Fatherhood:

A recent Huffington Post column focused on a 2010 study by Jacob Cheadle, Paul Amato and Valerie King on how involved non-custodial fathers were with their children post-divorce.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the "Patterns of Nonresident Father Contact" research study found that physical distance between a father and child is the biggest determining factor in the amount of contact between them.

As more and more fathers are becoming stay-at-home dads, many have questions about dads rights and if theirs are the same as stay-at-home moms.

Typically, the mom who stayed at home during the marriage receives primary custody of the children along with child support and alimony after a divorce in order to continue living the lifestyle she was accustomed to.

But with the new era of stay-at-home fatherhood, is it any different for a stay-at-home dad?

Over the last 50 years the number of children born to unmarried parents has increased from 5% to 41%, according to a Pew Research Center study on the rise of new family types.

Thus, far more children now live with an unmarried parent. This change from the typical family unit has caused an increase in conflicts between the unwed parents when issues regarding child support and visitation arise.

As a result of these trends, there are large numbers of unwed fathers who need advice concerning their paternity rights when the child is born.

Society unfortunately attaches a negative stigma to divorced fathers who are viewed with skepticism and pity.

The poor portrayal of fatherhood in the media only adds to this perception, according to a survey by the National Fatherhood Initiative. The survey reveals even the mothers agree; more than half of moms say that the media portrays fathers in a negative light.

The same survey found that only 20 percent of mothers not living with the father of their children are satisfied with dad’s performance and that two-thirds of mothers think biological fathers are replaceable either by mom or other men.

Parental alienation is an act by a parent that tries to denigrate and destroy the relationship between a child and the other targeted parent. Many consider parental alienation to be a form of child abuse.

Symptoms of alienation can vary from child to child, making it difficult to explain the need for help, according to Jill Duffy, a father’s rights attorney with Cordell & Cordell.

These symptoms include:

Any father who has been the targeted parent of parental alienation and witnessed first-hand its dangerous effects always wants to know, “how could I have avoided this?”

Parental alienation disorder is a mental condition in which a child, usually one put in the middle of a contentious divorce, allies strongly with one parent and rejects a relationship with the other parent without legitimate justification.

When a child is involved in an international parental kidnapping dispute, the non-offending parent should look to the Hague Convention for guidance.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a treaty between countries that agree to cooperate and abide one set of laws, the Hague Convention, for the return of children removed from their home country for custody disputes.

International child abduction is a crime in every U.S. state and in some cases the abducting parent can be charged with a federal crime under the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act.

Nevertheless, international parental kidnapping continues to happen. The Office of Children's Issues at the State Department lists on its website measures to help prevent this horrible situation from occurring.