FATHERLESS HOMES. Women initiate 70% of divorces in the United States.
“Statistics on Fatherless Homes in America” by Wayne Parker (2019):
U.S. Department of Justice statistics on children from fatherless homes account for
1. Suicide: 63 percent of youth suicides
2. Runaways: 90 percent of all homeless and runaway youths
3. Behavioral Disorders: 85 percent of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders
4. High School Dropouts: 71 percent of all high school dropouts
5. Juvenile Detention Rates: 70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions
6. Substance Abuse: 75 percent of adolescent patients in substance abuse centers
7. Aggression: 75 percent of rapists motivated by displaced anger
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
Kids living in single-parent homes or in step-families report lower educational expectations on the part of their parents, less parental monitoring of school work, and less overall social supervision than children from intact families. (Astore NM, S. McLanahan S. American Sociological Review, No. 56. 1991.)
ACHIEVEMENT
Children from low-income, two-parent families outperform students from high-income, single-parent homes. Almost twice as many high achievers come from two-parent homes as one-parent homes. (One-Parent Families and Their Children. Charles F. Kettering Foundation. 1990.)
DRUG USE
A study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded that fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse. (National Center for Health Statistics. Survey on Child Health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1993.)
INCARCERATION RATES
"Young men who grow up in homes without fathers are twice as likely to end up in jail as those who come from traditional two-parent families...those boys whose fathers were absent from the household had double the odds of being incarcerated—even when other factors such as race, income, parent education and urban residence were held constant." (Harper C, McLanahan SS. Cited in Father Absence and Youth Incarceration. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 2004.)
WHY FATHERS MATTER
Men and women are different and they parent in different ways. In a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services…young boys who have a father figure are less likely to act out and young girls are often more confident…While a mother will often simplify her language to a child's level, men tend to tell it like it is with no change in vocabulary. Subconsciously, this can challenge kids to try and understand what they're being told, which can increase critical thinking skills and, subsequently, school and future work success. Discipline is another area where significant differences between mothers and fathers are seen. While women tend to be more sympathetic, fathers tend to be sterner. Fathers like to enforce the rules with an objective perspective, and this can instill in children a greater sense of right and wrong that can last a lifetime. (Parker, 2019, excerpts.)
Malachi 2:15, “And did not he make one?… And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed.”
Children of covenant one-flesh marriages are “holy” (set apart for God). See 1 Corinthians 7:14.
Matthew 18:6, “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones…it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
