The Father Absence Crisis in America
According to the U.S. census bureau, 24 million children, 1 out of 3, live without their biological father in the home. Consequently, there is a father factor in nearly all social ills facing America today.
What is a single father?
A single parent is an uncoupled individual who shoulders most or all of the day-to-day responsibilities for raising a child or children. A mother is more often the primary caregiver in a single-parent family structure that has arisen due to death of the partner, divorce or unplanned pregnancy.
Why are father's so important?
While almost any man can father a child, there is so much more to the important role of being dad in a child's life. Let's look at who father is, and why he is so important. Fathers are central to the emotional well-being of their children; they are are capable caretakers and disciplinarians.
Do you Know??
Among blacks, nearly 5 million children, or 54 percent, live with only their mother. Twelve percent of black families below the poverty line have two parents present, compared with 41 percent of impoverished Hispanic families and 32 percent of poor white families.
In 1964, according to federal health statistics, 24.6 percent of births to non-whites were considered "illegitimate," the term used for out-of-wedlock births at the time. In 2012, the percentage of black births that were made to unmarried black mothers was 72%
Single dads are on the rise in the United States, heading a record 8 percent of American households with kids, according to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center. There were 2.6 million households led by a single father in 2011, a nine fold increase from 1960 when that number was fewer than 300,000, Pew found.
The out-of-wedlock rate in 2013 among Hispanic women was 53.2 percent. For African American women the rate was 71.4 percent. White women gave birth out of marriage at a rate of 29.3 percent in 2013, the CDC said.
Father-headed households are still only a small percentage. Married couples with children make up 24 percent of all households. They were 39 percent of all homes in 1970. Single-mother homes made up 7 percent of households in 2000, up from 5 percent over 30 years ago.
And yes, the percentage of households with minor children that are headed by dads is still small — only 8 percent of all US households at last count. But men reflect a growing portion of single parent households — almost one quarter, compared with only 14 percent in 1960.
24 million children (34 percent) live absent their biological father. Nearly 20 million children (27 percent) live in single-parent homes.
