Features

Lost Fathers: The Politics of Fatherlessness in America, by Cynthia R. Daniels, ed. St. Martins Press, 224 pages, $24.95. The Fatherhood Movement: A Call to Action, by Wade F. Horn, David Blankenhorn, Mitchell B. Perlstein, eds. Lexington Books, 352 pages, $14.95. Turning the Corner on Father Absence in Black America. A Statement from the Morehouse […]

These days I settle for small and subtle signs of progress. Take the story inthe February 15 Washington Post on the demise of a proposal in the Virginia legislature that would have required public-school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. State Senator Warren E. Barry–the outraged sponsor of the legislation, which was amended by […]

I t’s no accident that politicians kiss babies. America is a nation that professes to love its children. Yet the policies we have in place to raise the next generation are those of a nation that kisses children off. This special report offers a tour of the horizon. In the opening piece, Janet C. Gornick […]

There are 25.8 million family caregivers in America today. According to a recent study by the United Hospital Fund of New York, they provide the equivalent of nearly $200 billion worth of health care services per year. That’s almost double the annual amount the United States spends on nursing home and home health care. Yet […]

F ourteen years old and sullen, he came to the hospital on a Sunday afternoon for evaluation of long-standing abdominal pain. As a first-year pediatric intern, I thought of incredible diagnoses: An intermittent twisting of the bowel? A rare parasite? When the preliminary tests came back negative, I told my patient the good news. He […]

Between 1960 and 1982, the divorce rate in America tripled. By now many researchers have investigated the effects on families and children of this sweeping change. Considerable speculation has been generated as well. But there has been little agreement. To some divorce is a quick fix to marital discontent sought by narcissistic parents and its […]

For a country that claims to love kids, the United States sure seems to dislike parents. According to a 1999 survey conducted by the foundation Public Agenda, only 23 percent of Americans feel that parents are good role models for their children, while fully 49 percent believe that “irresponsible” parents–and not social and economic pressures […]

B ipartisan consensus is a concept rarely associated with the current U.S. Congress. One policy issue, however, has drawn support from both sides of the aisle in recent years: addressing the plight of the nation’s 10 million uninsured children. After all, children are the segment of the population least able to control whether or not […]