Psychologists, sociologists, and experts on the family weigh-in on the damage caused by absent fathers.
Compiled by Becky Ahlberg
“NEIGHBORHOOD STANDARD may be set by mothers but they are enforced by fathers, or at least by adult males. Neighborhoods without fathers are neighborhoods without men able and willing to confront errant youth, chase threatening gangs, and reproach delinquent fathers. The absence of fathers deprives the community of those little platoons that informally but effectively control the boys on the street.”
“”James Q. Wilson, “The Family Values Debate,” posted at www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-family-values-debate/
“THE INEQUALITIES that stem from the workplace are now trivial in comparison to those stemming from family structure. What matters for success is less whether your father was rich or poor than whether you knew your father at all.”
“”Lawrence Mead, “The New Politics of the New Poverty,” National Affairs, Spring 1991
“CHILDREN LIVING living in female-headed families with no spouse present had a poverty rate of 47.6 percent, over four times the rate in married-couple families (10.9 percent).”
“”U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “ASPE Issue Brief: Information on Poverty and Income Statistics,” September 12, 2012
“SEVENTY-ONE PERCENT of high school dropouts are fatherless; fatherless children have more trouble academically, scoring poorly on tests of reading, mathematics, and thinking skills; children from father-absent homes are more likely to be truant from school, more likely to be excluded from school, more likely to leave school at age 16, and less likely to attain academic and professional qualifications in adulthood.”
“”Edward Kruk, PhD, “Father Absence, Father Deficit, Father Hunger: The Vital Importance of Paternal Presence in Children”s Lives,” Psychology Today (www.psychologytoday.com), May 23, 2012
“SOCIOLOGIST PAUL AMATO estimates that if the United States enjoyed the same level of family stability today as it did in 1960, the nation would have 750,000 fewer children repeating grades, 1.2 million fewer school suspensions, approximately 500,000 fewer acts of teenage delinquency, about 600,000 fewer kids receiving therapy, and approximately 70,000 fewer suicides every year.”
“”Quoted by John W. Whitehead in “The Breakdown of the Traditional Family,” The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com), Aug. 10, 2010; Whitehead is an attorney and president of The Rutherford Institute
Becky Ahlberg serves as executive director of My Safe Harbor, Anaheim, California.
Author: Christian Standard
Contact us at **@********************ia.com
