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Some Interesting Stats On Arrests Of Women In 1930, the British govt arrested 17,000 women for their involvement in the Dandi Yatra (Salt March). During 1937 to 1947 (10 Years), they arrested 5,000 women involved in the freedom struggle. From 2004 to 2006, the govt of India arrested 90,000 women of all ages under 498A. On the average, 27,000 women per year are being arrested under this flawed law. These are stats from the NCRB.


...H E L P L I N E MEN in Distress Call (0)8882 498 498 Managed by SIF
Showing posts with label effects of fatherless child. Show all posts
Showing posts with label effects of fatherless child. Show all posts

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Save The Institution of Marriage Guidelines


Save The Institution of Marriage Guidelines

Delhi High Court

Chander Bhan And Anr vs State on 4 August, 2008



IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI Bail Application No. 1627/2008


04.08.2008


Judgment delivered on: 04.8.2008


Chander Bhan and Anr. ...... Petitioners Through: Mr. Rajesh Khanna Adv.


versus


State ..... Respondent Through: Mr. Pawan Sharma APP


CORAM:


HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KAILASH GAMBHIR

1. Whether the Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? yes

2. To be referred to Reporter or not? yes

3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? yes KAILASH GAMBHIR, J. (Oral)


By way of the present petition the petitioners who are parents- in-law of the complainant seek grant of anticipatory bail. Mr. Sharma counsel for the State submits that allegations are serious in nature against the petitioners, therefore, the petitioners do not deserve grant of anticipatory bail. Complainant is present in the court. She states that there is no possibility of her going back to the matrimonial home. However, the complainant is not averse to the matter being sent before the mediation cell. Let the matter be sent to the Mediation Cell, Rohini Court, Delhi for exploring the possibility of amicable settlement between the parties. Let the parties appear before the Mediation Cell, Rohini Court, Delhi on 11.8.2008 at 4.00 P.M.

List the matter before the court on 23.9.2008. Till then the petitioners shall not be arrested. Before parting with this case, I deem it expedient and in the larger interest of saving matrimony of the couples and to restore peace between the two hostile families of husband and wife who once must have celebrated the marriage of couple with great zeal, fervor and enthusiasm but when faced with many facets and stark realities of life entangled themselves to fight a long drawn legal battle instead of building confidence, trust, understanding, mutual respect for each other and their respective families. The offence of cruelty by husband or relatives of husband (Section 498-A) was added in 1986 to curb the vise of subjecting women to coerce them or their relatives to meet unlawful demands for dowry. Since its enactment, this provision has been subjected to systematic and sustained attack. It has been called unfair and responsible for the victimisation of husbands by their wives and her relatives. No doubt there may be many deserving cases where women are being subjected to mental and physical cruelty at the hands of the avaricious in-laws. But such cases have to be distinguished from other cases where merely due to trivial fights and ego clashes the matrimony is facing disaster. What is not comprehended by young minds while invoking the provisions of the likes of Section 498-A and 406 of IPC is that these provisions to a large extent have done incalculable harm in breaking matrimony of the couples. Despite the western culture influencing the young minds of our country, still it has been seen that Indian families value their own age old traditions and culture, where, mutual respect, character and morals are still kept at a very high pedestal.

It has been noticed in diverse cases, where the brides and their family members in litigation find the doors of conciliation shut from the side of groom and his family members only on account of there having suffered the wrath of Police harassment first at the stage when matter is pending before crime against women cell and thereafter at the time of seeking grant of anticipatory or regular bail and then the ordeal of long drawn trial. Daily, matters come before this court seeking bail and for quashing of FIR?s registered under Sections 498A/406 of the IPC. This court is of the view that it is essential to lay down some broad guidelines and to give directions in such matters in order to salvage and save the institution of marriage and matrimonial homes of the couples.

Guidelines:

1. Social workers/NGO

There is no iota of doubt that most of the complaints are filed in the heat of the moment over trifling fights and ego clashes. It is also a matter of common knowledge that in their tussle and ongoing hostility the hapless children are the worst victims. Before a wife moves to file a complaint with the Women Cell, a lot of persuasion and conciliation is required. (a) The Delhi Legal Service Authority, National Commission for Women, NGO?s and social worker?s working for upliftment of women should set up a desk in crime against women cell to provide them with conciliation services, so that before the State machinery is set in motion, the matter is amicably settled at that very stage. But, if ultimately even after efforts put by the social workers reconciliation seems not possible then the matter should be undertaken by the police officials of Crime against Women cell and there also, serious efforts should be made to settle the matter amicably.


2. Police Authorities:

(a) Pursuant to directions given by the Apex Court, the Commissioner of Police, Delhi vide Standing Order No. 330/2007 had already issued guidelines for arrest in the dowry cases registered under Sections 498-A/406 IPC and the said guidelines should be followed by the Delhi Police strictly and scrupulously. (i) No case under Section 498-A/406 IPC should be registered without the prior approval of DCP/Addl. DCP.


(ii) Arrest of main accused should be made only after thorough investigation has been conducted and with the prior approval of the ACP/DCP. (iii) Arrest of the collateral accused such as father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law or sister-in-law etc should only be made after prior approval of DCP on file.


(b) Police should also depute a well trained and a well behaved staff in all the crime against women cells especially the lady officers, all well equipped with the abilities of perseverance, persuasion, patience and forbearance. (c) FIR in such cases should not be registered in a routine manner. (d) The endeavor of the Police should be to scrutinize complaints very carefully and then register FIR.


(e) The FIR should be registered only against those persons against whom there are strong allegations of causing any kind of physical or mental cruelty as well as breach of trust.


(f) All possible efforts should be made, before recommending registration of any FIR, for reconciliation and in case it is found that there is no possibility of settlement, then necessary steps in the first instance be taken to ensure return of stridhan and dowry articles etc. by the accused party to the complainant.


3. Lawyers:

Lawyers also have a great responsibility in this regard. (a) While drafting pleadings/complaints, the lawyers should not unnecessarily suggest incorporation of wild allegations, or in character assassination of any of the parties or their family members whatever the case may be. (b) Lawyers are also to endeavour to bring about amicable settlement between the parties as they are expected to discharge sacred duty as social engineers in such cases instead of making them target for monetary considerations by multiplying their cases.

4. Courts:

Subordinate courts, be it trying civil or criminal cases concerning bail, maintenance, custody, divorce or other related matters shall in the first instance, in every case where it is possible so to do consistently with the nature and circumstances of the case, to make every endeavour to bring about reconciliation between the parties.


a) The first endeavor should be for possible reunion and restitution of the parties and as a last endeavor to bring about peaceful separation. b) If possible extra time should be devoted to such matters to restore peace in the lives of rival parties be it by re-uniting them or even in case of their parting ways.


c) Conciliatory proceedings by the court should preferably be held in camera to avoid embarrassment.


d) Wherever, the courts are overburdened with the work, necessary assistance of Mediation and Conciliation cells should be sought. Apart from above directions it would not be out of place to ask parties also to themselves adopt a conciliatory approach without intervention of any outside agency and unless there are very compelling reasons, steps for launching prosecution against any spouse or his/her in-laws be not initiated just in a huff, anger, desperation or frustration. 


DASTI.

KAILASH GAMBHIR, J

August 04, 2008

Bail Application No. 1627/2008

Sunday, 3 March 2013

Statistics of a Fatherless America


Statistics of a Fatherless


Source:- http://www.photius.com/feminocracy/facts_on_fatherless_kids.html

Sexual activity. In a study of 700 adolescents, researchers found that "compared to families with two natural parents living in the home, adolescents from single-parent families have been found to engage in greater and earlier sexual activity."Source: Carol W. Metzler, et al. "The Social Context for Risky Sexual Behavior Among Adolescents," Journal of Behavioral Medicine 17 (1994).


A myriad of maladies. Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health, Washington, DC, 1993.
Drinking problems. Teenagers living in single-parent households are more likely to abuse alcohol and at an earlier age compared to children reared in two-parent households
Source: Terry E. Duncan, Susan C. Duncan and Hyman Hops, "The Effects of Family Cohesiveness and Peer Encouragement on the Development of Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Cohort-Sequential Approach to the Analysis of Longitudinal Data," Journal of Studies on Alcohol 55 (1994).
Drug Use: "...the absence of the father in the home affects significantly the behavior of adolescents and results in the greater use of alcohol and marijuana."
Source: Deane Scott Berman, "Risk Factors Leading to Adolescent Substance Abuse," Adolescence 30 (1995)
Sexual abuse. A study of 156 victims of child sexual abuse found that the majority of the children came from disrupted or single-parent homes; only 31 percent of the children lived with both biological parents. Although stepfamilies make up only about 10 percent of all families, 27 percent of the abused children lived with either a stepfather or the mother's boyfriend.
Source: Beverly Gomes-Schwartz, Jonathan Horowitz, and Albert P. Cardarelli, "Child Sexual Abuse Victims and Their Treatment," U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Child Abuse. Researchers in Michigan determined that "49 percent of all child abuse cases are committed by single mothers."
Source: Joan Ditson and Sharon Shay, "A Study of Child Abuse in Lansing, Michigan," Child Abuse and Neglect, 8 (1984).
Deadly predictions. 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.
Source: Patricia L. McCall and Kenneth C. Land, "Trends in White Male Adolescent, Young-Adult and Elderly Suicide: Are There Common Underlying Structural Factors?" Social Science Research 23, 1994.
High risk. Fatherless children are at dramatically greater risk of suicide.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health,Washington, DC, 1993.
Suicidal Tendencies. In a study of 146 adolescent friends of 26 adolescent suicide victims, teens living in single-parent families are not only more likely to commit suicide but also more likely to suffer from psychological disorders, when compared to teens living in intact families.
Source: David A. Brent, et al. "Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Peers of Adolescent Suicide Victims: Predisposing Factors and Phenomenology." Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 34, 1995.
Confused identities. Boys who grow up in father-absent homes are more likely that those in father-present homes to have trouble establishing appropriate sex roles and gender identity.
Source: P.L. Adams, J.R. Milner, and N.A. Schrepf, Fatherless Children, New York, Wiley Press, 1984.
Psychiatric Problems. In 1988, a study of preschool children admitted to New Orleans hospitals as psychiatric patients over a 34-month period found that nearly 80 percent came from fatherless homes.
Source: Jack Block, et al. "Parental Functioning and the Home Environment in Families of Divorce," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 27 (1988)
Emotional distress. Children living with a never-married mother are more likely to have been treated for emotional problems.
Source: L. Remez, "Children Who Don't Live with Both Parents Face Behavioral Problems," Family Planning Perspectives(January/February 1992).
Uncooperative kids. Children reared by a divorced or never-married mother are less cooperative and score lower on tests of intelligence than children reared in intact families. Statistical analysis of the behavior and intelligence of these children revealed "significant detrimental effects" of living in a female-headed household. Growing up in a female-headed household remained a statistical predictor of behavior problems even after adjusting for differences in family income.
Source: Greg L. Duncan, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Pamela Kato Klebanov, "Economic Deprivation and Early Childhood Development," Child Development 65 (1994).
Unstable families, unstable lives. Compared to peers in two-parent homes, black children in single-parent households are more likely to engage in troublesome behavior, and perform poorly in school.
Source: Tom Luster and Hariette Pipes McAdoo, "Factors Related to the Achievement and Adjustment of Young African-American Children." Child Development 65 (1994): 1080-1094
Beyond class lines. Even controlling for variations across groups in parent education, race and other child and family factors, 18- to 22-year-olds from disrupted families were twice as likely to have poor relationships with their mothers and fathers, to show high levels of emotional distress or problem behavior, [and] to have received psychological help.
Source: Nicholas Zill, Donna Morrison, and Mary Jo Coiro, "Long Term Effects of Parental Divorce on Parent-Child Relationships, Adjustment and Achievement in Young Adulthood." Journal of Family Psychology 7 (1993).
Fatherly influence. Children with fathers at home tend to do better in school, are less prone to depression and are more successful in relationships. Children from one-parent families achieve less and get into trouble more than children from two parent families.
Source: One Parent Families and Their Children: The School's Most Significant Minority, conducted by The Consortium for the Study of School Needs of Children from One Parent Families, co sponsored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the Institute for Development of Educational Activities, a division of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Arlington, VA., 1980
Divorce disorders. Children whose parents separate are significantly more likely to engage in early sexual activity, abuse drugs, and experience conduct and mood disorders. This effect is especially strong for children whose parents separated when they were five years old or younger.
Source: David M. Fergusson, John Horwood and Michael T. Lynsky, "Parental Separation, Adolescent Psychopathology, and Problem Behaviors," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 33 (1944).
Troubled marriages, troubled kids. Compared to peers living with both biological parents, sons and daughters of divorced or separated parents exhibited significantly more conduct problems. Daughters of divorced or separated mothers evidenced significantly higher rates of internalizing problems, such as anxiety or depression.
Source: Denise B. Kandel, Emily Rosenbaum and Kevin Chen, "Impact of Maternal Drug Use and Life Experiences on Preadolescent Children Born to Teenage Mothers," Journal of Marriage and the Family56 (1994).
Hungry for love. "Father hunger" often afflicts boys age one and two whose fathers are suddenly and permanently absent. Sleep disturbances, such as trouble falling asleep, nightmares, and night terrors frequently begin within one to three months after the father leaves home.
Source: Alfred A. Messer, "Boys Father Hunger: The Missing Father Syndrome," Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality,January 1989.
Disturbing news: Children of never-married mothers are more than twice as likely to have been treated for an emotional or behavioral problem.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey, Hyattsille, MD, 1988
Poor and in trouble: A 1988 Department of Health and Human Services study found that at every income level except the very highest (over $50,000 a year), children living with never-married mothers were more likely than their counterparts in two-parent families to have been expelled or suspended from school, to display emotional problems, and to engage in antisocial behavior.
Source: James Q. Wilson, "In Loco Parentis: Helping Children When Families Fail Them," The Brookings Review, Fall 1993.
Fatherless aggression: In a longitudinal study of 1,197 fourth-grade students, researchers observed "greater levels of aggression in boys from mother-only households than from boys in mother-father households."
Source: N. Vaden-Kierman, N. Ialongo, J. Pearson, and S. Kellam, "Household Family Structure and Children's Aggressive Behavior: A Longitudinal Study of Urban Elementary School Children," Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 23, no. 5 (1995).
Act now, pay later: "Children from mother-only families have less of an ability to delay gratification and poorer impulse control (that is, control over anger and sexual gratification.) These children also have a weaker sense of conscience or sense of right and wrong."
Source: E.M. Hetherington and B. Martin, "Family Interaction" in H.C. Quay and J.S. Werry (eds.), Psychopathological Disorders of Childhood. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979)
Crazy victims: Eighty percent of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from broken homes.
Source: J.B. Elshtain, "Family Matters...", Christian Century, July 1993.
Duh to dead: "The economic consequences of a [father's] absence are often accompanied by psychological consequences, which include higher-than-average levels of youth suicide, low intellectual and education performance, and higher-than-average rates of mental illness, violence and drug use."
Source: William Galston, Elaine Kamarck. Progressive Policy Institute. 1993
Expelled: Nationally, 15.3 percent of children living with a never-married mother and 10.7 percent of children living with a divorced mother have been expelled or suspended from school, compared to only 4.4 percent of children living with both biological parents.
Source: Debra Dawson, "Family Structure...", Journal of Marriage and Family, No. 53. 1991.
Violent rejection: Kids who exhibited violent behavior at school were 11 times as likely not to live with their fathers and six times as likely to have parents who were not married. Boys from families with absent fathers are at higher risk for violent behavior than boys from intact families.
Source: J.L. Sheline (et al.), "Risk Factors...", American Journal of Public Health, No. 84. 1994.
That crowd: Children without fathers or with stepfathers were less likely to have friends who think it's important to behave properly in school. They also exhibit more problems with behavior and in achieving goals.
Source: Nicholas Zill, C. W. Nord, "Running in Place," Child Trends, Inc. 1994.
Likeliest to succeed: Kids who live with both biological parents at age 14 are significantly more likely to graduate from high school than those kids who live with a single parent, a parent and step-parent, or neither parent.
Source: G.D. Sandefur (et al.), "The Effects of Parental Marital Status...", Social Forces, September 1992.
Worse to bad: Children in single-parent families tend to score lower on standardized tests and to receive lower grades in school. Children in single-parent families are nearly twice as likely to drop out of school as children from two-parent families.
Source: J.B. Stedman (et al.), "Dropping Out," Congressional Research Service Report No 88-417. 1988.
College odds: Children from disrupted families are 20 percent more unlikely to attend college than kids from intact, two-parent families.
Source: J. Wallerstein, Family Law Quarterly, 20. (Summer 1986)
On their own: Kids living in single-parent homes or in step-families report lower educational expectations on the part of their parents, less parental monitoring of school work, and less overall social supervision than children from intact families.
Source: N.M. Astore and S. McLanahan, Americican Sociological Review, No. 56 (1991)
Double-risk: Fatherless children -- kids living in homes without a stepfather or without contact with their biological father -- are twice as likely to drop out of school.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Survey on Child Health. (1993)
Repeat, repeat: Nationally, 29.7 percent of children living with a never-married mother and 21.5 percent of children living with a divorced mother have repeated at least one grade in school, compared to 11.6 percent of children living with both biological parents.
Source: Debra Dawson, "Family Structure and Children's Well-Being," Journals of Marriage and Family, No. 53. (1991).
Underpaid high achievers: Children from low-income, two-parent families outperform students from high-income, single-parent homes. Almost twice as many high achievers come from two-parent homes as one-parent homes.
Source: "One-Parent Families and Their Children;" Charles F. Kettering Foundation (1990).
Dadless and dumb: At least one-third of children experiencing a parental separation "demonstrated a significant decline in academic performance" persisting at least three years.
Source: L.M.C. Bisnairs (et al.), American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, no. 60 (1990)
Son of Solo: According to a recent study of young, non-custodial fathers who are behind on child support payments, less than half of these men were living with their own father at age 14.
Slip-sliding: Among black children between the ages of 6 to 9 years old, black children in mother-only households scored significantly lower on tests of intellectual ability, than black children living with two parents.
Source: Luster and McAdoo, Child Development 65. 1994.
Dadless dropouts: After taking into account race, socio-economic status, sex, age and ability, high school students from single-parent households were 1.7 times more likely to drop out than were their corresponding counterparts living with both biological parents.
Source: Ralph McNeal, Sociology of Education 88. 1995.
Takes two: Families in which both the child's biological or adoptive parents are present in the household show significantly higher levels of parental involvement in the child's school activities than do mother-only families or step-families.
Source: Zill and Nord, "Running in Place." Child Trends. 1994
Con garden: Forty-three percent of prison inmates grew up in a single-parent household -- 39 percent with their mothers, 4 percent with their fathers -- and an additional 14 percent lived in households without either biological parent. Another 14 percent had spent at last part of their childhood in a foster home, agency or other juvenile institution.
Source: US Bureau of Justice Statistics, Survey of State Prison Inmates. 1991
Criminal moms, criminal kids: The children of single teenage mothers are more at risk for later criminal behavior. In the case of a teenage mother, the absence of a father also increases the risk of harshness from the mother.
Source: M. Mourash, L. Rucker, Crime and Delinquency 35. 1989.
Rearing rapists: Seventy-two percent of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers. Sixty percent of America's rapists grew up the same way.
Source: D. Cornell (et al.), Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 5. 1987. And N. Davidson, "Life Without Father," Policy Review. 1990.
Crime and poverty: The proportion of single-parent households in a community predicts its rate of violent crime and burglary, but the community's poverty level does not.
Source: D.A. Smith and G.R. Jarjoura, "Social Structure and Criminal Victimization," Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 25. 1988.
Marriage matters: Only 13 percent of juvenile delinquents come from families in which the biological mother and father are married to each other. By contract, 33 percent have parents who are either divorced or separated and 44 percent have parents who were never married.
Source: Wisconsin Dept. of Health and Social Services, April 1994.
No good time: Compared to boys from intact, two-parent families, teenage boys from disrupted families are not only more likely to be incarcerated for delinquent offenses, but also to manifest worse conduct while incarcerated.
Source: M Eileen Matlock et al., "Family Correlates of Social Skills..." Adolescence 29. 1994.
Count 'em: Seventy percent of juveniles in state reform institutions grew up in single- or no-parent situations.
Source: Alan Beck et al., Survey of Youth in Custody, 1987, US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1988.
The Main Thing: The relationship between family structure and crime is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature.
Source: E. Kamarck, William Galston, Putting Children First, Progressive Policy Inst. 1990
Examples: Teenage fathers are more likely than their childless peers to commit and be convicted of illegal activity, and their offenses are of a more serious nature.
Source: M.A. Pirog-Good, "Teen Father and the Child Support System," in Paternity Establishment, Institute for research on Poverty, Univ. of Wisconsin. 1992.
The 'hood The likelihood that a young male will engage in criminal activity doubles if he is raised without a father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high concentration of single-parent families.
Source: A. Anne Hill, June O'Neill, "Underclass Behaviors in the United States," CUNY, Baruch College. 1993
Bringing the war back home The odds that a boy born in America in 1974 will be murdered are higher than the odds that a serviceman in World War II would be killed in combat.
Source: US Sen. Phil Gramm, 1995
Get ahead at home and at work: Fathers who cared for their children intellectual development and their adolescent's social development were more like to advance in their careers, compared to men who weren't involved in such activities.
Source: J. Snarey, How Fathers Care for the Next Generation.Harvard Univ. Press.
Diaper dads: In 1991, about 20 percent of preschool children were cared for by their fathers -- both married and single. In 1988, the number was 15 percent.
Source: M. O'Connell, "Where's Papa? Father's Role in Child Care," Population Reference Bureau. 1993.
Without leave: Sixty-three percent of 1500 CEOs and human resource directors said it was not reasonable for a father to take a leave after the birth of a child.
Source: J.H. Pleck, "Family Supportive Employer Policies," Center for research in Women. 1991.
Get a job: The number of men who complain that work conflicts with their family responsibilities rose from 12 percent in 1977 to 72 percent in 1989. Meanwhile, 74 percent of men prefer a "daddy track" job to a "fast track" job.
Source: James Levine, The Fatherhood Project.
Long-distance dads: Twenty-six percent of absent fathers live in a different state than their children.
Source: US Bureau of the Census, Statistical Brief . 1991.
Cool Dad of the Week: Among fathers who maintain contact with their children after a divorce, the pattern of the relationship between father-and-child changes. They begin to behave more like relatives than like parents. Instead of helping with homework, nonresident dads are more likely to take the kids shopping, to the movies, or out to dinner. Instead of providing steady advice and guidance, divorced fathers become "treat dads."
Source: F. Furstenberg, A. Cherlin, Divided Families . Harvard Univ. Press. 1991.
Older's not wiser: While 57 percent of unwed dads with kids no older than two visit their children more than once a week, by the time the kid's seven and a half, only 23 percent are in frequent contact with their children.
Source: R. Lerman and Theodora Ooms, Young Unwed Fathers . 1993.
Ten years after: Ten years after the breakup of a marriage, more than two-thirds of kids report not having seen their father for a year.
Source: National Commission on Children, Speaking of Kids. 1991.
No such address: More than half the kids who don't live with their father have never been in their father's house.
Source: F. Furstenberg, A. Cherlin, Divided Families. Harvard Univ. Press. 1991.
Dadless years: About 40 percent of the kids living in fatherless homes haven't seen their dads in a year or more. Of the rest, only one in five sleeps even one night a month at the father's home. And only one in six sees their father once or more per week.
Source: F. Furstenberg, A. Cherlin, Divided Families. Harvard Univ. Press. 1991.
Measuring up? According to a 1992 Gallup poll, more than 50 percent of all adults agreed that fathers today spend less time with their kids than their fathers did with them.
Source: Gallup national random sample conducted for the National Center for Fathering, April 1992.
Father unknown. Of kids living in single-mom households, 35 percent never see their fathers, and another 24 percent see their fathers less than once a month.
Source: J.A. Selzer, "Children's Contact with Absent Parents," Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50 (1988).
Missed contact: In a study of 304 young adults, those whose parents divorced after they left home had significantly less contact with their fathers than adult children who parents remained married. Weekly contact with their children dropped from 78 percent for still-married fathers to 44 percent for divorced fathers.
Source: William Aquilino, "Later Life Parental Divorce and Widowhood," Journal of Marriage and the Family 56. 1994.
Commercial breaks: The amount of time a father spends with his child -- one-on-one -- averages less than 10 minutes a day.
Source: J. P. Robinson, et al., "The Rhythm of Everyday Life." Westview Press. 1988
High risk: Overall, more than 75 percent of American children are at risk because of paternal deprivation. Even in two-parent homes, fewer than 25 percent of young boys and girls experience an average of at least one hour a day of relatively individualized contact with their fathers.
Source: Henry Biller, "The Father Factor..." a paper based on presentations during meetings with William Galston, Deputy Director, Domestic Policy, Clinton White House, December 1993 and April 1994.
Knock, knock: Of children age 5 to 14, 1.6 million return home to houses where there is no adult present.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Who's Minding the Kids?" Statistical Brief. April 1994.
Who said talk's cheap? Almost 20 percent of sixth- through twelfth-graders have not had a good conversation lasting for at least 10 minutes with at least one of their parents in more than a month.
Source: Peter Benson, "The Troubled Journey." Search Institute. 1993.
Justified guilt. A 1990 L.A. Times poll found that 57 percent of all fathers and 55 percent of all mothers feel guilty about not spending enough time with their children.
Source: Lynn Smith and Bob Sipchen, "Two Career Family Dilemma," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 12, 1990.
Who are you, mister? In 1965, parents on average spent approximately 30 hours a week with their kids. By 1985, the amount of time had fallen to 17 hours.
Source: William Mattox, "The Parent Trap." Policy Review. Winter, 1991.
Waiting Works: Only eight percent of those who finished high school, got married before having a child, and waited until age 20 to have that child were living in poverty in 1992.
Source: William Galston, "Beyond the Murphy Brown Debate." Institute for Family Values. Dec. 10, 1993.







More Statistics

 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census) 


 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes 


 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes (Source: Center for Disease Control) 


 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes (Source: Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26, 1978.) 


 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (Source: National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools.) 


 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes (Source: Rainbows for all God`s Children.) 


 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept 1988) 


 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home (Source: Fulton Co. Georgia jail populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections 1992) 



The State of Fatherhood



 37.9% of fathers have no access/visitation rights. (Source: p.6, col.II, para. 6, lines 4 & 5, Census Bureau P-60, #173, Sept 1991.) 


 "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." (Source: 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.) 


 "Overall, approximately 50% of mothers "see no value in the father`s continued contact with his children...." (Source: Surviving the Breakup, Joan Kelly & Judith Wallerstein, p. 125) 


 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%. (Source: EDK Associates survey of 500 women for Redbook Magazine. Redbook, November 1994, p. 36) 


 "The former spouse (mother) was the greatest obstacle to having more frequent contact with the children." (Source: Increasing our understanding of fathers who have infrequent contact with their children, James Dudley, Family Relations, Vol. 4, p. 281, July 1991.) 


 "A clear majority (70%) of fathers felt that they had too little time with their children." (Source: Visitation and the Noncustodial Father, Mary Ann Kock & Carol Lowery, Journal of Divorce, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 54, Winter 1984.) 


 "Very few of the children were satisfied with the amount of contact with their fathers, after divorce."(Source: Visitation and the Noncustodial Father, Koch & Lowery, Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 50, Winter 1984.) 


 "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." (Source: Ahrons and Miller, Am. Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 63. p. 442, July `93.) 


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


Child Support



 Information from multiple sources show that only 10% of all noncustodial fathers fit the "deadbeat dad" category: 90% of the fathers with joint custody paid the support due. Fathers with visitation rights pay 79.1%; and 44.5% of those with NO visitation rights still financially support their children. (Source: Census Bureau report. Series P-23, No. 173). 


 Additionally, of those not paying support, 66% are not doing so because they lack the financial resources to pay (Source: GAO report: GAO/HRD-92-39 FS). 


 52% of fathers who owe child support earn less than $6,155 per year. (Source: The Poverty Studies Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison,1993) 


 66% of single mothers work less than full time while only 10% of fathers fall into this category. In addition, almost 47% of non-custodial mothers default on support compared with the 27% of fathers who default.(Source: Garansky and Meyer, DHHS Technical Analysis Paper No. 42, 1991). 


 66% of all support not paid by non-custodial fathers is due to inability to pay. (Source: U.S. General Accounting Office Report, GAO/HRD-92-39FS January 1992). 


 Total Custodial Mothers: 11,268,000 


 Total Custodial Fathers: 2,907,000 (Source: Current Population Reports, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Series P-20, No. 458, 1991). 


The following is sourced from: Technical Analysis Paper No. 42, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Income Security Policy, Oct. 1991, Authors: Meyer and Garansky.



 Custodial mothers who receive a support award: 79.6% 


 Custodial fathers who receive a support award: 29.9% 


 Non-custodial mothers who totally default on support: 46.9% 


 Non-custodial fathers who totally default on support: 26.9% 



False accusations of abuse:



 160,000 reports of suspected child abuse were reported in 1963. That number exploded to 1.7 million in 1985. 

 There were more than three million reports of alleged child abuse and neglect in 1995. However, two million of those complaints were without foundation or false! (Source: National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN) Child Maltreatment 1995: Reports From the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System) 

Infamous Fatherless People

BILLY THE KID 

SADDAM HUSSEIN 


SIRHAN SIRHAN 

ADOLPH HITLER 


ROBERT GRAYSMITH
(ZODIAC SERIAL KILLER) 

MARC LEPINE
(MASS MURDERER OF 14) 


JACK THE RIPPER 

LEE HARVEY OSWALD 


JOHN WILKES BOOTH 

JEFFREY DAHMER 


CHARLES MANSON(CULT LEADER)



"MONSTER" CODY
(L.A. CRIPS GANGLORD) 
                   

Negative Education Effects of Growing Up in a Fatherless Home




Negative Education Effects of Growing Up in a Fatherless Home





Negative Education Effects of Growing Up in a Fatherless Home thumbnail

Children from fatherless households tend to fare worse academically for several reasons.


Single mothers headed nearly 10 million American households in 2010, according to Catalyst.org. More than 65 percent of those mothers worked outside the home to make ends meet. This, as well as availability to health insurance, a support system of extended family members, and whether or not the father contributes financially to the household, appears to affect the grades of children growing up in fatherless homes.

Financial Considerations


Often -- but not always -- absent fathers pay child support. According to Adoption.com, academic test scores of children whose fathers do not contribute financially to their households are lower than those whose fathers do. However, Adoption.com notes that fathers who do pay support usually remain more active in their children's lives, and this could have as much to do with their academic performance as overall household incomes.
Overworked Mothers


The majority of single mothers who hold down jobs have less time to spend with their children, to help with their homework and to oversee school projects. Even if they work during hours when their children are in school, they may spend their evenings catching up with chores and other family responsibilities. Adoption.com theorizes that this, too, affects their children's economic performance. Working single mothers are also less likely to be able to remain active with parent-teacher associations and parent-assisted activities at school.

Health Issues


Children in fatherless households have a higher rate of school absenteeism, according to JRank. Illnesses can result from substandard living conditions stemming from insufficient income, and from single mothers not knowing where to go for affordable health insurance. Without insurance, visits to the pediatrician can be financially prohibitive and illnesses might linger longer than they would with care and medication. The National Center for Children in Poverty reports that children who miss more than 10 percent of their classes a year score significantly lower in general knowledge, math and reading.
Social Factors


"Psychology Today" indicates that not all children from fatherless households perform poorly academically. Fatherless children who have a strong support system of extended family members, concerned teachers and family friends tend to fare better than those who do not. This may not include a mother's boyfriend or new husband, however. Adoption.com indicates that when single mothers become involved with another man, their children may actually receive even less parental support from them, especially when stepchildren are involved. Children can feel displaced and, in turn, this can result in behavioral problems and a dip in academic performance.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Psychological Effects of Fatherlessness


Psychological Effects of Fatherlessness 





A father plays an important role in a child's psychological development.

Every child has a father but not every child has a father consistently in his life. This state of fatherlessness has a psychological effect on young people as they grow up and form their own identities. The aftermath of being raised without a dad can continue into adult development as well. Certainly, having a dad in your life doesn't guarantee emotional wellness, just as not having one doesn't doom you to psychological problems. However, fatherlessness can certainly have noticeable effects.

Behavioral Problems 

Studies show that kids without active relationships with their fathers struggle with acting out behaviorally, such as in defiance and rebellion. These behaviors extend beyond a child's normal challenge against authority. Fatherless children may experience frustrations about their life situations that manifest in disruptive actions. 


Depression/Suicide 


Depression, and subsequently suicide, are unfortunate psychological effects of dealing with life absent of a dad. Kids must learn to cope with the sadness of an absent father. They may be depressed and feel that, not only is the parent directly rejecting them by his absence, but it also because they are unlovable. Statistics show children in this position are also 4.6 times more likely to choose suicide over those with both parents in their life. 


Trouble Socializing With Others 


Due to various behavioral problems, fatherless kids may have a hard time interacting socially with their peers because of their more disruptive actions. Children with these challenges may then separate themselves because they don't fit in as well and this isolation further exacerbates behavioral issues. Specifically, kids may have trouble connecting with others on an emotional level because this was lacking in the relationship with a key parent. 


Tolerance of Abuse 

As she grows up, the fatherless daughter is more likely to tolerate abusive behavior from others. She may develop a feeling that she lacks control of situations in her life and eventually develop a victim mentality. She may also feel she doesn't deserve to be treated well because she felt mistreated by her father. 


Anger 

A common psychological affect of fatherlessness is feeling angry. Typically, at the core of anger is hurt and pain which stems from the rejection felt from their parent. Anger manifests itself in various forms such as verbal outbursts, cutting themselves and even physical violence. 


The Effects of Fatherless Homes on Children 

By Kimberley Elliot, eHow Contributor




Having a loving and involved father can lead to lifelong emotional rewards for a child. Unfortunately, the impact of an absentee father can be as lasting, if far less positive, and starts while the child is still in utero. From an infant's birth weight to an adolescent's sexual behavior, almost every developmental stage in a child's life is affected by his father's absence.


Infancy
  • The impact of a missing father is felt before the child is even born. Single moms are more apt to smoke and less apt to seek prenatal care. There is a greater chance of infant mortality with an absent father, and the newborn is at greater risk of having low birth weight. Single mothers are less likely to breastfeed.

Development

  • Children without a father present have more developmental delays. They are more likely to be academic underperformers, to be truant and to use drugs. Without a father in their lives, they are more apt to show antisocial behavior and they have greater difficulty maintaining intimate relationships. They will be more likely to suffer from depression and are at greater risk of committing suicide.

Health Risks

  • Children who grow up without a father are more likely to smoke and are at greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse. They are more likely to engage premarital sex, and are more vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse. They are five times more likely to be raised in poverty, which has a significant impact on the quality of medical care and nutrition.



    The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children

    Author(s): Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Children's Bureau Rosenberg, Jeffrey., Wilcox, W. Bradford.
    Year Published: 2006


    Section I

    2. Fathers and Their Impact on Children's Well-Being



    A noted sociologist, Dr. David Popenoe, is one of the pioneers of the relatively young field of research into fathers and fatherhood. "Fathers are far more than just 'second adults' in the home," he says. "Involved fathers bring positive benefits to their children that no other person is as likely to bring."6 Fathers have a direct impact on the well-being of their children. It is important for professionals working with fathers—especially in the difficult, emotionally charged arena in which child protective services (CPS) caseworkers operate—to have a working understanding of the literature that addresses this impact. Such knowledge will help make the case for why the most effective CPS case plans will involve fathers.



    This chapter lays out the connection between fathers and child outcomes, including cognitive ability, educational achievement, psychological well-being, and social behavior. The chapter also underscores the impact of the father and mother's relationship on the well-being of their children. While serving as an introduction to the issues, this chapter is not intended as an exhaustive review of the literature. For the reader wishing to learn more, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (http://fatherhood.hhs.gov/index.shtml), the National Fatherhood Initiative (www.fatherhood.org), and the National Center for Fathering (www.fathers.com) are valuable resources.



    2.1 The Impact of the Mother-Father Relationship on Child Outcomes



    One of the most important influences a father can have on his child is indirect—fathers influence their children in large part through the quality of their relationship with the mother of their children. A father who has a good relationship with the mother of their children is more likely to be involved and to spend time with their children and to have children who are psychologically and emotionally healthier. Similarly, a mother who feels affirmed by her children's father and who enjoys the benefits of a happy relationship is more likely to be a better mother. Indeed, the quality of the relationship affects the parenting behavior of both parents. They are more responsive, affectionate, and confident with their infants; more self-controlled in dealing with defiant toddlers; and better confidants for teenagers seeking advice and emotional support.7



    One of the most important benefits of a positive relationship between mother and father, and a benefit directly related to the objectives of the CPS caseworker, is the behavior it models for children. Fathers who treat the mothers of their children with respect and deal with conflict within the relationship in an adult and appropriate manner are more likely to have boys who understand how they are to treat women and who are less likely to act in an aggressive fashion toward females. Girls with involved, respectful fathers see how they should expect men to treat them and are less likely to become involved in violent or unhealthy relationships. In contrast, research has shown that husbands who display anger, show contempt for, or who stonewall their wives (i.e., "the silent treatment") are more likely to have children who are anxious, withdrawn, or antisocial. 8



    2.2 The Impact of Fathers on Cognitive Ability and Educational Achievement



    Children with involved, caring fathers have better educational outcomes. A number of studies suggest that fathers who are involved, nurturing, and playful with their infants have children with higher IQs, as well as better linguistic and cognitive capacities.9 Toddlers with involved fathers go on to start school with higher levels of academic readiness. They are more patient and can handle the stresses and frustrations associated with schooling more readily than children with less involved fathers.10



    The influence of a father's involvement on academic achievement extends into adolescence and young adulthood. Numerous studies find that an active and nurturing style of fathering is associated with better verbal skills, intellectual functioning, and academic achievement among adolescents.11 For instance, a 2001 U.S. Department of Education study found that highly involved biological fathers had children who were 43 percent more likely than other children to earn mostly As and 33 percent less likely than other children to repeat a grade.12


    The Link Between Marriage and Fatherhood




    Caring, involved fathers exist outside of marriage. They are more likely, however, to be found in the context of marriage. There are numerous reasons for this, not the least of which being the legal and social norms associated with marriage that connect a father to the family unit. That may also explain, in part, why research consistently shows that the married mother-and-father family is a better environment for raising children than the cohabitating (living together) mother-and-father family.14



    It is interesting to note that, contrary to stereotypes about low-income, unmarried parents, a significant majority—more than 8 in 10—of urban, low-income fathers and mothers are in a romantic relationship when their children are born.15 Most of these couples expect that they will get married. One study found that more than 80 percent expected they would get married or live together. However, only 11 percent of these couples had actually married a year later.16 Why they do not marry is an interesting question open to conjecture. However, as Dr. Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has pointed out, it may be because these couples receive very little encouragement to marry from the health and social services professionals with whom they come in contact.17




    2.3 The Impact of Fathers on Psychological Well-Being and Social Behavior



    Even from birth, children who have an involved father are more likely to be emotionally secure, be confident to explore their surroundings, and, as they grow older, have better social connections with peers. These children also are less likely to get in trouble at home, school, or in the neighborhood.13 Infants who receive high levels of affection from their fathers (e.g., babies whose fathers respond quickly to their cries and who play together) are more securely attached; that is, they can explore their environment comfortably when a parent is nearby and can readily accept comfort from their parent after a brief separation. A number of studies suggest they also are more sociable and popular with other children throughout early childhood.18



    The way fathers play with their children also has an important impact on a child's emotional and social development. Fathers spend a much higher percentage of their one-on-one interaction with infants and preschoolers in stimulating, playful activity than do mothers. From these interactions, children learn how to regulate their feelings and behavior. Rough-housing with dad, for example, can teach children how to deal with aggressive impulses and physical contact without losing control of their emotions.19 Generally speaking, fathers also tend to promote independence and an orientation to the outside world. Fathers often push achievement while mothers stress nurturing, both of which are important to healthy development. As a result, children who grow up with involved fathers are more comfortable exploring the world around them and more likely to exhibit self-control and pro-social behavior.20



    One study of school-aged children found that children with good relationships with their fathers were less likely to experience depression, to exhibit disruptive behavior, or to lie and were more likely to exhibit pro-social behavior.21 This same study found that boys with involved fathers had fewer school behavior problems and that girls had stronger self-esteem.22 In addition, numerous studies have found that children who live with their fathers are more likely to have good physical and emotional health, to achieve academically, and to avoid drugs, violence, and delinquent behavior.23



    In short, fathers have a powerful and positive impact upon the development and health of children. A caseworker who understands the important contributions fathers make to their children's development and how to effectively involve fathers in the case planning process will find additional and valuable allies in the mission to create a permanent and safe environment for children.





    Dispelling the Stereotype of Low-income Fathers





    It is very important for anybody working with fathers, especially CPS caseworkers, to dispel one common stereotype: the image of low-income urban fathers as disengaged and uninvolved with their children. As Dr. Michael Lamb has stated, "Our research really bashes the stereotype of the low-income father. These fathers care about their kids, but may not show their love in conventional ways and sometimes a lack of a job, poor communication with the mom, or even their own childhood experiences can prevent them from getting involved."24 Too often, professionals may assume that a low-income, urban dad who does not live with his children is uninvolved with, even unconcerned about, his children. This can push a father away from his family, the exact opposite of what a CPS caseworker wants to see happen.

    6 Popenoe, D. (1996). Life without father: Compelling new evidence that fatherhood and marriage are indispensable for the good of children and society (p. 163). New York, NY: The Free Press; Stanton, G. T. (2003). How fathers, as male parents, matter for healthy child development [On-line]. Available:http://www.citizenlink.org/FOSI/marriage/A000002226.cfm.
    7 Lamb, M. E. (2002). Infant-father attachments and their impact on child development. In C. S. Tamis-LeMonda & N. Cabrera (Eds.), Handbook of father involvement: Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 93-118). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; Cummings, E. M., & O'Reilly, A. W. (1997). Fathers and family context: Effects of marital quality on child adjustment. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of fathers in child development (3rd ed., pp. 49-65, 318-325). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons; Lamb, M. E. (1997). Fathers and child development: An introductory overview and guide. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.),The role of fathers in child development (3rd ed., pp. 1-18, 309-313). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
    8 Gable, S., Crnic, K., & Belsky, J. (1994). Coparenting within the family system: Influences on children's development.Family Relations, 43(4), 380-386.
    9 Pruett, K. (2000). Father-need. New York, NY: Broadway Books; Sternberg, K. J. (1997).
    10 Pruett, K. (2000).
    11 Goldstine, H. S. (1982). Fathers' absence and cognitive development of 12-17 year olds. Psychological Reports, 51, 843-848; Nord, C., & West, J. (2001). Fathers' and mothers' involvement in their children's schools by family type and resident status [On-line]. Available: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001032.
    12 Nord, C., & West, J. (2001).
    13 Yeung, W. J., Duncan, G. J., & Hill, M. S. (2000). Putting fathers back in the picture: Parental activities and children's adult outcomes. In H. E. Peters, G. W. Peterson, S. K. Steinmetz, & R. D. Day (Eds.), Fatherhood: Research, interventions and policies (pp. 97-113). New York, NY: Hayworth Press; Harris, K. M., & Marmer, J. K. (1996). Poverty, paternal involvement, and adolescent well-being. Journal of Family Issues, 17(5), 614-640; Pleck, J. H. (1997). Paternal involvement: Levels, sources, and consequences. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of fathers in child development (3rd ed., pp. 66-103). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
    14 Palkovitz, R. (2002). Involved fathering and child development: Advancing our understanding of good fathering. In C. S. Tamis-LeMonda & N. Cabrera (Eds), Handbook of father involvement: Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 119-140). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; Wilcox, W. B. (2004) Soft patriarchs, new men: How Christianity shapes husbands and fathers. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; Hofferth, S., & Anderson, K. (2003). Are all dads equal? Biology versus marriage as a basis for paternal investment. Journal of Marriage and Family, 65(1), 213-232; Clarke, L., Cooksey, E. C., & Verropoulou, G. (1998). Fathers and absent fathers: Sociodemographic similarities in Britain and the United States.Demography, 35(2), 217-228.
    15 McLanahan, S., Garfinkel, I., Reichman, N., Teitler, J., Carlson, M., & Norland Audigier, C. (2003, March). The fragile families and child well-being study. Baseline national report. Princeton, NJ: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing.
    16 Gibson, G., Edin, K., & McLanahan, S. (2003, June). High hopes but even higher expectations: The retreat from marriage among low-income couples. Princeton, NJ: Center for Research on Child Wellbeing.
    17 Horn, W. (2003). Closing the marriage gap [On-line]. Available: http://www.crisismagazine.com/june2003/horn.htm.
    18 Pruett, K. (2000); Lamb, M. E. (2002).
    19 Parke, R.D. (1996); Lamb (2002).
    20 Parke, R.D. (1996).
    21 Mosley, J., & Thompson, E. (1995). Fathering behavior and child outcomes: The role of race and poverty. In W. Marsiglio (Ed.), Fatherhood: Contemporary theory, research, and social policy (pp. 148-165). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
    22 Mosley, J., & Thompson, E. (1995).
    23 Horn, W., & Sylvester, T. (2002); U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (1996). The relationship between family structure and adolescent substance abuse. Rockville, MD: National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information; Harper, C., & McLanahan, S. S. (1998).Father absence and youth incarceration. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA; Brenner, E. (1999). Fathers in prison: A review of the data. Philadelphia, PA: National Center on Fathers and Families.
    24 Marsiglio, W., Day, R. D., Braver, S., Evans, J. V., Lamb, M. E., & Peters, E. (1998). Social fatherhood and paternal involvement: Conceptual, data, and policymaking issues [On-line]. Available:http://fatherhood.hhs.gov/CFSForum/c4.htm.



    Shared Parenting Information Group (SPIG) UK http://www.spig.clara.net/

    - promoting responsible shared parenting after separation and divorce -


    What are fathers for ?

    Michael Lamb

    speaking at the IPPR Conference 'Men and their Children' in London, 30th April 1996

    Introduction

    Historically fathers have been viewed or presented in a variety of different images to describe the script that they have been seen to be fulfilling. They have variously been presented as:
    • moral overseer
    • breadwinner
    • sex role model
    • nurturant/participant

    Over time there have been major changes as to which of these gets the most attention, and in Britain we are currently undergoing a renewed wave of interest in the notion of the father as a nurturant participant - somebody who plays an active role in the day to day care and bringing up of children.

    Research traditions
    By my last count there was something of the order of 4,000 published studies or reports that deal with the effect that fathers might have on their children's development, and clearly it would be impossible in this context to go through each of those studies and present their conclusions. Instead, what I want to try to do is to organise this literature in terms of what I see as four major research traditions which have guided the research, and I think that each tells us something about the ways in which fathers influence their children's development.

    • father absence - divorce
    • correlational studies
    • increased involvement
    • attachment

    These begin with the studies around 1940 and were especially prominent through the early 1950's, which were concerned about what happens to children when their fathers are absent. Many fathers were of course absent in the 1940's because they were in service. In the late 1940's and early 1950's the concern shifted not to those whose dads were up at the front, but to those whose dads were killed in action - what effect was that likely to have on their children's development ? And over time the wave of research has come to be concerned increasingly with children whose parents have split or divorced.

    Father absence
    When the research on father absence began in the 1940's, there was a tremendous concern that the absence of a father would have major effects on boy's sexual adaption. So the primary focus of this research initially was on whether or not boys would be adequately masculine if they were raised without fathers. It took about ten years for people to realise that actually fathers were equally likely to have sons and daughters, and that they might want to consider the fact that father absence would influence girls as well. And so from around 1950 there was an increased interest in the effects on children of both genders.

    • psychological maladjustment
    • academic / school under-performance
    • antisocial behaviour
    • difficulty establishing and continuing intimate relationships
    On average, children raised without fathers are more likely to show signs of psychological maladjustment, they are more likely to have difficulties at school, difficulty in getting even to underperform, or to drop out of school early, to have less school completed. They are more likely to be represented in the statistics on delinquency and unconventional social behaviour, and they seem to have difficulty establishing and maintaining intimate relationships, particularly heterosexual relationships once they move into adulthood.
    • At least in the United States, and I believe to some extent in the United Kingdom, single parenthood is associated with tremendous economic disadvantage. In the United States, single mothers with children are the most disadvantaged segment of our society, and the economic consequences of father absence play a tremendous role in explaining why some of these disadvantages are seen on the part of children who are raised in single parent families.
    • In addition single parenthood is associated with a substantial degree of emotional isolation, conflict between the two parents, particularly around situations of divorce. And there is a substantial body of evidence suggesting that conflict between parents before, during and after separation, has a toxic effect on children's adjustment. That characteristic too is an important factor to bear in mind, which helps us understand how father absence influences children.
    • Children who grow up with only one parent are raised by a person who lacks somebody to back them up, to give them time away from parenting, to share both the burdens as well as the enjoyable aspects of being with and raising children. And that sense of being overwhelmed as a single parent, translates into difficulties in parenting which too have an effect on children's development.
    • The flip side of this is that children in these situations are deprived of another intimate caring relationship with somebody who is deeply interested in their own development and care. One developmental psychologist has argued that all of our collective knowledge about developmental psychology can be summarised in the notion that 'what each child needs is somebody who passionately cares about them'. And I think that I would only change that to say that 'children feel better when there are two people who passionately care about what happens to them'. And what helps to compound some of the effects of father absence is the fact that children are raised without one of those persons, and with another person who is dealing with a substantial degree of stress - emotional, psychological and economic, at the same time.

    Correlational studies

    The correlational studies took place in roughly the same era as the research focused on father absence, and so not surprisingly the initial concerns were very similar. The initial concern was "What happens to boys whose fathers aren't masculine ?". And so that set up a very simple type of facade where you could go and measure fathers' masculinity, and measure boys masculinity, and assess the obvious relationship between those two. Unfortunately the obvious relationship was not found. In fact there was no relationship between the masculinity of fathers and the masculinity of sons, and after a short pause to recap, researchers realised that in their zeal to show how important masculine fathers were, they had lost sight of the fact that there needs to be some reason why a boy would want to be like his father anyway. And in fact, instead of looking only at the father's masculinity, one might want to wonder about the relationship between them. So once the intervening relationship was introduced into the equation, researchers found that there was a relationship between masculinity of fathers and sons, though it was evident only when the relationship between the two of them was warm and close.
    Increased involvement
    The third type of research focused on fathers who were unusually involved in their children's lives. This was a wave of research that was initiated in the mid 1970's by people like Graeme Russell, who followed families in which fathers were either primary care providers or shared care provision with their partners, and then in many cases examined what influence that had on children's development. The first wave of studies came up with what were I think, for the authors of the studies, quite surprising findings that children raised primarily by their fathers seemed to be doing, if anything, better than children who were raised in traditional families. The reason for that is not I think, that fathers do it better than mothers do, but that the studies were studies of families which represent a very unique subset - they represented families in which mother and fathers were able to divide their responsibilities in ways that were in accordance with their individual values and goals. These were all studies of families in which men wanted to stay home, and had jobs which allowed them to organise themselves to flexibly in their ... They were all families in which mothers did not want to stay home full time with their children. They may have wished to achieve the fulfilment that came from pursuing their professional agendas.
    Attachment
    The last series of studies focused on the establishment of attachments between fathers and infants. These studies show - something that at the time was considered to be remarkable - that infants, even in traditional families in which their mothers stayed home with their child, and dads were away at work, that even in those contexts, most babies formed attachment to both of their parents. What these studies have further shown is that those attachment relationships to both parents have a significant impact on children's development, although not surprisingly, the relationship with the party who spends more time with the child, tends to be more influential. Nevertheless, children who have positive and secure attachments to both of their parents seem to do better overall than children whose relationship with one parent is less secure. Likewise, children who have two insecure relationships are most disadvantaged .. And what these studies underscore is that from the very earliest .. the attachment or relationship that he or she establishes are extremely significant and important. What they have also underscored is that the factors that make for secure attachment to mothers are the same as the factors that make for secure attachments to fathers.

    • parental warmth
    • parental involvement
    • family harmony
    • absence of economic stress
    • absence of family conflict

    Children on average do better when their parents are warm and involved. You will notice that I use the word here 'parental' rather than 'paternal', because there really is no evidence that warmth is more or less influential as a characteristic of either parent. That is - the same characteristics of the individual are important, regardless of gender.

    The diverse roles of fathers
    To conclude then, if we go the question I was given as the title of my talk: "What are fathers for ?" We find that fathers have lots of different roles and functions. I've listed them here in alphabetic order, rather than in any order of importance.:

    • care provider
    • companion
    • economic provider
    • educator
    • lover
    • model
    • mother's support
    • protector
    The point I want to emphasise though, is not so much the specific roles, but the fact that there are a diverse number of roles fathers represent, and to emphasise that all of these are roles that can be, and are often, filled by mothers as well. And to emphasise, as I said at the beginning, that we can't identify a single father's role - one singular in terms of the characteristic of the father that makes him important, nor singular with respect to a culture as diverse as this one.

    Contents:
    All of these images of fathers are alive today and they represent the different ways in which fathers have and continue to influence their children's development. But an important point is that while there have been changes over time and cultures in the relative importance attributed to each of these roles or images, it's a mistake to think that we will able to find the father or the father's role. Rather we need to be looking for a more inclusive awareness of the diverse roles that fathers have played and continue to play , and the ways in which those may be very different in different parts of our society.
    The four major research traditions are:
    At roughly the same time that studies had focused on father absence, there was another wave of studies that attempted to look at associations between characteristics of fathers, and characteristics of children in an attempt to see whether masculine men, or assertive men, or successful men had particular types of attributes to be found in their children.
    Beginning in the 1970's, two other waves of research became obvious, one of which focused on the ways in which children were influenced when their fathers were unusually involved in their development, and the other which focused on close observational analyses of what happens within families - how do children form relationships with their parents, and what effect does that have on them ?
    Now I want to go through briefly, each of these traditions and summarise what they each told us about the ways in which fathers influence children's development.
    The effect of father absence that we see in the United States, and I would guess in Britain, are highly controversial. I believe that there is now substantial evidence that father absence, on average does affect children's development, and it does affect their development in a variety of domains.
    The effects of father absence are:
    The important question it seems to me is not, whether or not these factors are associated with father absence, but how we go about interpreting them. There has been an effort to interpret these in terms of the absence of the male sex role model, and indeed there are many .. who would argue that the reason why boys show these deficits is because they lack access to a male sex role model. My reading of the literature is a little bit different. I actually see very little evidence that the absence of the male sex role is particularly important in these cases.
    Father absence represents a number of things to a child.:
    What's important then in understanding the effects of father absence, is to recognise that when a father is not present in the home, it is not only the male sex role that's absent, there are all the other aspects of the father's role that are not being fulfilled in the same way. The breadwinning, the companionship, the support for the mother. We need again to recognise that fatherhood is not a uni-dimensional role, but one which has multiple facets, and that when fatherhood is not exercised in the family, the effect on the child can be damaging.
    And as they continued research of this form they came to find that the important thing was actually the warmth or closeness of the relationship, not the masculinity at all. The closer, the warmer the relationship between fathers and their sons, the more likely were their the sons to have the characteristics that the society valued. Interestingly if you look at this research over time, the studies of the 1950's show that boys who were close to their fathers were masculine. As we look at the studies in the 1980's we find that boys who are close to their fathers are more androgenous. That is to say it is the more socially desired role that seems to be associated with paternal warmth, not masculinity per se.
    As the range of interests broadened - broadened not only to include daughters (we should certainly hear them described as the forgotten gender by developmental psychologists in the 1950's and 60's), but also to include a greater range of outcomes, we find an increasing number of studies showing that paternal warmth or closeness is associated with the same characteristics that are listed on the overhead. Children who have close warm relationships with their fathers are better adjusted psychologically, perform better at school, are less likely to be involved in antisocial behaviour, and seem to do better in their relationship with peers, as children, as adolescents, and as adults.
    Now what's important about this wave of research I think, is that it began by trying to focus on a unique aspect of fatherhood, and ended up coming to the conclusion that the same factors that made mothers important to children, also made fathers important to children. There seems much less stance that particular paternal characteristics were important, than they had expected.
    What these studies underscored for us as students of fathers' influence I think was the tremendous importance of recognising that fathers are primarily part of family units because of broader socialising contexts and most of what is important for children's development are factors that have to do with the family - with the social group as a whole. In these particular families, what was important was that they were, if you like, harmonious relationships between the parents and that narrow harmony of quality is what translated into benefits for children. In other words, what we see here is a realisation that instead of looking only at the individual characteristics of mothers and children, we need to look at the relationship they have with others, because it's the quality of those relationships that also undergirds and protects children and provides the example.
    Children form secure relationships with people who are sensitive, warm, caring, involved, regardless of the gender of that person. So if we take the results of these studies as a whole, what I think we find is a number of characteristics that are associated with better adjustment on the part of children.
    Children benefit from:
    In addition these studies show that we need to look beyond the relationship that individual children have with individual parents, to look at the broader social concepts in which they grow up. Most children still grow up in a context where there are two adults, who may or may not be married to one another, who may or may not both be the biological parent. The quality of the relationships between those individuals has a crucial role to play in assuring the adjustment and development of those children. By the same token of course, family conflict is one of the most toxic factors, perhaps the most common correlate of children maladjusted. In the US context, it is also important to emphasise how important the absence of economic stress is - we don't have a social security system that guarantees adequate economic support, and there is clear evidence that poverty and economic stress have adverse effects on children's adjustment.
    Different families in the UK are going to divide up their roles and responsibilities differently, and it's most important I think as a society to ensure that the opportunities are there for parents to make those decisions in ways that best accommodate their own values, needs and goals, rather than to attempt to be prescriptive about what mothers should be doing - and I see that British mothers should be staying home with their babies. We don't want to make the same mistake in telling fathers what they all should be doing. Children need relationships with their parents. What we should be doing is making it possible for parents to fulfil the roles that maximally influence their children's development.
    Michael Lamb speaking at the IPPR Conference 'Men and their Children' in London, 30th April 1996
    Transcript by David Cannon - Shared Parenting Information Group