There is a father absence crisis in America.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18.3 million children, 1 in 4, live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. Consequently, there is a father factor in nearly all social ills facing America today.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau. (2020). Living arrangements of children under 18 years old: 1960 to present. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau.

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Pew reports that only 11 percent of American children lived apart from their dads in 1960. Today, that number has grown to 27 percent. One in every three American children are now growing up in a home without their biological father.

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There is a “father absence crisis in America,” according to National Fatherhood Initiative, and the results are sobering.

Studies have found that children raised without a father are:

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• At a higher risk of having behavioral problems.

• Four times more likely to live in poverty.

• More likely to be incarcerated in their lifetime.

• Twice as likely to never graduate high school.

• At a seven times higher risk of teen pregnancy.

• More vulnerable to abuse and neglect.

• More likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.

• Twice as likely to be obese.

 

From education to personal health to career success, children who lack a father find themselves at a disadvantage to their peers raised in a two-parent household.

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A 2017 Heritage Foundation article reported that “routine family bonding activities like reading bedtime stories and eating meals together have a profound effect on children’s educational development and psychological well-being.”

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Simply put: Dads, we need you.

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Source: The Importance of Dads in an Increasingly Fatherless America, The Heritage Foundation, June 15, 2018

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