Fatherlessness
Q: How many children in America live without a father?
A: One out of every three American children lives in a home without their father. Whether through early death or divorce, incarceration or extreme neglect, twenty-four million children in the United States are left to grow up with the emptiness, guilt, self-doubt, underachievement, anger, and depression that a fatherless home can provoke.[1]
Q: How does growing up fatherless affect boys?
A: For a growing boy, life without a father can lead to drug and/or alcohol abuse, trouble establishing appropriate sex roles and gender identity. What's more, young men who grow up in fatherless homes are twice as likely to be incarcerated. [2]
Q: How does growing up fatherless affect girls?
A: Girls who live in fatherless homes are more susceptible to eating disorders. They are more likely to have sexual problems, becoming either fearful of their own sexuality or dangerously promiscuous. A study of 13,986 imprisoned women showed that more than half of them grew up without their father. [3]
Q: What Is The Positive Impact of Father Involvement
A: In a study examining father involvement with 134 children of adolescent mothers over the first 10 years of life, researchers found that father-child contact was associated with better socio-emotional and academic functioning. The results indicated that children with more involved fathers experienced fewer behavioral problems and scored higher on reading achievement. This study showed the significance of the role of fathers in the lives of at-risk children, even in case of nonresident fathers.[4]
Source: Howard, K. S., Burke Lefever, J. E., Borkowski, J.G., & Whitman , T. L. (2006). Fathers’ influence in the lives of children with adolescent mothers. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 468- 476.
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Poverty?
A: “Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.” [5]
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Children’s Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2011, Table C8. Washington D.C.: 2011.
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Emotional and Behavioral Issues?
A: “Data from three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N= 2,111) was used to examine the prevalence and effects of mothers’ relationship changes between birth and age 3 on their children’s well being. Children born to single mothers show higher levels of aggressive behavior than children born to married mothers. Living in a single-mother household is equivalent to experiencing 5.25 partnership transitions.” [6]
Source: Osborne, C., & McLanahan, S. (2007). Partnership instability and child well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 1065-1083
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Maternal and Child Health?
A: “Infant mortality rates are 1.8 times higher for infants of unmarried mothers than for married mothers.” [7]
Source: Matthews, T.J., Sally C. Curtin, and Marian F. MacDorman. Infant Mortality Statistics from the 1998 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set. National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 12. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 2000.
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Crime and Incarceration Rates?
A: “A study of 109 juvenile offenders indicated that family structure significantly predicts delinquency.” [8]
Source: Bush, Connee, Ronald L. Mullis, and Ann K. Mullis. “Differences in Empathy Between Offender and Nonoffender Youth.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 29 (August 2000): 467-478.
“Even after controlling for income, youths in father-absent households still had significantly higher odds of incarceration than those in mother-father families. Youths who never had a father in the household experienced the highest odds.” [9]
Source: Harper, Cynthia C. and Sara S. McLanahan. “Father Absence and Youth Incarceration.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 14 (September 2004): 369-397.
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Teen Pregnancy?
A: “Being raised by a single mother raises the risk of teen pregnancy, marrying with less than a high school degree, and forming a marriage where both partners have less than a high school degree.” [10]
Source: Teachman, Jay D. “The Childhood Living Arrangements of Children and the Characteristics of Their Marriages.” Journal of Family Issues 25 (January 2004): 86-111.
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Child Abuse?
A: “A study using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study revealed that in many cases the absence of a biological father contributes to increased risk of child maltreatment. The results suggest that Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies have some justification in viewing the presence of a social father as increasing children’s risk of abuse and neglect. It is believed that in families with a non-biological (social) father figure, there is a higher risk of abuse and neglect to children, despite the social father living in the household or only dating the mother.” [11]
Source: “CPS Involvement in Families with Social Fathers.” Fragile Families Research Brief No.46. Princeton, NJ and New York, NY: Bendheim-Thomas Center for Research on Child Wellbeing and Social Indicators Survey Center, 2010.
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Alcohol and Substance Abuse?
A: “Even after controlling for community context, there is significantly more drug use among children who do not live with their mother and father.” [12]
Source: Hoffmann, John P. “The Community Context of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use.” Journal of Marriage and Family 64 (May 2002): 314-330.
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Obesity?
A: “The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that obese children are more likely to live in father-absent homes than are non-obese children.” [13]
Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
Q: How Does Fatherlessness Affect Education?
A: “Father involvement in schools is associated with the higher likelihood of a student getting mostly A's. This was true for fathers in biological parent families, for stepfathers, and for fathers heading single-parent families.” [14]
Source: Nord, Christine Winquist, and Jerry West. Fathers’ and Mothers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools by Family Type and Resident Status. (NCES 2001-032). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2001.
Q: What should fatherless children know?
A: That they matter. Fatherless youth may lash out in anger, only because they were missing the loving affection of a father. If you are fatherless, find a mentor, supportive teacher, coach, counselor, or mentor who will take the time to show you that you have been purposed for greatness—and will help you to get there.
It was not their fault that “he” left. Quite often, fatherless sons live a life long struggle of holding onto blame. They feel as if they are the reason their father left. With this notion, they fall into deep depression, low self-esteem, and other negative ramifications. It is not right or justified for our youth to hold onto that much guilt. If you are fatherless, it was not your fault and you don’t need to bear the guilt for your father’s choice. [15]
[1] Thomas Taylor III, Growing Up Without a Father, 2012. http://bit.ly/1DPXpyi. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[2] Thomas Taylor III, Growing Up Without a Father, 2012. http://bit.ly/1DPXpyi. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[3] Thomas Taylor III, Growing Up Without a Father, 2012.http://bit.ly/1DPXpyil. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[4] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[5] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[6] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[7] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[8] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[9] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[10] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014,http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[11] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[12] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[13] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[14] Author’s name not available, “Why Fatherhood Matters,” National Fatherhood Initiative. 2014, http://bit.ly/18izXgj. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
[15] Shaun Marq Anderson, “Daddy Where Are You? Things Fatherless Sons Should Know,” The Good Men Project, 2015. http://bit.ly/1Bab3dJ. (Accessed January 22, 2015).
Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:38-39 I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:14-17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
Proverbs 3:12 For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom He delights.
John 9:10-13 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Psalm 68:5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
