STATE OF PARENT CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

“As recently as fifty years ago, children spent 3 to 4 hours a day interacting with family members. Today, they spend 14 ½ minutes, 12 of which are in the form of negative comments and reprimands.”

Robert Hamrin, writes in his book, Straight From a Dad’s Heart.

The average father that is in the home spends an average of 37 seconds a day of undivided attention with his children.

Robert Hamrin, writes in his book, Straight From a Dad’s Heart.

Teenage pregnancy and parenthood is a major delinquency risk factor for female juvenile offenders and teenage girls in general:

97% of the girls said that having parents they could talk to could help reduce teen pregnancy 

93% said having loving parents reduced the risk. 

76% said that their fathers were very or somewhat influential on their decision to have sex.

Chassler, Sey. 1997. “What teenage girls say about pregnancy.” Washington Post Parade Magazine, 2 February, p. 3. Citing survey from Mark Clements Research Inc., 1996.

Parents today spend roughly 40 percent less time with their children than did parents a generation ago.

John P. Robinson, How Americans Use Time: A Social-Psychological Analysis of Everyday Behavior (New York; Praeger, 1977); 70; see also John P. Robinson, “Caring for Kids,” American Demographics (July 1989: 52.

A 1990 Los Angeles Times poll found that 57 percent of all fathers and 55 percent of all mothers feel guilty about not spending enough time with their children.

Lynn Smith and Bob Sipchen, “Two Career Family Dilemma; Balancing Word and Home,” Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1990: A1

On children age 5 to 14, 1.6 million return from school to a home absent of adults.

U.S. Bureau of the Census, “Who’s Minding the Kids?” Statistical Brief, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC April 1994.

More than 75 percent of American children are at risk because of paternal deprivation. Even in two-parent households, FEWER THAN 25 PERCENT of young boys and girls experience an average of at least ONE HOUR A DAY of relatively individualized contact with their father.”

The Father factor and the Two Parent Advantage: Reducing the Paternal Deficit.” Paper based on the author’s presentations during 12/17/93 and 4/15/94 White House meetings with Dr. William Galston, Deputy Director of Domestic Policy for President Clinton, Washington, DC.

About 40% of the children who live in fatherless households haven’t seen their fathers in at least a year. Of the remaining 60 percent, only 20 percent sleeps one night per month in the father’s home. Only one in six see their father an average of once or more per week.

Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr. and Christine Winquist Nord, Parenting Apart: Patterns of Child Rearing After Marital Disruption,” Journal of Marriage and the Family (November 1985): 896. 

A study on parent-infant attachment found that fathers who were affectionate, spent time with their children, and overall had a positive attitude were more likely to have securely attached infants. 

Cox, M.J. et al. “Prediction of Infant-Father and Infant-Mother Attachment.” Developmental Psychology 28 (1992): 474-483.

STATE OF CHILDREN’S PARENTS MARRIAGE

The proportion of people answering “no” to the question, “should a couple stay together for the sake of the children?” jumped from 51 percent to 82 percent from 1962 to 1985.

Arland Thornton, “Changing Attitudes Toward Family Issues in the United States,” Journal of Marriage and Family 51 (1989): 873-498

The number of currently divorced adults quadrupled from 4.3 million in 1970 to 17.6 million in 1995.

–Source: Saluter, Arlene F. “Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1995, Update.” US Bureau of the Census. Current Population Report, PPL-52. Washington, DC: GPO, 1997.

A recent poll found that 75% of Americans strongly agree, “children suffer when their parents divorce. 

–Source: Maggie Gallagher, USA TODAY. 

“Of the children born to married parents, half will experience their parents divorce by the age of 18.” 

–Source: Bumpass, Larry. “Children and Marital disruption: A Replication and Update.”, Demography 21 (1984): 71-82. 

More than one million children have parents who separate or divorce each year.

The National Commission on Children

STATE OF FATHERHOOD AND HIS PRESENCE

An estimated 24.7 million children live absent from their biological father. 

–Source: National Fatherhood Initiative, Father Facts, (3rd Edition): 5. The 1997 Gallup Youth 

Survey found the following among U.S. teens: 

Two years after divorce, 51% of children in sole mother custody homes only see their father once or twice a year, or never.

[Guidubaldi, 1989; Guidubaldi, 1988; Guidubaldi, Perry, & Nastasi, 1987.]

42% of fathers fail to see their children at all after divorce.

[Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr. and Christine Winguist Nord, “Parenting Apart,” Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol 47, no. 4, November, 1985.]

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.

43% of urban teens live away from their father. 

–Source: Youthviews, Gallup Youth Survey 4 (June, 1997).

90% of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. 

[U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census.]  

80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes. 

[Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26, 1978.] 

60% of repeat rapists grew up without fathers.

Raymond A. Knight and Robert A. Prentky, “The Developmental Antecednts of Adult Adaptations of Rapist Sub-Types,” Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol 14, Dec., 1987, p 403-426. 

71% of pregnant teenagers lack a father.

[US Dept. of Health & Human Services press release, Friday, March 26, 1999.]

63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. 

[US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census.]

85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes.

[Center for Disease Control.] 

90% of adolescent repeat arsonists live with only their mother. 

[Wray Herbert, “Dousing the Kindlers,” Psychology Today, January, 1985, p.28.]

71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. 

[National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools.] 

75% of adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes. 

[Rainbows for all God`s Children.]

70% of juveniles in state operated institutions have no father. 

[US Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept. 1988.] 

85% of youths in prisons grew up in a fatherless home. 

[Fulton Co. Georgia jail populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992.]

75% of prisoners grew up without a father.

Daniel Amneus, The Garbage Generation, Alhambra, CA: Primrose Press, 1990.

43% of US children live without their father.

[US Department of Census.]

More than one-half of all children who don’t live with their father have never been in their father’s home.

Frank Furstenberg and Andrew Cherlin, Divided Families: What Happens to Children When Parents Part (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1991) 

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. 

According to a Gallup Poll, 90.3 percent of Americans agree that “fathers make a unique contribution to their children’s lives.” 

Gallup Poll, 1996. National Center for Fathering. “Father Figures.” Today’s Father 4.1 (1996):8. 

A study assessing the level of adaptation of one-year olds found that, when left with a stranger, children whose fathers were highly involved were less likely to cry, worry, or disrupt play than other one-year olds whose fathers were less involved.  Kotelchuk, M. “The Infant’s Relationship to His Father: Experimental Evidence.” The Role of the Father in Child Development. by Michael Lamb. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1981.

STATE OF SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES

One in two children will live in a single-parent family at some point in childhood. 

State of America’s Children Yearbook 2000, Children’s Defense Fund

One in three children are born to unmarried parents.

State of America’s Children Yearbook 2000, Children’s Defense Fund

Between 1978 and 1996, the number of babies born to unmarried women per year quadrupled from 500,000 to more than two million.

National Survey of America’s Families

The number of single mothers increased from three million to 10 million between 1970 and 2000. US

Census Bureau of Household and Family Statistics, 2000

The number of live births to unmarried women went from 224,300 in 1960 to 1,248,000 in 1995. 
U.S. Bureau of the census. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1996, 1997.

Washington, DC; GPO, 1997. 

Children living with never married mothers has grown from 221,000 in 1960 to 5,862,000 in 1995.

Saluter, Arlene F. Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1995. Current Pop. survey, PPL-52, update. Washington DC; GPO, June 1997.

In 1996, young children living with unmarried mothers were five times as likely to be poor and ten times as likely to be extremely poor.

“One in Four: America’s Youngest Poor.” National Center for children in Poverty. 1996 

Almost 75% of American children living in single-parent families will experience poverty before they turn 11 years old. Only 20 percent of children in two-parent families will do the same. 

National Commission on Children. Just the Facts: A Summary of Recent information on America’s Children and their Families. Washington, DC, 1993.

Children growing up in single-parent households are at a significantly increased risk for drug abuse as teenagers. 

Denton, Rhonda E. and Charlene M. Kampfe. “The relationship Between Family Variables and Adolescent Substance Abuse: A literature Review.” Adolescence 114 (1994): 475-495.

A study on nearly 6,000 children found that children from single parent homes had more physical and mental health problems than children who lived with two married parents. Additionally, boys in single parent homes were found to have more illnesses than girls in single parent homes. 

Hong, Gong-Soog and Shelly L. White-Means. “Do Working Mothers Have Healthy Children?” Journal of Family and Economic Issues 14 (Summer 1993): 163-186. 

Children in single-parent families are two to three times as likely as children in two-parent families to have emotional and behavioral problems. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. “National Health Interview Survey.” Hyattsville, MD, 1988.

Three out of four teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent. 

Elshtain, Jean Bethke. “Family Matters: The Plight of America’s Children.”
The Christian Century (July 1993): 14-21.

Image Sources via Shutterstock.com:

Tomsickova Tatyana, Wallybird, Peter Bernik, Jakub Zak, Suzanne Tucker, Photographee.eu, Wavebreakmedia, Axel Bueckert, Pathdoc, Pikul Noorod, SpeedKingz, Kamira, Monkey Business Images, Kzenon, Leonardo-da