Bermudian males describe and explain their educational and employment experiences and aspirations. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews (n=18) with Black male high school graduating seniors, and focus groups with unemployed and employed young Black men (n=10), ages 20-35, at a community organization serving young adults in Bermuda, aim to understand the following research questions:
1. How do Black male high school students in Bermuda describe and explain their educational and employment aspirations?
2. How do the experiences of Black Bermudian boys at high school and at home influence their educational and professional aspirations?
3.How do young Black Bermudian men describe and explain their educational and employment experiences and aspirations?
Research has yet to explore why Black Bermudian men are less likely to invest in education than Black females, or why they experience more unemployment and lower earnings than White Bermudian men. This study will enhance our understanding of the challenges experienced by a vastly understudied population.
A Qualitative Study of Participation and Allocation of the New York State Non-Custodial Parent Earned Income Tax Credit (NYS NCP-EITC)
In 2006, New York State initiated the Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers Initiative, intended to help low-to-moderate income non-custodial parents meet their child support obligations. The initiative included an expansion of the New York State Earned Income Tax Credit to non-custodial parents (NCPs), on the condition that their child support payments are paid. It also included five pilot demonstration projects, which helped low-income NCPs around the state to find work and meet their child support obligations. The NCP-EITC has inspired similar state provisions elsewhere in the country as well as federal legislation, which will be introduced this year. Out of the 96,000 non-custodial parents who filed tax returns in 2006, only 6,500 filed for the NCP EITC, and only 5,000 received the credit.
This study uses in-depth interviews with 40 pilot program participants to examine why participation in the NCP- EITC has been so low and how low-income NCPs would use the credit if they were eligible. In particular, we examine:
- Awareness: Which participants know about the NCP-EITC, and what do they know?
- Participation: What limits participation in the NCP-EITC?
- Allocation: How would low-to-moderate income NCPs spend the credit, if they received it?
All participants will have child support orders and earn less than $34,000, two critical criteria for the NCP-EITC. Most will also have recent employment experience, and therefore, will have accurate ideas about their usual expenditures. However, participants will be in default of their child support orders; they will not meet third critical criterion for the credit. This will also be the case for thousands of potential beneficiaries of the proposed federal NCP-EITC, if it becomes law, during the worst recession since WWII.
Evaluation of the Center for Urban Families’ Baltimore Responsible Fatherhood Project
The Center for Urban Families’ (CFUF) Baltimore Responsible Fatherhood Program (BRFP) is designed to address five core areas: recidivism, parenting, employment, child support, and healthy relationships. CRFCFW conducted a process evaluation of the program with the goals of strengthening its programmatic structure, developing ways of better serving its client base, and obtaining empirical data that can be used to influence policy. In consultation with CFUF’s Executive Director and staff, CRFCFW identified child support intermediation services as the main target area for a process analysis. While much is known about employment services in fatherhood programs, little is known about child support services. Even less is known about intensive child support intermediation services such as those offered by CFUF. A detailed process analysis of these novel and cutting edge services will benefit not only CFUF, but also the field of responsible fatherhood as a whole.
Replication of the Fathers & Sons Project
Researchers have developed very detailed theories and measures of mothering, and therefore, we know much about the effects of mothers on child well-being. By contrast, only a few taxonomies exist to suggest how fathers affect child well-being, few studies have measured the hypothesized constructs, and fewer still have measured these constructs for non-residents fathers. As a result, research on the effects of father behavior on child well-being lags far behind.
To build knowledge on this critical subject CFRCFW, in collaboration with the University of Michigan, is planning a random clinical trial of the Fathers & Sons Project in four new replication sites. The Fathers & Sons Project uses an innovative, theory- driven strategy, with strong community appeal, to reduce or prevent youth substance abuse, violent behavior and early sexual initiation. It does so by strengthening the bonds between non-resident African-American fathers and their 8 to 12 year old sons. The program builds upon the social science evidence that feelings of closeness and authoritative parenting are key pathways through which fathers positively influence the behavior of school age children and adolescents.
The Effect of Child Support Arrears on Fathers' Formal and Informal Labor Force Participation
This project uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to assess whether child support arrears affect non-custodial fathers' participation in formal and informal (underground) labor markets. Although previous research has found only tenuous links between child support enforcement activities and men's labor force participation, this paper expands upon such previous work in a number of ways. This is the first paper to examine a potential affect for arrears (unpaid child support owed to custodial mothers). Secondly, the fathers who are part of the FFCWS are younger and likely more marginally attached to the labor force than fathers in previous samples, and thus may be particularly susceptible to the influence of arrears. Finally, unlike other studies that have used the FFCWS data, we employ multiple imputation of missing data to deal with sample attrition and non-response by sample members. This technique allows us to examine the potential impact of arrears on individual labor supply decisions. Preliminary results suggest that the relative burden of arrears (a ratio of the amount owed in arrears to income) is associated with significant decreased participation in formal labor markets; no association is found for informal labor force participation.
The Effects of Nonresident Father Closeness on Young Adult Daughter’s Sexual Behavior
This study examined the relationship between father closeness and daughter’s number of sexual partners in young adulthood using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health dataset. Studies show that children from two-parent families are less likely to exhibit sexual risk behaviors as adults than children from single-parent families. Two parents are better able to supervise their child’s behavior than a single parent. According to the US Census, 63.2 percent of Black families and 26 percent of White families are headed by a single parent. Many Black adolescents in single-parent families maintain close relationships with their non-resident fathers and such relationships are associated with fewer internalized and externalized behaviors and lower levels of emotional distress and delinquency.
In the full sample, we found that closeness to fathers is negatively associated with the number of sexual partners a young women has, but there is some evidence that these results are driven by resident daughters. This evidence is inconclusive because the high correlation between closeness at Wave Two and living arrangements at Wave One make estimates of both imprecise. However, Black women had different results than their peers. Nonresident Black daughters felt closer to their fathers than their peers. Moreover, there was a negative and significant association between closeness and number of sexual partners in the nonresident black women sample. These results are consistent with the literature that nonresident Black girls felt and behaved differently than their peers.
The Effects of Non-Residential Fathers’ Involvement on Adolescent Behavioral Problems
It is well-established that children from single-parent families are more likely to become involved in risky sexual and anti-social behaviors than children raised in two-parent families. Nevertheless, rates of father involvement in the lives of children raised in single-parent families are much higher than previous studies would have suggested. Some studies indicate that involvement of fathers in the lives of children is associated with fewer adolescent behavior problems. Yet, estimates of the association between non-resident father involvement and high-risk sexual or anti-social behaviors have been hampered by disagreements about the most appropriate way to measure father involvement and by the use of broad categories to measure anti-social behaviors.
The purpose of this study is to estimate the causal effects of non-resident father involvement on early sexual debut, number of sexual partners, drug use, and violence among adolescent Black males and utilizes the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health dataset. Early sexual debut is an issue of particular concern for adolescent Black males. Compared to a nationwide average of 6 percent, 27 percent of Black males reported initiating sex before the age of 13 in 2005. Adolescent Black males are also at disproportionate risk for negative health outcomes associated with risky sexual behavior. In 2001, Black non-Hispanic males constituted less than 15 percent of young men between the ages of 13 and 19, but they accounted for 59 percent of HIV and 40 percent of AIDS diagnoses.
Metropolitan Unemployment and Child Support Non-Compliance Rates
This paper uses the 1994 to 2006 Current Population Survey-Child Support Supplement (CPS-CSS) data to determine if non-compliance with child support orders rises when unemployment rates rise. The nationally representative, cross sectional samples of the CPS-CSS will allow us to produce causal estimates of the link between unemployment rates and non-compliance rates by controlling for time- and state-specific factors. In 2006, New York State passed legislation expanding the New York State Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to include low-to-moderate income non-custodial parents, on the condition that they have paid their child support in full. Several other states have passed similar expansions and federal legislation has recently been proposed with the same full compliance criterion. No previous empirical studies have examined the effects of the business cycle on child support compliance, but if compliance is sensitive to the business cycle, then the full compliance criterion may exclude many of the intended beneficiaries of these new non-custodial parent EITC provisions.
On the Wall or on the Margins: A Study of the Employment and Earnings Gaps between Young Black Men in Bermuda and their Same-Age Peers
This study documents the size of achievement gaps in employment status and earnings between young Black Bermudian males and their same-age peers and examines the extent to which these achievement gaps are associated with race, Bermudian status, and other factors by which young Black and White men in Bermuda differ. This study uses micro-data from the 2000 Bermuda Census of Population and Housing to measure the gaps in unemployment, underemployment, and earnings between young Black Bermudian men and their same-age peers. The unemployment rate of young Bermudian Black men was 11 percent, almost double the unemployment rate of young White Bermudian men (6 percent), but just 2 percentage points higher than the unemployment rate of young Black Bermudian women (9 percent).
Labor economists have found that education and a number of factors, including race and gender, could account for differences in unemployment and earnings. Black Bermudian men obtained less education than their same-age peers and their health and marital status, as well as the industries in which they were employed, all suggest that they would earn less than their same-age peers. Black Bermudian men would gain as much or more as their same-age peers from additional investments in technical, Associate’s or Bachelor’s degrees. However, these gains would not eliminate the achievement gaps between young Black Bermudian men and their same age peers. It is difficult to determine how large a role race plays in the predicted earnings gap between young Black and White Bermudian men because industry of employment accounts for 57 percent of the gap, but both race and educational attainment are associated with industry of employment.
Promising Income Support Policies for Low-Income Men and Families: Tax and Transfer Programs
Reliance on labor markets alone will not help disadvantaged men (especially unmarried fathers) enough to increase their marriageability or ability to pay child support or support a young family. This paper reviews several-income support programs and policies (EITC, child support enforcement, payroll-tax forgiveness, and unemployment insurance) to understand their currently effect on low-skilled men and what changes would be needed to these policies and programs to increase their impact on this vulnerable population. It also examines how key features of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act help or hinder income stability and support for low-skilled men—especially in an era when less-educated men will have great difficulty finding employment.
Simulating Take Up of a National Non-Custodial Parent Earned Income Tax Credit, Modeled on the Experience in New York State
This study will use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to estimate how many non-custodial parents (NCPs) of young children could participate in a federal credit, modeled after the New York State NCP-EITC, and how many of these NCPs would benefit from the credit. In particular, the study will examine the importance of four critical criteria of the New York State NCP-EITC, all of which are in proposed federal legislation.
1. Paying child support through the formal system;
2. Paying the full amount of child support due;
3. Not having arrears on past child support, (which would result in interception of the credit by revenue agencies); and
4. Having an annual income of less than $34,000.
When weighted, FFCWS is nationally representative of births in large metropolitan areas in the U.S. between 1996 and 1998. As a result, our estimates will provide a realistic assessment of who will and will not benefit should a program, modeled after the New York State legislation, become the law of the land.
A Study of Trajectories of Young Black Males in the New York City Public Schools
The study will use Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) techniques to study how individual, school, teacher, and school-environment characteristics are associated with the educational trajectories of black male students in the New York City Public School system. The data for this analysis come from a special longitudinal data file prepared for this study by the New York City Department of Education, which provides data for a single cohort of young black male students from the time they entered the public school system until the time they left (grades 4 -12). CRFCFW has partnered with researchers at the NYU Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, who will use Nagin Cluster Analysis to analyze the same data. The research teams will use their results to inform the education policy advocacy of the Black Male Donor Collaborative.