A number of studies testify to the success of hospital-based paternity establishment programs. Child support reform has been explored more extensively within the context of welfare reform. The primary systemic barrier to father involvement appears to be a sense of distrust toward fathers that pervades the child support system. Fathers are assumed to be uninterested in their children's lives. Father involvement is equated typically in this literature with financial support and examined almost exclusively in terms of fathers' willingness to pay.
Family courts tend to hand down custody and child support decisions in a punitive manner.
For instance, fathers are served a summons to appear in court to begin the process of paternity adjudication and child support. Many fathers, particularly young fathers of color, associate these procedures with criminal cases. A significant body of clinical literature identifies a bias against fathers and in favor of mothers within social service agencies at all levels. Family agencies and programs either ignore the significance of father participation altogether or include fathers as auxiliary support for mother participants. However, many fathers, particularly teen and unmarried fathers, appear interested, but uninformed about parenting, child development, and their procreative and custody rights.