Policies and Programmatic Efforts Pertaining to Fatherhood: Commentary

The articles in this section focus attention on (1) the historical shift in policies that affect the young men of this nation (2) how fatherhood policies and programmatic efforts are expanding and (3) how fatherhood practices and policies could and perhaps should be expanded and elaborated further. These efforts are linked to a growing body of research documenting the importance of fathers in children's lives, summarized in other sections of this issue. In our commentary we review the changing policy and programmatic climate with regards to fathers and note the opportunities for the policy and programmatic worlds for the future and for policy and programmatic research to move to new levels in enhancing the knowledge base.