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According
to 72.2 % of the U.S. population, fatherlessness is the most significant
family or social problem facing America. --Source: National Center
for Fathering, Fathering in America Poll, January, 1999.
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An estimated 24.7 million children (36.3%) live absent their biological
father. --Source: National Fatherhood Initiative, Father Facts,
(3rd Edition): 5.
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Children who were part of the "post war generation" could
expect to grow up with two biological parents who were married to
each other. Eighty percent did. Today, only about 50% of children
will spend their entire childhood in an intact family. --Source:
David Poponoe, American Family Decline, 1960-1990: A Review and
Appraisal Journal of Marriage and Family 55 (August 1993).
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With the increasing number of premarital births and a continuing
high divorce rate, the proportion of children living with just one
parent rose from 9 percent in 1960 to 28 percent in 1996. Currently,
57.7 percent of all black children, 31.8 percent of all Hispanic
children, and 20.9 percent of all white children are living in single-parent
homes. --Source: Saluter, Arlen F. Marital Status and Living Arrangements:
March 1994., US Bureau of the Census, Current Population Report.
p28-484. Washington, DC: GPO, 1996. US Bureau of the Census. Statistical
Abstract of the United States 1997, Washington, DC: GPO, 1997.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states, "Fatherless
children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol
abuse" --Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
National Center for Health Statistics. Survey on Child Health. Washington,
DC, 1993.
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Children growing up in single-parent households are at a significantly
increased risk for drug abuse as teenagers. --Source: Denton, Rhonda
E. and Charlene M. Kampfe. "The relationship Between Family
Variables and Adolescent Substance Abuse: A literature Review."
Adolescence 114 (1994): 475-495.
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Children who live apart from their fathers are 4.3 times more likely
to smoke cigarettes as teenagers than children growing up with their
fathers in the home. --Source: Stanton, Warren R., Tian P.S. Oci
and Phil A. Silva. "Sociodemographic characteristics of Adolescent
Smokers." The International Journal of the Addictions 7 (1994):
913-925.
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Children
in single-parent families are two to three times as likely as children
in two-parent families to have emotional and behavioral problems.
--Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National
Center for Health Statistics."National Health Interview Survey."
Hyattsville, MD, 1988.
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Three out of
four teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been
absent. --Source: Elshtain, Jean Bethke."Family Matters: The
Plight of America's Children." The Christian Century (July
1993): 14-21.
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In studies involving over 25,000 children using nationally representative
data sets, children who lived with only one parent had lower grade
point averages, lower college aspirations, poor attendance records,
and higher drop out rates than students who lived with both parents.
--Source: McLanahan, Sara and Gary Sandefur. Growing up with a Single
Parent: What Hurts, What Helps. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1994.
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Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school. --Source:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for
Health Statistics. Survey on Child Health. Washington, DC; GPO,
1993.
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School children from divorced families are absent more, and more
anxious, hostile, and withdrawn, and are less popular with their
peers than those from intact families. --Source: One-Parent Families
and Their Children: The School's Most Significant Minority. The
Consortium for the Study of School Needs of Children from One-Parent
Families. 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.
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Children in single parent families are more likely to be in trouble
with the law than their peers who grow up with two parents. --Source:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for
Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey. Hyattsville,
MD, 1988.
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Adolescent females
between the ages of 15 and 19 years reared in homes without fathers
are significantly more likely to engage in premarital sex than adolescent
females reared in homes with both a mother and a father. --Source:
Billy, John O. G., Karin L. Brewster and William R. Grady. "Contextual
Effects on the Sexual Behavior of Adolescent Women." Journal
of Marriage and Family 56(1994): 381-404.
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A white teenage
girl from an advantaged background is five times more likely to
become a teen mother if she grows up in a single-mother household
than if she grows up in a household with both biological parents.
--Source: Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe. "Facing the Challenges
of Fragmented Families." The Philanthropy Roundtable 9.1 (1995):
21.
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Americans unresolved
father problems.
Over half of Americans agree that most people have unresolved problems
with their fathers. Cumulatively, 55.6% agreed with this statement,
up from 54.1% in our 1996 poll. More non-whites (70.4%) than whites
(56.3%) were in agreement. Interestingly, the generation who has
experienced more father absence, 18- to 24-year-olds, displayed
the highest level of agreement (67.2%). Income was also a differentiating
factor: of the respondents making $25,000 or less, 70.1% agreed,
compared to only 48.0% among those who make more than $50,000. Source
National Center For Fathering 1996
Source: http://www.fathers.com/research/
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