“We need to encourage dads to be involved in their children’s lives, even if they aren’t present on a daily basis in their children’s homes. They can learn how to help care for infants and be available as their children grow up,” said Waldo E. Johnson Jr., Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration and a leading national researcher on fathering.

“Social work, as a profession, has not been as active in engaging fathers in family life as it should be,” he said. “Some young men become fathers too early and do not connect with their children. There exists another set of fathers who are divorced. If they start new families, they often don’t engage with their children as much from their first family.” In addition to helping mothers with financial issues within the family, fathers need support in assuming other critical child development concerns, he said.

Johnson has suggested several ways in which social workers can become part of their families and more effective members of their communities:

• Female social workers should not immediately negatively judge men’s capacity to be fathers and should encourage single mothers to involve their children’s fathers.

• Fathers who live apart from their children should be informed of developments in the home that potentially threaten their children’s safety and be provided an opportunity to take custody prior to removal into foster care.

• Family support programs should take a gender-neutral approach to parenting enhancement that also will expand the range of paternal roles for fathers.

• Men should be encouraged to look for ways they can show caring support to their children, in addition to providing materially for them to experience a broader range of effective fathering and parenting.

“We must provide opportunities for these young men to see and embrace healthy notions of masculinity and fatherhood,” Johnson said.