CHILDREN NEED FATHERS, STUDY SHOWS
Most states have focused almost exclusively on welfare-to-work strategies
in response to 1996 federal welfare reforms. But this doesn't address the
greatest danger to the well-being of children in the United States, says
a Hudson Institute study: the fact that nearly four out of every 10 children
are being raised without their fathers.
The states should restructure their programs to promote fatherhood and marriage,
say researchers Wade Horn and Andrew Bush. Building strong families would
improve the life chances of children and help rebuild low-income communities.
*Among long-term prison inmates, 70 percent grew up without fathers, as
did 60 percent of rapists and 75 percent of adolescents charged with murder.
* Fatherless children are three times more likely to fail school, require
psychiatric treatment and commit suicide as adolescents.
*They are also up to 40 times more likely to experience child abuse compared
with children growing up in two-parent families.
...
Source: Wade Horn and Andrew Bush, "Fathers, Marriage, and Welfare
Reform,"
Hudson Institute Executive Briefing, 1997, Hudson Institute, Herman Kahn
Center, 5395 Emerson Way, Indianapolis, IN 46226, (317) 545-1000.
Quoted and condensed from National Center
for Policy Analysis
Policy Digest, Monday, July 28, 1997 -- "Making Ideas Change
the World" -- ncpa@onramp.net
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