Fatherhood site for US govt
http://fatherhood.hhs.gov/index.shtml
Italics are comments of RCB. Full page and stats and sources for each one at http://www.dads4kids.com/facts_on_fatherless_kids.htm
It has always been interesting how much overlap there is in race as compared to education, socioeconomics, location. After learning more about the statistics of fatherlessness, this may be a more important marker. Race may just be a convenient and visible marker that tends to cover up (and impede exploration of) the real factors such as relationships and interactions between people and their various environments.
At a time when we are understanding more and more that a small subgroup of people results in a large portion of health care costs, it seems we would have more studies and awareness in this area.
Summary: Children of fatherless families have greater and earlier sexual activity, dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse, more mental illness, more suicide, poorer educational performance, and higher rates of teen pregnancy, criminality, and sexual abuse. They are more likely to have suffered child abuse and more often have earlier death, confused identities (boys), more aggressive behavior (boys), more emotional distress, uncooperative behavior, more anxiety and depression (girls), more antisocial behavior, and school suspensions.
Bringing the war back home The odds that a boy born in America in 1974 will be murdered are higher than the odds that a serviceman in World War II would be killed in combat. Source: US Sen. Phil Gramm, 1995
Comment: When you look at some neighborhoods, the odds really mount. Colin Powell in an interview noted that he was fortunate to make it out of a neighborhood and survive, only he and two others lived to make it out of Harlem. Powell had strong family support.
Beyond class lines. Even controlling for variations across groups in parent
education, race and other child and family factors, 18-to 22-year-olds from
disrupted families were twice as likely to
have poor relationships with their mothers and fathers, to show high levels of
emotional distress or problem behavior, [and] to have received psychological
help.
Source: Nicholas Zill, Donna Morrison, and Mary Jo Coiro, "Long
Term Effects of Parental Divorce on Parent-Child Relationships,
Adjustment and Achievement in Young Adulthood." Journal of
Family Psychology 7 (1993).
Fatherly influence. Children with fathers at home tend to do better in school,
are less prone to depression and are more successful in relationships. Children
from one-parent families achieve less and get into trouble more than children
from two parent families.
Source: One Parent Families and Their Children: The School's Most Significant
Minority, conducted by The Consortium for the Study of School Needs of Children
from One Parent Families, co-sponsored by the National Association of Elementary
School Principals and the Institute for Development of Educational Activities, a
division of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Arlington, VA., 1980
Act now, pay later: "Children from mother-only families have less of an ability
to delay gratification and poorer impulse control (that is, control over anger
and sexual gratification.) These children also have a weaker sense of conscience
or sense of right
and wrong."
Source: E.M. Hetherington and B. Martin, "Family Interaction" in H.C. Quay and J.S. Werry (eds.), Psychopathological Disorders of
Childhood. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979)
Underpaid high achievers: Children from low-income, two-parent families
outperform students from high-income, single-parent homes. Almost twice as many
high achievers come from two-parent homes as one-parent homes.
Source: "One-Parent Families and Their Children;" Charles F. Kettering
Foundation (1990).
Get a job: The number of men who complain that work conflicts
with their family responsibilities rose from 12 percent in 1977 to
72 percent in 1989. Meanwhile, 74 percent of men prefer a
"daddy track" job to a "fast track" job.
Source: James Levine, The Fatherhood Project.
Comment: Despite this, the time children spend with TV continues to
increase and the time with parents continues to decrease. Could it be that
"spending more time with family" is really and excuse to do more for yourself."
Cool Dad of the Week: Among fathers who maintain contact
with their children after a divorce, the pattern of the relationship
between father-and-child changes. They begin to behave more
like relatives than like parents. Instead of helping with
homework, nonresident dads are more likely to take the kids
shopping, to the movies, or out to dinner. Instead of providing
steady advice and guidance, divorced fathers become "treat
dads."
Source: F. Furstenberg, A. Cherlin, Divided Families . Harvard
Univ. Press. 1991.
Full page and stats and sources at http://www.dads4kids.com/facts_on_fatherless_kids.htm
Fatherlessness and the word of God the Father
In my junior year of high school we went to a funeral in Kentucky where my
dad had grown up. It was one of those times - people say to me "Did you ever
have a born again experience?" and I always say "frequently." My dad, who wasn't
a sentimental, gushy kind of guy, pulled off the road. We walked around for a
bit, and my dad said, "This is all changed. Somewhere out here there was a
swimming hole and a vine we used to swing out over the water on." And I suddenly
realized that my dad had been a kid once. At the time the most convicting verse
in the Bible was "Honor your father and mother." And I
realize now that [that verse] means that if you cannot honor your father and
mother then you can't honor anybody. Until you come to terms with your heritage
you'll never be at peace with yourself. That was a real breakthrough moment for
me. - Rich Mullins
If you never had a heritage including a father, how would this impact a person? RCB