
KISRA Year 1 Evaluation Report -
pdf
The Annual Public Costs of Father Absence
- pdf
Evauation Report 2008
- pdf
Final Report Fathers at Work -
pdf
Did You Know…
- There
are 62 million dads in the United States.
- An estimated
25 million children (40%) live in homes
without their fathers. (National Fatherhood
Initiative, Father Facts, 3rd edition.)
- 90% of all
Americans agree that “fathers make a unique
contribution to their children’s lives.” (1996
Gallup Poll, National Center for Fathering.)
- 72 % of the
U.S. population believes that fatherlessness
is the most significant family or social
problem facing America. (National Center for
Fathering, Fathering in America, January
1999.)
What Parents Are
Saying…
- 53% of parents
today believe that they are doing a worse job
of parenting than their own parents did (2002
Public Agenda Survey.)
- 61% of parents
rate their generation as “fair” or “poor” at
raising children. (2002 Public Agenda Survey.)
About the Children…
Children with involved
fathers are:
- More confident
and less anxious in unfamiliar settings
- Better able to
deal with frustration
- Better able to
gain a sense of independence and an identity
outside the mother-child relationship
- More likely to
mature into compassionate adults
- More likely to
have higher self-esteem and grade point
averages
- More sociable
(National Center
for Fathering, Fathering in America, January
1999.)
The Effects of
Fatherlessness…
Children from fatherless
homes are more likely to:
- Suffer from
poverty
- Become
involved in drug and alcohol abuse
- Drop out of
school
- Suffer from
health and emotional problems
- Boys are more
likely to become involved in crime
- Girls are more
likely to become pregnant as teens
(National Center
for Fathering, Fathering in America, January
1999.)
While the
following statistics are formidable, the
Responsible Fatherhood research literature
generally supports the claim that a loving and
nurturing father improves outcomes for children,
families and communities. The following are
findings from the
National Fatherhood Initiative's (NFI) Father
Facts:
- 24 million
children (34 percent) live absent their
biological father
- Nearly 20
million children (27 percent) live in
single-parent homes
- 1.35 million
births (33 percent of all births) in 2000
occurred out of wedlock
- 43 percent of
first marriages dissolve within fifteen years;
about 60 percent of divorcing couples have
children; and approximately one million
children each year experience the divorce of
their parents.
- Over 3.3
million children live with an unmarried parent
and the parent's cohabiting partner.
- The number of
cohabiting couples with children has nearly
doubled since 1990, from 891,000 to 1.7
million today.
- Fathers who
live with their children are more likely to
have a close, enduring relationship with their
children than those who do not.
- The best
predictor of father presence is marital
status.
- Compared to
children born within marriage, children born
to cohabiting parents are three times as
likely to experience father absence, and
children born to unmarried, non-cohabiting
parents are four times as likely to live in a
father-absent home.
- About 40
percent of children in father-absent homes
have not seen their father at all during the
past year; 26 percent of absent fathers live
in a different state than their children; and
50 percent of children living absent their
father have never set foot in their father's
home.
- Children who
live absent their biological fathers are, on
average, at least two to three times more
likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience
educational, health, emotional and behavioral
problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to
engage in criminal behavior than their peers
who live with their married, biological (or
adoptive) parents.
- From 1960 to
1995, the proportion of children living in
single-parent homes tripled, from 9 percent to
27 percent, and the proportion of children
living with married parents declined.
- However, from
1995 to 2000, the proportion of children
living in single-parent homes slightly
declined, while the proportion of children
living with two married parents remained
stable.
- Children with
involved, loving fathers are significantly
more likely to do well in school, have healthy
self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social
behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such
as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity
compared to children who have uninvolved
fathers.
- Studies on
parent-child relationships and child wellbeing
show that father love is an important factor
in predicting the social, emotional, and
cognitive development and functioning of
children and young adults.
Census Fatherhood
Statistics
- 26.4 million:
Number of fathers who are part of
married-couple families with their own
children under the age of 18
Among these fathers -
- 22 percent are raising three or more of
their own children under 18 years old (among
married-couple family households only)
- 2 percent live in the home of a relative or
a non-relative.
- 2.3 million:
Number of single fathers, up from 400,000 in
1970. Currently, among single parents living
with their children, 18 percent are men
Among these fathers -
- 11 percent are raising three or more of
their own children under 18 years old.
- 42 percent are divorced, 39 percent have
never married, 15 percent are separated and 4
percent are widowed. (The percentages of those
divorced and never married are not
significantly different from one another.)
- 16 percent live in the home of a relative or
a non-relative
- 22 percent have an annual family income of
$50,000 or more
Source:
U.S. Census Bureau,
Facts for Features Section.
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