"Fatherless homes account for 63% of youth suicides, 90% of homeless/runaway children, 85% of children with behavior problems, 71% of high school dropouts, 85% of youths in prison, well over 50% of teen mothers."

by
Americans for Divorce Reform, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Institute for Equality in Marriage


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There were approximately 2,230,000 marriages in 2005 -- down from 2,279,000 the previous year, despite a total population increase of 2.9 million over the same period.
*
The divorce rate in 2005 (per 1,000 people) was 3.6 -- the lowest rate since 1970, and down from 4.2 in 2000 and from 4.7 in 1990. (The peak was at 5.3 in 1981, according to the Associated Press.)
*
The marriage rate in 2005 (per 1,000) was 7.5, down from 7.8 the previous year.
*
In 2004, the state with the highest reported divorce rate was Nevada, at 6.4 (per 1,000). Arkansas was a close second, with a divorce rate of 6.3, followed by Wyoming at 5.3. The District of Columbia had the lowest reported divorce rate, at 1.7, followed by Massachusetts at 2.2 and Pennsylvania at 2.5. (Figures were not complete for California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, or Oklahoma.)
*
8.1% of coupled households consist of unmarried heterosexual partners, according to The State of Our Unions 2005, a report issued by the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. The same study said that only 63% of American children grow up with both biological parents -- the lowest figure in the Western world.
*
As of 2003, 43.7% of custodial mothers and 56.2% of custodial fathers were either separated or divorced. And in 2002, 7.8 million Americans paid about $40 billion in child and/or spousal support (84% of the payers were male).




.........

Trying to find "Motherless homes ... "

more to follow ...



.

 

Divorce rates by State

by
National Center for Health Statistics











[IMG]local://upfiles/3799/0D2EAD19992E42BBBB8955048BD767B5.jpg[/IMG][IMG]local://upfiles/3799/C8C44687E92646C8B8BF3CA0B2C44785.jpg[/IMG]

 

I'll bet the numbers of "grandmothers" who have raised parentless children would be just as startling. They seem to have raised most athletes!!!

 

"absent mothers have a negligible impact on male adolescent delinquency"

"The absence of either parent has a significant effect on the kids having one kind of pathology or another, but the absence of a father tends to have a more significant effect, and it seems to more seriously affect the sons,"

"the research also indicates that step-fathers may in fact contribute to the problem."

~ Llad Phillips and William S. Comanor, UC

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that there were more than 1,000,000 do***ented child abuse cases in 1990. In 1983, it found that 60% of perpetrators were women with sole custody

~ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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"40% of mothers reported that they had interfered with the non-custodial father's visitation on at least one occasion, to punish the ex-spouse."

~ p. 449, col. II, lines 3-6, (citing Fulton) Frequency of visitation by Divorced Fathers; Differences in Reports by Fathers and Mothers. Sanford Braver et al, Am. J. of Orthopsychiatry, 1991

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"Overall, approximately 50% of mothers "see no value in the father`s continued contact with his children...."

~ Surviving the Breakup, Joan Kelly & Judith Wallerstein, p. 125

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"Only 11% of mothers value their husband's input when it comes to handling problems with their kids. Teachers & doctors rated 45%, and close friends & relatives rated %16."

~ EDK Associates survey of 500 women for Redbook Magazine. Redbook, November 1994, p. 36

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"The former spouse (mother) was the greatest obstacle to having more frequent contact with the children."

~ Increasing our understanding of fathers who have infrequent contact with their children, James Dudley, Family Relations, Vol. 4, p. 281, July 1991

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"Feelings of anger towards their former spouses hindered effective involvement on the part of fathers; angry mothers would sometimes sabotage father's efforts to visit their children."

~ Ahrons and Miller, Am. Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 63. p. 442, July `93

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"Mothers may prevent visits to retaliate against fathers for problems in their marital or post-marital relationship."

~ Seltzer, Shaeffer & Charing, Journal of Marriage & the Family, Vol. 51, p. 1015, November 1989.

In a study: "Visitational Interference - A National Study" by Ms. J Annette Vanini, M.S.W. and Edward Nichols, M.S.W., it was found that 77% of non-custodial fathers are NOT able to "visit" their children, as ordered by the court, as a result of "visitation interference" perpetuated by the custodial parent. In other words, non-compliance with court ordered visitation is three times the problem of non-compliance with court ordered child support and impacts the children of divorce even more. Originally published Sept. 1992

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"Fatherless children are at dramatically greater risk of suicide."

~ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health, Washington, D.C., 1993.

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"A family structure index - a composite index based on the annual rate of children involved in divorce and the percentage of families with children present that are female-headed - is a strong predictor of suicide among young adult and adolescent white males."

~ Patricia L. McCall and Kenneth C. Land, "Trends in White Male Adolescent, Young-Adult, and Elderly Suicide: Are Ther Common Underlying Structural Factors?" Social Science Research 23 (1994)


===========

"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

==========

"things have again changed in recent years. According to the US Census Bureau, over the past few years the number of children of divorced homes who remain with their father rather than with their mother has risen dramatically. During that period, there has been a commensurate fall in overall rates of youth violence. While a blanket presumption of father custody is yet to come, even the states which have implemented a presumption of joint custody rather than mother custody have seen a sharp fall in divorce rates.
The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth has provided yet more data suggesting a strong link between increased father involvement and decreases in violence. Such a link would be consistent with a large body of data do***enting elevated rates of violence among fatherless children. Many recent studes have indicated that the risk of teenage pregnancy and violent crime cannot predicted by race or income levels, but by the absence of a father in the home (see links below).
The results in these various fields of research suggest one conclusion: Stable families, safe children, and healthy societies exist only where men maintain control over their progeny."

~ Paternity Test, (Anaheim), The Economist, Jan 30 - Feb 5, 1999, p. 78

 

What you say has merit.
It is my belief that grandmothers AND grandfathers can and are often, just as valuable to the kids, as the parents - if not more.

 

by

Wall Street Journal Europe
Wednesday 14 January 1998

[blockquote] "Social science confirms that children raised in day-care centers and similar institutions are often emotionally maladjusted and mentally impaired."

[hr] [/blockquote]
Many young families today depend on day care. Single fathers may rely on it even more than single mothers do. But is it good for our children? In this article by Andrew P. Thomas, The Wall Street Journal takes a critical look at the effects of day care on young children. He warns against "the growing practice of abandoning infants to paid strangers."


Even as long as twenty years ago, the early studies of day care were not encouraging:
[blockquote] A 1974 study in the journal Developmental Psychology reported that children who entered day care before their first birthday were "significantly more aggressive" and more physically and verbally abusive of adults than other children.

[/blockquote]Several more recent studies are quoted which show that children "...who had spent more time in day care suffered proportionately greater ill effects, regardless of the quality of the care;" the most extreme case being the kibbutz-raised children of Israel:

[blockquote] In 1995, the National Institute of Mental Health published a joint US-Israeli study that found children raised in Israeli communes known as kibbutzim, who received 24-hour day care, were at significantly greater risk of developing schizophrenia and other serious mental disorders. [/blockquote]


Criticizing American parents for "warehousing infants so that they might ac***ulate ever-nicer possessions," the article calls on the US Congress to "reject Mr. Clinton's ill-considered plan to subsidize day care."