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Father
Absence Article #4: Fatherlessness and its Impact
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I5 times more likely to commit suicide. |
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32 times more likely to run away. |
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20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders. |
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14 times more likely to commit rape |
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9 times more likely to drop out of high school. |
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10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances. |
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9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated institution. |
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20 times more likely to end up in prison. |
Juveniles have become the driving force behind the nation's alarming
increases in violent crime, with juvenile arrests for murder, rape,
robbery and aggravated assault growing sharply in the past decade as
pistols and drugs became more available, and expected to continue at
the same alarming
rate during the next decade.
"Justice Dept. Issues Scary Report on Juvenile Crime," San Francisco Chronicle (9/8/95). "Crime Wave Forecast With Teenager Boom," San Francisco Chronicle (2/15/95).
Criminal behavior experts and social scientists are finding
intriguing evidence that the epidemic of youth violence and gangs is
related to the breakdown of the two-parent family. "New Evidence
That Quayle Was Right: Young Offenders Tell What Went Wrong at
Home," San Francisco Chronicle (12/9/94).
3) TEENAGE PREGNANCY
"Daughters of single parents are 53% more likely to marry as
teenagers, 164% more likely to have a premarital birth, and 92% more
likely to dissolve their own marriages. All these intergenerational
consequences of single motherhood increase the likelihood of chronic
welfare dependency."
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Atlantic Monthly (April 1993).
Daughters of single parents are 2.1 times more likely to have
children during their teenage years than are daughters from intact
families with 71% of teenage pregnancies coming from children of
single parents.
U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
4) CHILD ABUSE
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that there
were more than 1,000,000 documented child abuse cases in 1990. In
1983, it found that 60% of perpetrators were women with sole
custody. Shared parenting can significantly reduce the stress
associated with sole custody, and reduce the isolation of children
in abusive situations by allowing both parents' to monitor the
children's health and welfare and to protect them.
5) POVERTY
"The National Fatherhood Institute reports that 18 million children
live in single-parent homes. Nearly 75% of American children living
in single-parent families will experience poverty before they turn
11. Only 20% in two-parent families will experience poverty."
Source: Melinda Sacks, "Fatherhood in the 90's: Kids of absent
fathers more "at risk"," San Jose Mercury News (10/29/95).
"The feminization of poverty is linked to the feminization of
custody, as well as linked to lower earnings for women. Greater
opportunity for education and jobs through shared parenting can help
break the cycle."
David Levy, Ed., The Best Parent is Both Parents (1993).
6) KIDNAPPING
Family abductions were 163,200 compared to non-family abductions of
200-300. The parental abductions were attributed to the parents'
disenchantment with the legal system.
David Levy, Ed., The Best Parent is Both Parents (1993),
citing a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of
Juvenile Justice (May 1990).
Effects on children of removing a father from the life of a child.
"Based on our clinical experience with a number of latency aged and
adolescent girls whose parents divorced during their oedipal years,
we postulate that particular coping patterns emerge in response to
the absence of the father, which may complicate the consolidation of
positive feminine identification in many female children, and is
observable during the latency years. We illustrate both the
existence of these phenomena and implications for treatment:
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Intensified separation anxiety |
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IDenial and avoidance of feelings associated with loss of father |
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Identification with the lost object |
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object hunger for males. |
"In an earlier study by Kalter and Rembar at [Children's Psychiatric
Hospital, University of Michigan], a sample of 144 child and
adolescent patients, whose parents had divorced, presented [for
evaluation and
treatment] with three most commonly occurring problems:
63% Subjective psychological problem (defined as anxiety, sadness, pronounced moodiness, phobias, and depression, 56% Poor grades or grades substantially below ability and/or recent past performance -43% Aggression toward parents
Important features of the subgroup of 32 latency aged girls were in
the same order:
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69% indicating subjective psychological distress |
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47% academic problems |
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41% aggression toward parents. |
Clinical Observations on Interferences of Early Father Absence in
the Achievement of Femininity by R. Lohr, C. g, A. Mendell and B.
Riemer, Clinical Social Work Journal, V. 17, #4, Winter, 1989.
"In summary, 30% of the children in the present study experienced a
marked decrease in their academic performance following parental
separation, and this was evident three years later. Access to both
parents seemed to be the most protective factor, in that it was
associated with better academic adjustment...
Moreover, data revealed that non-custodial parents (mostly fathers)
were very influential in their children's development...These data
also support the interpretation that the more time a child spends
with the non-custodial parent the better the overall adjustment
of the child."
Factors Associated with Academic Achievement in Children Following
Parental Separation, L. Bisnaire, PhD; P. Firestone, PhD; D. Rynard,
MA Sc American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 60(1), January, 1990
"While in most instances adolescents from recently disrupted
household were more negatively affected by their parents' divorce,
some findings did identify long-term effects of earlier disruption.
Adolescent girls who had experienced parental divorce when they were
younger than six or between six and nine years old reported becoming
involved with alcohol or drugs in proportions higher than did girls
from intact families.
Adolescent girls whose experience of divorce occurred before they
were six more frequently reported skipping school than did girls
from intact families or girls whose parents divorced when they were
between the ages of six and nine."
"These findings underscore the vulnerability of adolescents whose
parents have divorced within the last five years. The impact of the
marital disruption was most pronounced among girls, who skipped
school more frequently, reported more depress behavior, and
described social support in more negative terms than did boys from
recently disrupted homes."
The Effects of Marital Disruption on Adolescents: Time as a Dynamic
A. Frost, PhD; B. Pakiz, EdM, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry,
60(4), October, 1990
"Among teenage and adult populations of females, parental divorce
has been associated with lower self-esteem, precocious sexual
activity, greater delinquent-like behavior, and more difficulty
establishing gratifying, lasting adult heterosexual relationships.
It is especially intriguing to note that, in these studies, the
parental divorce typically occurred years before any difficulties
were observed..
"At the time of the marital separation, when (as is typical) father
leaves the family home and becomes progressively less involved with
his children over the ensuing years, it appears that young girls
experience the emotional loss of father egocentrically as a
rejection of them. While more common among
preschool and early elementary school girls, we have observed this
phenomenon clinically in later elementary school and young
adolescent children.
Here the continued lack of involvement is experienced as an ongoing
rejection by him. Many girls attribute this rejection to their not
being pretty enough, affectionate enough, athletic enough, or smart
enough to please father and engage him in regular, frequent
contacts".
"Finally, girls whose parents divorce may grow up without the day to
day experience of interacting with a man who is attentive, caring
and loving. The continuous sense of being valued and loved as a
female seems an especially key element in the development of the
conviction that one is indeed femininely lovable. Without this
regular source of nourishment, a girl's sense of being valued as a
female does not seem to thrive."
Long-Term Effects of Divorce on Children: A Developmental
Vulnerability Model Neil Kalter, Ph.D., University of Michigan,
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57(4), October, 1987
"....When the non-custodial parent is perceived as "lost," the young
adult is more depressed. When a divorce occurs, the perception of
the non-custodial father has been shown to change in a negative
direction, while the perception of the mother (whether custodon-custodial)
remains relatively stable.
"Because divorce is a process, not an isolated event, the effects of
the divorce may be cumulative and early intervention would therefore
be beneficial.
The continued involvement of the non- custodial parent in the
child's life appears crucial in preventing an intense sense of loss
in the child.... The importance of the relationship with the
non-custodial parent may also have implications for the legal issues
of custodial arrangements and visitation.
The results of this study indicate that arrangements where both
parents are equally involved with the child are optimal. When this
type of arrangement is not possible, the child's continued
relationship with the non-custodial parent remains essential."
Young Adult Children of Divorced Parents: Depressin and the
Perception of Loss, Rebecca L. Drill, Ph.D., Harvard University.
Journal of Divorce, V. 10, #1/2, Fall/Winter 1986
"The impact of parental divorce and subsequent father absence in the
wake of this event has long been thought to affect children quite
negatively. For instance, parental divorce and father loss has been
associated with difficulties in school adjustment (e.g. Felner,
Ginter, Boike, & Cowen), Social Adjustment (e.g. Fry & Grover) and
personal adjustment (e.g. Covell & Turnbull)..."
"The results of the present study suggest that father loss through
divorce is associated with diminished self-concepts in children...at
least for this sample of children from the midwestern United
States."
Children's Self Concepts: Are They Affected by Parental Divorce and
Remarriage Thomas S. Parish, Journal of Social Behavior and
Personality, 1987, V 2, #4, 559-562
"It is ironic, and of some interest, that we have subjected joint
custody to a level and intensity of scrutiny that was never directed
towa the traditional post-divorce arrangement (sole legal and
physical custody to the mother and two weekends each month of
visiting to the father.)
Developmental and relationship theory should have alerted the mental
health field to the potential immediate and long range consequences
for the child of only seeing a parent four days each month. And yet
until recently, there was no particular challenge to this
traditional post-divorce parenting arrangement, despite growing
evidence that such post-divorce relationships were not sufficiently
nurturing or stabilizing for many children and parents."
"There is some evidence that in our well-meaning efforts to save
children in the immediate post-separation period from anxiety,
confusion, and the normative divorce-engendered conflict, we have
set the stage in the longer run for the more ominous symptoms of
anger, depression, and a deep sense of loss by depriving the child
of the opportunity to maintain a full relationship with each
parent."
Examining Resistance to Joint Custody, Monograph by Joan Kelly,
Ph.D. (associate of Judith Wallerstein, Ph.D) From the 1991 Book
Joint Custody and Shared Parenting, second edition, Guilford Press,
1991.
 Father
Absence...The Impact!
Teenage
Pregnancy and Crime Levels are HigherTurning
The Corner on Black America
Effects
of FatherlessnessWelfare
& Poverty
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