Inventory of policies and policy areas influencing father involvement

Similar concerns about the prevalence of single mother-led families and the failure of fathers to pay child support prompted research and new policies introduced in the 1980s and early 1990s in the U. K. (Lewis, 2002). [...] In Europe, the U. S. and Canada, there is also growing recognition of the need to understand how fathers’ experiences are similar and different in different situations, and the value of appreciating the diversity of perspectives and needs that we are only beginning to hear from fathers themselves. [...] Most recently, funding has been provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to support the Father 2 Involvement Research Alliance (FIRA), a unique community-university research alliance (CURA) designed to examine father involvement as a diverse, multifaceted, and complex experience and to heighten awareness of the benefits of father involvement and barriers to it unde [...] The legal establishment and acknowledgment of paternity provides the basis for all of the rights that accrue to the child and the rights and obligations of the man who is the designated paternal parent of the child. [...] The importance of a child’s right to birth registration is captured in Articles 7 and 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child where it is affirmed that children have the right to have their birth registered and a name.