The Numbers Are In: Kids Need Dads

Hey dads, your kids need you.

If we want our kids to be well-adjusted, motivated, high-achieving and contributors to society, they need a Mom and Dad, and they need them to be married to each other.

Study after study has shown that children with parents who are married to each other are overwhelmingly more successful than children with just one parent in the home or even two parents who are unmarried (cohabitating).

First, the idea of only having one parent (usually a mom). The truth is children need a father figure in the home. Check out these statistics:

• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the US average.
• 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average.
• 85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average. (Center for Disease Control)
• 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average. (National Principals Association Report)
• 71% of pregnant teenagers lack a father. [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release, Friday, March 26, 1999]
• 85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. [Center for Disease Control]
• 75% of adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes. [Rainbows f for all God’s Children]
• 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions have no father. [US Department of Justice, Special Report, Sept. 1988]

Now what about the parents being married? Check out these numbers from intellectualtakeout.org:

• Marriage makes a big difference: Most couples who are cohabitating and not married in the United States are not stable couples who are going to be together for the full 18 years of a child’s life and are just choosing to live a bohemian life without the legal paperwork.
• Huge gap: Even among single mothers with college degrees, there’s a big difference in the outcomes for their children versus the children of married parents. About 28% of kids of a single mother with a bachelor’s degree get a bachelor’s degree by age 25. In contrast, about 57% of kids of a married mother with a bachelor’s degree get a bachelor’s degree by age 25.
• Money makes little difference: A child born in a two-parent household with a family income of $50,000 has, on average, better outcomes than a child born in a single-parent household earning the same income.” Author Melissa Kearney speculates that might be because money isn’t the only resource parents need to raise their kids -- time is another crucial one, and a single parent generally has less time to devote to her children than married parents do.
• Welfare makes little difference: Even in Denmark, a bastion of public welfare that includes free college tuition, universal access to high-quality health care, universal high-quality pre-K, and a generous childcare and maternity-leave policy, the influence of family background on many child outcomes is about as strong as it is in the U.S.

It's clear: Marriage matters. For us. For our kids. For our grandkids.

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