The Father Factor - Dick S. Forbes, MA

The Father Factor – Dick S. Forbes, MA

If you are one of those Dads that answers the bell everyday and does your best to instill in your children honesty, faith, courage, integrity, humility, perseverance, then I say to you: “God Bless you. “

We have a crisis on our hands that I believe is our nation’s worst social crisis. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 million children in America -- one out of every three -- live in biological father-absent homes. Nine in ten American parents agree this is a “crisis.” But the hope lies in the fact that children with involved fathers do better across every measure of child well-being than their peers in father-absent homes. 

I have listed some research below that is very alarming. Read what the research has found:

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.
Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 468- 476.
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.
 U.S. Census Bureau, Children’s Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2011, Table C8. Washington D.C.: 2011.
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.
Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 1065-1083.
Infant mortality rates are 1.8 times higher for infants of unmarried mothers than for married mothers.
National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 12. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 2000.
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.
Journal of Research on Adolescence 14 (September 2004): 369-397.
A study of 109 juvenile offenders indicated that family structure significantly predicts delinquency.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence 29 (August 2000): 467-478.
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.
Journal of Family Issues 25 (January 2004): 86-111.
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.
 “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.
Even after controlling for community context, there is significantly more drug use among children who do not live with their mother and father.
Journal of Marriage and Family 64 (May 2002): 314-330.
The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that obese children are more likely to live in father-absent homes than are non-obese children.
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
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.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2001.
I am encouraged to know there are some good men out there doing the right thing as a father. To you fathers who need to do the right thing, step up, break the cycle and be a Dad!
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

Dick Forbes can be reached at 770.386.0608 or Email: dsforbes@bellsouth.net www.forbescounseling.com