Kids Need 2 Parents

Help the Hurting Children

Some Facts and Research

 

Emotional and Behavioral Problems 

80% of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from broken homes. Source: "Family Maffers: The Plight of America's Children.' The Christian Century, July1993:14-21.

Statistical analysis of the behavior and intelligence of children living in fatherless households revealed "significant detrimental effects." Growing up in a fatherless household remained a statistical predictor of behavior problems even after adjusting for differences in family income. Source: "Economic Deprivation and Early Childhood Development" Child Development 65, 1994: 296-318.

Children from fatherless families have less of an ability to delay sexual gratification and have poorer impulse and anger control. These children also have a weaker sense of conscience and sense of right and wrong. Source: "Family Interaction. " Psychopathological Disorders of Childhood. 1979: 247-302.

Crime 

In a study on 194 white, urban boys, researchers found that being in a step family or living with a single mother at the age of 10 more than doubled the odds that a boy would eventually be arrested, compared to children who lived with both biological parents. Source: "Family Experience in Preadolescence in the Development of Male Delinquency. " Journal of Marriage and the Family 58, May 1996:491-501.

A 1988 study found that the proportion of single parent households in a community predicts its rates of violent crime and burglary, but the area's poverty level does not.  Source: "Social Structure and Criminal Victimization. " Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 25, February 1988: 27-52.

In a re-analysis of data from a study of 500 delinquent and 500 non-delinquent youths originally conducted in the 1950's, it was found that the low supervision of adolescents frequently found in father-absent homes was more the cause of delinquency than poverty. Source: "Urban Poverty and the Family Context of Delinquency., A New Look at Structure and Process in a Classk Study. " Child Development 65, 1994: 523-540.

Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Abuse

Children who live apart from their fathers are 430% more likely to smoke cigarettes as teenagers than children growing up with their fathers in the home. Source: "Sociodemographk Characteristics of Adolescent Smoker's." The International Journal of the Addictions 7, 1994: 913-925.

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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Kids Interests = Dual Support is an affiliate of American Coalition for Fathers and Children (ACFC).