'Young, disadvantaged men'

With teen moms being debated heavily in popular culture today, it's easy to neglect the effects of fatherhood. However, recent research shows that young, disadvantaged men also affect a family and society. In fact, by age 30, between 68 and 75 percent of young men with a high school degree or less are fathers.

A new issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (published by SAGE) called "Young Disadvantaged Men: Fathers, Family, Poverty, and Policy," examines how poverty and lack of education are creating a "perfect storm of adverse events".

Today almost half of all kids are being raised by at least one parent with a low educational background (high school degree or less by age 30) and a poor expected economic future. Additionally 62 percent of fathers with a high school degree or less earned less than $20,000 in 2002. These issues combine to create a roadmap to failure for young, disadvantaged dads.

To help explore and begin working on some solutions, co-editors of the volume Irwin Garfinkel, Ronald B. Mincy and Timothy Smeeding convened a national conference at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where economists, sociologists, and public policy experts presented their latest work. This conference included cross-cutting commentary on culture, race, and family functioning and longer-term relationships; and examined child support policy, school-to-work transitions, dropout, incarceration, and fatherhood-strengthening policies.

"Young Disadvantaged Men" presents the best thinking of national experts on the issues of immediate concern to those working through research, policy, and practice to reconnect disconnected dads to their children and thereby improve child and family economic and emotional well-being.

The issue entitled "Young Disadvantaged Men: Fathers, Family, Poverty, and Policy" is available to purchase at http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book237311?series=Series914&. Additionally, the introduction written by the co-editors is available free for a limited time at: http://ann.sagepub.com/content/635/1/6.full.pdf+html.

"Young Disadvantaged Men: Fathers, Family, Poverty, and Policy" features the following additional pieces:

• "No Country for Young Men: Deteriorating Labor Market Prospects for Low-Skilled Men in the United States" by Andrew Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada, Joseph McLaughlin, and Sheila Palma
  
• "Young Disadvantaged Men as Fathers" by Lawrence M. Berger and Callie E. Langton
  
• "The Relationship Contexts of Young Disadvantaged Men" by Laura Tach and Kathryn Edin
  
• "Low-Income Fathers' Influence on Children" by Marcia J. Carlson and Katherine A. Magnuson
  
• "Comment: Reactions from the Perspective of Culture and Low-Income Fatherhood" by Alford A. Young Jr.
  
• "Comment: Young Disadvantaged Men: Reactions from the Perspective of Race" by Devah Pager
  
• "Comment: How Do Low-Income Men and Fathers Matter for Children and Family Life?" by Frank F. Furstenberg Jr.
  
• "Child Support: Responsible Fatherhood and the Quid Pro Quo" by Maria Cancian, Daniel R. Meyer, and Eunhee Han
  
• "Improving Education and Employment for Disadvantaged Young Men: Proven and Promising Strategies" by Carolyn J. Heinrich and Harry J. Holzer
  
• "Incarceration and Prisoner Reentry in the United States" by Steven Raphael
  
• "Policies That Strengthen Fatherhood and Family Relationships: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know?" by Virginia Knox, Philip A. Cowan, Carolyn Pape Cowan, and Elana Bildner
  
• "Income Support Policies for Low-Income Men and Noncustodial Fathers: Tax and Transfer Programs" by Ronald B. Mincy, Serena Klempin, and Heather Schmidt