Children without Parents

Being from a single parent household, I can personally tell you that it really has its disadvantages. The absence of a father figure has drastic effects in a child’s life. Compared to living with both parents, living in a single-parent household doubles the risk that a child will suffer physical, emotional, or educational neglect. A study of 109 juvenile offenders indicated that family structure significantly predicts delinquency. Particularly boys of single parent were at higher risk of status, property and person delinquencies. A study of 13,986 women in prison showed that more than half grew up without their father. Adolescent girls raised in a two parent home with involved fathers were less likely to be sexually active than girls raised without involved fathers. It is a known fact that 43% of US children live without their father. Approximately forty-six percent of jail inmates in 2002 had a previously incarcerated family member [US Department of Census]. Children act out in a number of ways to release their feelings of abandonment, betrayal and loneliness when a father is missing from the home. Massey University researchers report that 85 percent of children treated for behavioral disorders do not have a father in the home. Boys and girls exposed to gangs are more likely to be drawn to the groups that provide a sense of security they missed by not having a father in the home. Children who do not have the benefit of a strong, stable father figure in the home are 10 times more likely to use drugs and 32 times more likely to run away from home at an early age than children with a consistent fatherly influence. Mental illness, low self-esteem, and stress-related illness typically are more prevalent in homes where a father is absent. Children living without their fathers are more likely to commit suicide than their