{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02857142857142857, 'fraction_numerical': 0.013061224489795919, 'mean_word_length': 5.327022375215146, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Commentary on Fathers and Children and Maltreatment

The articles on fathers and child maltreatment in this special issue offer welcome insights into an important area that continues to be understudied and poorly understood. The ecological framework set forth by Bronfenbrenner (1979) and applied to child maltreatment by Belsky (1980, 1993) has been broadly accepted for understanding the etiology of child maltreatment. It is clear that fathers constitute an important aspect of children’s ecology, influencing their lives, directly and indirectly. Thus, understanding fathers’ roles and involvement in children’s lives is critical for fully understanding the underpinnings of child maltreatment and for developing optimal practice and policies. We are reminded that actually fathers and adult males are often involved in the lives of high-risk families and children (Bellamy, 2009). For example, two thirds of the men arrested for intimate partner violence in the study by Salisbury, Henning, and Holdford (2009) were engaged in fathering roles and for many this continued after their arrest. The stereotype of fathers in high-risk families being frequently absent and little involved is often not true. However, family structures have clearly changed and have become more fluid (Dubowitz, Newberger, Melnicoe, & Newberger, 1988). Even when fathers are not coresident and may lack formal roles, they may still affect mothers and their children—for good and for ill. One question of interest is whether the specific relationship with the child is important, given the many families where father figures (e.g., mother’s boyfriend) are more involved than biological fathers. Some studies have documented the importance of the biological relationship. For example, Berger, Paxson, and Waldfogel (2009) found that mothers living with a man who was not the biological father of all her children were at increased risk of involvement with child protective services (CPS). Other studies, in contrast, have found that the biological relationship may not be critical regarding child maltreatment and other child outcomes (Bellamy, 2009; Dubowitz, Black, Kerr, Starr, & Harrington, 2000). Either way, the roles and potential contributions of both fathers and father figures to children’s health, development, and safety cannot be ignored. It follows that CPS and other agencies serving children and families need to consider and reach out to these men, both in their assessments and in their service plans. Failure to do so will leave a gap in comprehensively understanding a child’s ecology, the circumstances underpinning maltreatment, and the specific contribution of the father or father figure. The men may also be very useful vectors for successful intervention. The pilot randomized control trial of Lam, Fals-Stewart, and Kelley (2009) offers preliminary promise of how addressing a father’s substance abuse was associated with fewer CPS reports. (There is a need to replicate the study with a larger sample.) As a corollary, interventions that fail to involve fathers and father figures may be less likely to be effective. The articles in this special issue provide a vital cautionary reminder regarding the limitations of stereotypes and biases regarding men, especially when based on simple demographic variables such as biological relationship and marital status. This point is highlighted in the article showing that caseworkers perceived a greater risk to children living with a nonbiological male, but that living arrangement was not associated with greater CPS involvement (Bellamy, 2009). Another example is the article by Berger et al. (2009); after controlling for