The “Fatherlessness ” Epidemic

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, according to the The National Center for Fathering (NCF) , some fathering advocates would say that almost every social ill faced by America’s children is related to fatherlessness.

As supported by the data , children from fatherless homes are more likely to be poor, become involved in drug and alcohol abuse, drop out of school, and suffer from health and emotional problems. Boys are more likely to become involved in crime, and girls are more likely to become pregnant as teens.

The negative effects of a child without a father can be seen in countless studies and reports. The statistics show the importance of a father figure in the majority of children’s lives.

According to “What Can the Federal Government Do To Decrease Crime and Revitalize Communities?” from the U.S. Department of Justice, children from fatherless homes account for:

Suicide: 63 percent of youth suicides

Runaways: 90 percent of all homeless and runaway youths

Behavioral Disorders: 85 percent of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders

High School Dropouts: 71 percent of all high school dropouts

Juvenile Detention Rates: 70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions

Substance Abuse: 75 percent of adolescent patients in substance abuse centers

Aggression: 75 percent of rapists motivated by displaced anger

To back up that data from 1998, which continues to be cited by researchers, a 2016 report of teenagers placed in juvenile residential facilities shows that 45 percent were living with only one parent at the time. That is a significant difference when compared to 30 percent of teens in two-parent households.

Furthermore, individual studies over the years have noted similar challenges for children with an absent father:

Educational Attainment

Kids living in single-parent homes or in step-families report lower educational expectations on the part of their parents, less parental monitoring of school work, and less overall social supervision than children from intact families. (Astore NM, S. McLanahan S. American Sociological Review, No. 56. 1991)

Achievement

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. (One-Parent Families and Their Children. Charles F. Kettering Foundation. 1990).

Drug Use

A study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded that fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse. (National Center for Health Statistics. Survey on Child Health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1993.)

Incarceration Rates

“Young men who grow up in homes without fathers are twice as likely to end up in jail as those who come from traditional two-parent families…those boys whose fathers were absent from the household had double the odds of being incarcerated — even when other factors such as race, income, parent education and urban residence were held constant.” (Harper C, McLanahan SS. Cited in Father Absence and Youth Incarceration. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 2004.)