Maureen Waller has examined how disadvantaged parents - who have been directly affected by major changes in family formation, marriage, and fatherhood in the United States - have experienced these changes on the ground level. In particular, this research has investigated the frameworks through which men and women interpret marriage and fatherhood in low-income communities and how these interpretations guide their decisions about parenting and intimate relationships. This work has also considered whether social policies designed to address recent changes in family structure correspond to low-income parents' perceptions and experiences. In previous research ( My Baby's Father, Cornell University Press), Waller conducted intensive interviews with unmarried mothers and fathers whose children receive welfare to examine collective beliefs about paternal responsibility, how parents express these beliefs through informal practices, and how these beliefs and practices conflict with the assumptions and regulations of the child support system. Her current research draws on longitudinal, qualitative and survey data collected as part of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine early transitions in relationships between unmarried mothers and fathers and between unmarried fathers and their children. Recent papers have focused on such issues as the implications of fathers' incarceration and other risk factors for family relationships, fathers' involvement as caretakers of young children, tensions in the relationships between low-income parents, unmarried couples' expectations for marriage and their fear of divorce. Funding for this work has been provided by the Public Policy Institute of California, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, NICHD, USDA, and the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell University.