People will often dismiss or deny the affects of an absentee father. The rationalization is that children are adaptable and they make the adjustments. While, yes they do adapt, that doesn’t mean that they are not masking immense pain.
“Why don’t I have a daddy like [insert name]?” is a question that starts to get asked around ages four and five as kids start to see all the other kids in their schools, teams, neighborhood with two parents. This is just the awareness that something is different and then the tough questions start to follow – tough questions that many times go unanswered and a mask is created.
When a man leaves a woman after they conceive a child together, the effects take place instantaneously. Lack of father involvement impacts early births, low birth weight, and infant mortality. The mortality rate for infants in the first 28 days is four times more likely to occur when a father is absent.
BREAKING NEWS: Three national nonprofit organizations have applied for a $100 million MacArthur Foundation grant to reduce fatherlessness in the United States.
There are a lot of problems in American society and culture including drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, violence, gangs, poverty, obesity, and other mental and emotional problems. While this seems like a wide-range of issues, they call come from the same source – the absence of a father.
If fatherlessness was a disease, it would be an epidemic in America. More than 24 million children are being raised without the presence of their biological father, while millions more have the physical presence but emotionally absent. This equates to one out of every four children (with some studies suggesting one out of every three) are fatherless.

As the rate of fatherlessness has spiked dramatically in the past few decades, some terrifying statistics have been produced on the results of growing up with a father. Now this is not to say that similar things happen when the mother is absent, nor is it to say that someone cannot grow up without a father and prosper, also it is not looking to create blame or a victim mentality. It is just presenting factual data that has been collected throughout the years:
- 85-percent of all youths in prison come from fatherless homes (20 times the national average)
- 85-percent of children with behavior problems come from fatherless homes ( 20 times the national average)
- 75-percent of all adolescents in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes (10 times the national average).
- 71-percent of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (9 times the national average)
- 71-percent of teenage pregnancies come from fatherless homes (7 times national average)
- Daughters without fathers are 711-percent more likely to have children as teenagers, 164-percent more likely to have pre-marital birth, and 92-percent more likely to get divorced
- 90-percent of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes (32 times the national average)
- 63-percent of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (five times the national average)
- 80-percent of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes (14 times the national average)
- Children in fatherless homes had 8 times the rate of maltreatment, 10 times the rate of abuse, and 6 times the rate of neglect
- 100 times higher risk of fatal abuse
- 40 times more likely for a preschooler to be sexually abused
- 4 times the risk of poverty for children growing up without a father
- 2 times more likely to suffer from obesity
- 2 times the rate of infant mortality
- Higher likelihood of mental health disorders
- Higher likelihood of future relationship problems
Now ain’t nobody tell us it was fair
No love from my daddy cause the coward wasn’t there
He passed away and I didn’t cry, cause my anger
Wouldn’t let me feel for a stranger
They say I’m wrong and I’m heartless, but all along
I was looking for a father he was gone
I hung around with the Thugs, and even though they sold drugs
They showed a young brother love
–Tupac Shakur

For more than twenty-five years, The Center for Divorce Education has been dedicated to helping parents and children deal with the difficult process of divorce and separation. Based on our extensive research, we have developed highly effective methods for reducing the stress of divorce and separation for all parties. Our interactive, skills-based approach has been recognized by experts among the top programs being offered today.
Parenting is all about you & styles are only a small piece of what it takes to be a “good parent”. Effective Parenting has a lot of skill and patience.
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