#   NURTURING FATHERHOOD:  Improving Data and Research on Male Fertility, Family Formation, and Fatherhood

June, 1998**TABLE OF CONTENTS**
Forewordby Vice President Al Gore
Preface andAcknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Conference on Fathering andMale Fertility: Improving Data and Research
Chapter 3: Male Fertility and FamilyFormation: Research and Data Needs on The Pathways to Fatherhood
Chapter 4: Social Fatherhood And PaternalInvolvement: Conceptual, Data, and Policymaking Issues
Chapter 5: Methodological Issues in ImprovingData on Fathers
Chapter 6: Opportunities to Improve Dataand Research on Fatherhood
**APPENDICES**
APPENDIX A: Conference Agenda andWorking Group Members 
APPENDIX B: Integrating TheoreticalPerspectives on Gender, Union Formation and Fertility
APPENDIX C: The Meaning of Fatherhoodfor Men
APPENDIX D: FertilityMotivation, Decision Making, and Intention to Engage in Sex, Contraception,Pregnancy, Abortion and Birth
APPENDIX E: Data and ResearchNeeds Concerning Union Formation and Dissolution
APPENDIX F: Male Fertilityin Relation to Union Formation And Dissolution
APPENDIX G: The BiologicalAnd Health Aspects of Male Fertility: Implications For Use of ReproductiveHealth Care Services
APPENDIX H: Data Needs RegardingMale Reproductive Health and Reproductive Health Services
APPENDIX I: Indicators ofMale Fertility, Family Formation, and Sexual Behavior
APPENDIX J: Constructs Usedin Data Collection
APPENDIX K: NonresidentFathers: What We Know and What's Left to Learn?
APPENDIX L: New Directionsfor Exploring Fathers'Attachment to Households
APPENDIX M: Contacts forthis Report  Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics was foundedin 1994. Executive Order No. 13045 formally established it in April 1997,to foster coordination and collaboration in the collection and reportingof Federal data on children and families. Members of the Forum as of Spring1998 are listed below.**Department of      Agriculture**  Food and Nutrition      Service  Office of Analysis and      Evaluation  Alberta C. Frost, Director**Department of      Commerce**  Bureau of the Census       Nancy Gordon  Associate Director for Demographic      Programs  **Department of      Defense**  Office of Undersecretary of      Defense  Carolyn H. Becraft       Deputy Assitant Secretary of      Defense**Department of      Education**  National Center for Education      Statistics  Pascal D. Forgione,      Jr.  Commissioner**Department of Health and Human      Services**  *Administration for Children and      Families *Olivia Golden  Assistant Secretary for Children and      Families  *Agency for Health Care Policy and      Research*  Lisa Simpson  Deputy Administrator*Maternal and Child Health      Bureau *Audrey Nora  Director*National Center for Health      Statistics *Edward Sondik  Director*National Institute of Child Health      and Human Development *Duane Alexander  Director*Office of the Assistant Secretary for      Planning and Evaluation *Patricia Ruggles  Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services      Policy**Department of Housing and Urban      Development**  Office of Policy Development and      Research  Paul Leonard  Acting Assistant Secretary**Department of      Justice**  *Bureau of Justice      Statistics *Jan Chaiken  Director*National Institute of      Justice *Sally T. Hillsman       Deputy Director*Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency      Prevention *Shay Bilchik  Administrator**Department of      Labor**  Bureau of Labor      Statistics  Katharine Abraham       CommissionerWomen's Bureau  Ida Castro  Acting Director**National Science      Foundation**  Science Resources Studies      Division  Jeanne E. Griffith       Director**Office of Management and      Budget**  Statistical Policy      Office  Katherine K. Wallman       Chief Statistician

**FOREWORD**
I am pleased to extend my congratulations tothe Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics on the publicationof *NURTURTNG FATHERHOOD:**Improving Data and**Research onMale Fertility, Family Formation and Fatherhood.*This report to the policy,information collection and research communities will have a lasting influenceon****efforts to understand and foster fathers' active participationin the lives of their children.
In 1994, when I led "Family Re-Union 3: TheRole of Men in Children's Lives" in Nashville, Tennessee, little did I realizethe great outpouring of time, talent and commitment that soon would be dedicatedto the issue of fatherhood. Program practitioners, community leaders, local,state and federal policy makers, and the public and private research communityhave taken very seriously research findings that the well-being of childrenis enhanced by the presence of caring and involved fathers and that fatherabsence can have lasting detrimental effects on children's lives.
The Federal Interagency Forum has providedoutstanding leadership in developing a public-private partnership to implementPresident Clinton's request that federal agencies do more to support therole of fathers in families and specifically that fathers be incorporatedin government-initiated research regarding children and their families. Thepublication of *NURTURING FATHERHOOD*reflects the successful completionof the Forum's efforts to understand what we know through existing researchon fathers and families. It is also the beginning of new opportunities tosignificantly increase our knowledge about fatherhood and the relationshipof fertility and family formation to the way men****experiencefathering.
I believe that all children can benefit fromthe involved presence of a father in their lives. I commend the member agenciesof the Forum, the public and private research community and the public andprivate funders who have made such an outstanding contribution to ourunderstanding of what we know about fathers' involvement in the lives ofchildren and to what more we****need to know. Working together I knowthat we will m a better world for all of America's children.
**Vice President Albert Gore**

**Preface andAcknowledgments**
This report summarizes the presentations andrecommendations of the Conference on Fathering and Male Fertility: ImprovingData and Research, sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health andHuman Development (NICHD), the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and FamilyStatistics, and the NICHD Family and Child Well-being Research Network.
The findings and recommendations presented atthe Conference on Fathering and Male Fertility represent the cumulative effortof more than a hundred researchers, policy analysts, and public officialswho, over the course of year, thought deeply and creatively about how toimprove the information available to society on fathers. This report is beingwidely disseminated to those agencies of the federal government that conductand/or fund research on children and families, to the broader research community,to policy makers, to the philanthropic world, and to the media.
The conference, which took place on March 13and 14, 1997, was the culmination of a remarkable year-long effort to developan action agenda to improve federal data and research on fathers and on malefertility, involving many of the nation's leading scholars and researcherswithin and outside of the federal government between March 1996 and March1997.
Prior to the Conference in March of 1997, aTown Meeting on data needs for policy was sponsored by the Forum and twoConferences were sponsored by the National Institutes for Health and theNICHD Family and Child Well-Being Research Network. One of the conferencesfocused on qualitative and clinical research and how it could be integratedwith data from large scale surveys. The second conference invited scholarsfrom several disciplines to present empirical work, primarily from largescale studies.
Three working groups were also established andcharged with developing specific recommendations to improve data and researchon fatherhood. The working groups looked specifically at 1) the conceptualizationof fatherhood, 2) issues of family formation and male fertility, and 3)methodological challenges. The working groups presented their findings andrecommendations at the March 1997 conference. Each group's report is presentedin this volume.
A fourth working group was charged with examiningthe trade-offs and targets of opportunity to improve the federal statisticalssystem's capacity to gather data on fatherhood based on information fromall the review activities and developing a report to the Federal InteragencyForum on Child and Family Statistics. These recommendations were presentedto the Forum on October of 1997.
The many individuals whose hard work and enthusiasmmade this entire effort possible reflect the strength that building apublic/private partnership brings to a complex and multifaceted project.The contributions of the following people are much appreciated:
The NICHD Family and Child Well-being ResearchNetwork: Kristin Moore (Child Trends, Inc.), H. Elizabeth Peters (CornellUniversity), Desmond K. Runyan (University of North Carolina), Jeanne Brooks-Gunn(Columbia University), Greg Duncan (University of Michigan), Jay Teachman(Washington State University), and Arland Thornton (University ofMichigan).
Conference Coordination Committee: ChristineBachrach, Jeffrey Evans, Judy Whalen, and Marie Bristol, (NICHD), KristinMoore and Angela Greene (Child Trends, Inc.), Freya Sonenstein (Urban Institute),Linda Mellgren (ASPE), Anne Benson (Office of Child Support Enforcement/DHHS),Wendy Taylor (OMB), and Gesine Hearn (NICHD Network).
The leadership of the working groups: RandalD. Day, V. Jeffery Evans, and Michael Lamb, co-chairs of the Working Groupon Conceptualizing Male Parenting; Christine Bachrach and Freya Sonenstein,co-chairs of the Male Fertility and Family Formation Working Group; AndrewCherlin and Jeanne Griffith, co-chairs of the Working Group on the Methodologyof Research on Fathers; and Linda Mellgren and Wendy Taylor, co-chairs ofthe Working Group on Trade-Offs and Targets of Opportunity.
The National Center on Fathers andFamilies/University of Pennsylvania: Vivian Gadsden. The authors of the townmeeting and conferences summary report: Angela Dungee Greene, Carol Emigand Gesine Hearn. For managing arrangements and logistics for the meetingsand conferences: Gesine Hearn (NICHD Family and Child Well-Being ResearchNetwork), Fanette Jones and Sonia Subaran (Child Trends, Inc), Sylvia EllisonNICHD), Anne Benson (OCSE/HHS), and Linda Mellgren (ASPE).
Finally, special thanks go to the Ford Foundation,the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation for theirgenerous contributions to this effort. These private funders worked inpartnership with federal agencies to defray conference costs and the costsof preparing and disseminating meeting summaries.
And last, but not least, a very special thank-youto Nancy Hoit, Lisa Mallory, and Beverly Godwin of Vice President Gore'sNational Partnership for Reinventing Governmentfor their enthusiastic supportand to Duane Alexander, Director of NICHD and Ann Rosewater, Counselor tothe Secretary and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy,ASPE and Chair of the DHHS Fathers Work Group, for their leadership andwillingness to devote staff resources to the effort.  Where to?
Table of Contents
**Home Pages:**HHS' Fatherhood InitiativeHuman Service Policy(HSP)Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation(ASPE)U.S. Department of Health and Human Services(HHS)
Updated 1/16/02