Fragile Families Essay -- Article Review, Family Policy

Fragile Families: Articles and How They Contribute to Family Policy This paper will review two articles pertaining to â€Å"fragile families† and assess how they help contribute to family policy. â€Å"Fragile families† are very pertinent to the core of family policy. In the 1990’s the term â€Å"fragile families† originated out of a need to describe families not fitting into the traditional married – unmarried couples with children (McLanahan, Garfinkel, Mincy, & Donahue, 2010). Over a 60 year period non-marital births of children increased significantly. In 1940, 4% of children born were to non-married parents. However, by 2007 this number reached a high of 40%. These families can be compromised of cohabitating couples, non-cohabitating couples, or single mothers (Kalil & Ryan, 2010). They are deemed â€Å"fragile† because they are more likely to experience difficulties economically and relationship wise. They tend to be more impoverished, experience material hardship, and have absent fathers. More importa ntly fragile families are of great concern because they often lack stability as a family unit. Yet, fragile families have become one of the new family types and seem to be a permanent structure steadily on the rise. Bogenschneider (2006) stated that one of the main underlying issues of the family policy debate is the conflicting ideas of families (types). These conflicts are evident when you look at the 3 perspectives with regard to family policy: Concerned, Sanguine, and Impatient. This is why there has been increased focus on this new type of family. One of the issues that need be assessed with regard to fragile families is mothers’ economic conditions and their support systems. (McLanahan et al., 2010). Kalil and Ryan (2010), discuss mot... ... Craigie, and Gunn, 2010). Second, address factors that place the child at risk such as a lack of parent involvement. Third, directly address children’s risk through early child hood education amongst other things. There are also policy changes that can be implemented with regard to mothers’ economic plights and the resources available to them. There should be a strengthening of community based programs that aid mothers and a focus on them working efficiently (Kalil & Ryan, 2010). Safety nets provided in the form of things such as food stamps need to be strengthened as well. Policies should support these resources and have an ultimate goal of economic self sufficiency for mothers in fragile families. The issues presented allow policy makers to be well informed of the possible risks associate with fragile families and the issues they face, especially economically.