“We” asked Primary Candidates about the #1 social problem of our time.

Fatherlessness is the #1 social problem of our time because it is the root cause of at least 20 other social problems.

An estimated 24.7 million children (33%) live absent their biological father.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, “Living Arrangements of Children under 18 Years/1 and Marital Status of Parents by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin/2 and Selected Characteristics  of the Child for all Children 2010.” Table C3. Internet Release Date November, 2010.

American Fathers asked Republican and Democratic Primary Candidates:

How will you fix this??

– Father involvement makes a difference in kids’ emotional lives. From a study based on 17,000 children born in the United Kingdom in 1958 who were followed up with at ages 7, 11, 16, 23 and 33:

• Children with involved fathers have less emotional and behavioral difficulties in adolescence

• Teenagers who feel close to their fathers in adolescence go on to have more satisfactory adult marital relationships.

• Girls who have a strong relationship with their fathers during adolescence showed a lack of psychological distress in adult life.

  Source: Dr. Eirini Flouri & Ann Buchanan, “Involved Fathers Key for Children,” Economic & Social Research Council, March 2002.

The USA leads the industrialized world in fatherlessness.
Right now, around 41 percent of children are born to single mothers.

Father Count
Total dads –  70,100,000 ¹
Married dads with children under 18 – 24,400,000²
Stay-at-home dads – 89,000 ⁴

Sources: 1 – U.S. Census Bureau estimates based on unpublished data from the 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation (2008 is the most recent year for which data are available.) 2 – U.S. Census Bureau, 2012, America’s Families and Living Arrangements, Tables FG1 and FG3,http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2012.html 3 – U.S. Census Bureau, 2012, America’s Families and Living Arrangements, Table FG6,http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2012.html 4 – U.S. Census Bureau, 2012, America’s Families and Living Arrangements, Tables FG8 and C3http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2012.html

– Children living in female headed families with no spouse present had a poverty rate of 47.6 percent, over 4 times the rate in married-couple families.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; ASEP Issue Brief: Information on Poverty and Income Statistics. September 12, 2012 http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/12/PovertyAndIncomeEst/ib.shtml

Poverty–   Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Children’s Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2011, Table C8. Washington D.C.: 2011.

Fathering in America (May, 2009) – PDF

Most research focuses on two major causes for the growth in fatherlessness since the early 1960’s: divorce and out-of-wedlock births.

1. Divorce

– Compare the number of divorced adults:
2008 was  8,444,000   vs.  393,000 in 1960

Source: US National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics of the United States, and National Vital Statistics Report, Table 78.

Source: American Fathers asked Republican and Democratic Primary Candidates

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