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A wealth of research confirms that fathers play a unique and
important role in their children’s lives. Nevertheless, powerful
forces in our society try to marginalize fathers. Unfortunately,
these misguided individuals can be difficult to educate. With
Father’s Day upon us, it’s worth another try.
The rates of the four major youth
pathologies--teen pregnancy, teen drug abuse, school dropouts
and juvenile crime--are tightly correlated with fatherlessness,
often more so than with any other socioeconomic factor.
For example, according to a
long-term study conducted in the United States and in New
Zealand and published in Child Development, a father’s
absence greatly increases the risk of teen pregnancy. The study
found that it mattered little whether the child was rich or
poor, black or white, born to a teen mother or an adult mother,
or raised by parents with functional or dysfunctional marriages.
What mattered was dad.
A Journal of Marriage and Family
study found that the presence of a father was five times more
important in predicting teen drug use than any other
sociological factor, including income and race. A published
Harvard review of four major studies found that, accounting for
all major socioeconomic factors, children without a father in
the home are twice as likely to drop out of high school or
repeat a grade as children who live with their fathers. A
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency study concluded
that fatherlessness is so predictive of juvenile crime that, as
long as there was a father in the home, children of poor and
wealthy families had similar juvenile crime rates.
Adult children of divorce realize
dads are important. A published Arizona State University study
found that more than two-thirds believed that, after divorce,
"living equal amounts of time with each parent is the best
arrangement for children."
Nevertheless, fathers are often
under attack by misguided women’s advocates. While
fatherlessness is almost always blamed on irresponsible
males, these advocates’ powerful influence over family law is
also at fault. All family law and legislative battles over child
custody issues involve the same fight--fathers want more time
with their children, and their opponents fight to limit their
role.
For example, several major branches
of the National Organization for Women, including New York and
Michigan, have recently issued Action Alerts against Shared
Parenting bills. These Alerts rallied NOW’s supporters against
moderate legislative attempts to help dads remain a part of
their children’s lives after divorce or separation. NOW’s
playbook is simple—portray divorced dads as a threat to their
children’s well-being.
In this there is great
irony—according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services' new report Child Maltreatment 2004, when one
parent is acting without the involvement of the other parent,
mothers are almost three times as likely to kill their children
as fathers are, and are more than twice as likely to abuse
them. Nevertheless, in both New York and Michigan NOW’s scare
tactics succeeded.
The media’s fascination with
cutting down dads is another part of the problem. For example,
last fall former Stanford University gender scholar Peggy
Drexler was acclaimed in many circles for her highly-publicized
book Raising Boys Without Men: How Maverick Moms Are
Creating the Next Generation of Exceptional Men. Drexler
asserts that father-absent homes are often the best environments
for boys.
Through her interviews with single
mother and lesbian families Drexler concludes there’s no need to
fear fatherlessness, because fatherless boys play sports and
scrape their knees like other boys, and don’t turn out to be
effeminate or gay. On that she’s probably correct. However,
fatherless boys do often turn out to be juvenile
delinquents, drug abusers and school dropouts. Yet few hailing
Drexler’s research looked close enough to see that her
assurances that fatherless boys “do fine” was based on the
ludicrous notion that all that really concerns us is that these
boys might turn out to be sissies.
Our society spends billions of
dollars attempting to combat crime, drug abuse, teen pregnancy
and dropouts, without meaningfully addressing fatherlessness,
which plays a central role in creating them. There is no easy
solution to these problems. There is also no solution possible
without dads.
This article first appeared in the
Houston Chronicle (6/18/06).
Mike
McCormick is the Executive Director of the American Coalition for Fathers and
Children, the world’s largest shared parenting organization.
Their
website
is
www.acfc.org.
Glenn
Sacks' columns on men's and fathers' issues have appeared in dozens of America's
largest newspapers. Glenn can be reached via his website at
www.GlennSacks.com or
via email at Glenn@GlennSacks.com.
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