Fathers of children on welfare: their impact on child well-being

Although it is generally assumed that fathers are absent from the lives of children being raised on AFDC, evidence from a case-control study in Worcester, Massachusetts, suggests that there is considerable father-child contact. In addition, multivariate modeling indicates that contact with fathers had a modest beneficial effect on children's behavior. Based on these study findings, negative traits of fathers (e.g., substance abuse, physical violence) appear to be associated with increased child behavior problems.