By Bill Muehlenberg

Fatherlessness is a growing problem all over the Western world. Whether caused by divorce and broken families or by deliberate single parenting, more and more children grow up without fathers. Indeed, 85 per cent of single-parent families are fatherless families.

Writing about the situation in America in 1996, sociologist David Popenoe said, “The decline of fatherhood is one of the most basic, unexpected, and extraordinary social trends of our time. Its dimensions can be captured in a single statistic: In just three decades, between 1960 and 1990, the percentage of U.S. children living apart from their biological fathers more than doubled, from 17 per cent to 36 per cent. By the turn of the century, nearly 50 per cent of American children may be going to sleep each evening without being able to say good night to their dads.”[i]

And these trends are not without negative consequences. Father absence has been shown to be a major disadvantage to the well-being of children. The following is a summary of the evidence for the importance of fathers and the need for two-parent families.

The US-based National Fatherhood Initiative starkly puts it this way: “Children who live absent from their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than those who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents.”[ii]

One expert from Harvard Medical School who has studied over 40 years of research on the question of parental absence and children’s well-being said, “What has been shown over and over again to contribute most to the emotional development of the child is a close, warm, sustained and continuous relationship with both parents.”[iii] Or as David Blankenhorn has stated in Fatherless America, “Fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation.”[iv]

Another expert puts it this way: “There exists today no greater single threat to the long-term well-being of children, our communities, or our nation, than the increasing number of children being raised without a committed, responsible, and loving father.”[v]

Bryan Rodgers of the Australian National University has recently re-examined the Australian research. He writes, “Australian studies with adequate samples have shown parental divorce to be a risk factor for a wide range of social and psychological problems in adolescence and adulthood, including poor academic achievement, low self-esteem, psychological distress, delinquency and recidivism, substance use and abuse, sexual precocity, adult criminal offending, depression, and suicidal behaviour.” Rodgers concludes, “There is no scientific justification for disregarding the public health significance of marital dissolution in Australia, especially with respect to mental health.”[vi]

A New Zealand summary of the data based on national and international research conducted over the past two decades also found major positive outcomes for children when fathers are present, and negative outcomes when fathers are absent. The report states:

The weight of the evidence is that fathers can make unique, direct contributions to their children’s well-being. These findings held true after controlling for a range of factors, including mothers’ involvement, children’s characteristics, children’s early behavioural problems, family income, socio-economic status over time, stepfather involvement and family structure.[vii]

It goes on to list the many specific ways in which fathers positively contribute to the well-being of children.[viii]

And the importance of fathers is neither a recent nor a merely Western truth. The need and importance of fathers is a historical and universal given. As anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski put it, “The most important moral and legal rule concerning the physiological side of kinship is that no child should be brought into the world without a man – and one man at that… I think that this generalization amounts to a universal sociological law.” There may be cultural variations, yet “through all the variations there runs the rule that the father is indispensable for the full sociological status of the child as well of its mother, that the group consisting of a woman and her offspring is sociologically incomplete and illegitimate.”[ix]

Because there is now just so much social science data on the problems of fatherlessness, this topic can easily blow out in size. To keep things brief, I have resorted to bullet points here. They are only a small part of the overall data, but provide clear witness to the importance of fathers and how children suffer when they are not raised by fathers. Here then is a sampling of the evidence.

Fatherlessness Increases Poverty

• In America, among families with dependent children, only 8.3 per cent of married couples were living below the poverty line, compared to 47.1 per cent of female-headed households.[x]
• Also in the US, a nationally representative sample found this: “In 2005, the median income for married couples was $66,067, which was $35,000 more than the median income for single mothers, $19,000 more than that of single fathers, $43,000 more than that of single women, and $24,000 more than that of single men. Married couples made up 79 per cent of the highest quintile income and 17.9 per cent of the lowest income quintile.”[xi]
• In Australia, a recent study of 500 divorcees with children five to eight years after the separation found that four in five divorced mothers were dependent on social security after their marriages dissolved.[xii]
• Figures from Monash University’s Centre for Population and Urban Research show that family break-up, rather than unemployment, is the main cause of the rise in poverty levels in Australia.[xiii]
• A joint report from AMP Life and Canberra University’s National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling says that divorce leaves both partners worse off economically, but women tend to experience the biggest fall in disposable income.[xiv]
• A recent US study “found that by far the ‘biggest factor’ associated with child poverty in a county is the proportion of households headed by unwed mothers with children under 18 years of age.” The researchers established that every 1 percentage-point increase in these households correlates with a 1.2 percentage-point increase in the county’s child poverty rate.[xv]
• According to data collected from the United States Census Bureau, intact families have fewer children living in poverty compared to other household types. Specifically, in 2022, 32.0% of single-mother families were living in poverty; 16.3% of single-father families were; and 5.4% of married-couple families were.[xvi]

Fatherlessness Lowers Educational Performance

• American children from intact families have a 21 per cent chance of dropping out of high school whereas children from broken families have a 46 per cent chance.[xvii]
• American school children who became father-absent early in life generally scored significantly lower on measures of IQ and achievement tests.[xviii]
• A recent Concordia University found clear positive effects of a father’s influence on the behavioural and cognitive development of children. For example, “for both boys and girls, fathers’ positive parental control predicted higher performance IQ and fewer internalizing problems over six years later.”[xix]
• A study of Australian primary school children from three family types (married heterosexual couples, cohabiting heterosexual couples and homosexual couples) found that in every area of educational endeavour (language; mathematics; social studies; sport; class work, sociability and popularity; and attitudes to learning), children from married heterosexual couples performed better than the other two groups. The study concludes with these words: “Married couples seem to offer the best environment for a child’s social and educational development”.[xx]
• A Melbourne University study of 212 children found that fathers, even more than mothers, had a major beneficial influence on children in their first year of school. The study found that kids with regular father involvement were more cooperative and self-reliant in school than kids who did not have father involvement. The more regular involvement the father has with the child, the study’s author said, the better the child does in his or her first year of school.[xxi]
• Researchers have found that children whose fathers were absent at the time of birth were at significantly greater risk of incurring various developmental problems (and more of them) such as attention/learning disorders and speech/language disorders.[xxii]
• A recent Australian study found that there is a correlation between father presence and child educational performance. Specifically, it noted that the amount of father-child time in educational activities is associated with greater improvements for the student.[xxiii]

Fatherlessness Increases Crime

• A British study found a direct statistical link between single parenthood and virtually every major type of crime, including mugging, violence against strangers, car theft and burglary.[xxiv]
• Also in the UK, studies have shown that “children from broken homes are nine times more likely to commit crimes than those from stable families” and “seven out of 10 offenders come from broken homes”.[xxv]
• One American study even arrived at this startling conclusion: the proportion of single-parent households in a community predicts its rates of violent crime and burglary, but the community’s poverty level does not. Neither poverty nor race seem to account very much for the crime rate, compared to the proportion of single-parent families.[xxvi]
• In Australia, a recent book noted the connection between broken families and crime. In a discussion of rising crime rates in Western Australia, the book reported that “family breakdown in the form of divorce and separation is the main cause of the crime wave”.[xxvii]
• Maryland researchers found that bullying and aggressive behaviour are associated with family breakdown. This is especially the cause of girls’ aggressiveness: “The percentage of single men and mother-alone families rival neighborhood violence as providing the most explanatory power” for aggressiveness among girls.[xxviii]
• Children’s delinquent behaviour tends to rise with a father’s absence. One study found that an absent dad (because of incarceration) resulted in a much greater chance of children being suspended or expelled.[xxix]

Fatherlessness Increases Drug Abuse

• A UCLA study pointed out that inadequate family structure makes children more susceptible to drug use “as a coping mechanism to relieve depression and anxiety.”[xxx]
• Another US study found that among the homes with strict fathers, only 18 per cent had children who used alcohol or drugs at all. In contrast, among mother-dominated homes, 35 per cent had children who used drugs frequently.[xxxi]
• A National Institutes of Health study showed a clear connection between non-intact families and child drug abuse: “Our analyses indicated that children from intact families used significantly less inhalants, marijuana, and amphetamines than children from single-parent families.”[xxxii]
• A New Zealand study of nearly 1000 children, observed over a period of 15 years, found that children who have watched their parents separate are more likely to use illegal drugs than those whose parents stay together.[xxxiii]
• A South African study found that teens from single-parent homes were more likely to consume alcohol and do so from an earlier age. Of those who ever drank, 81 per cent of the teens aged 16–18 lived with parents who were divorced compared to 51 per cent of students whose parents were married and living together.[xxxiv]
• A more recent study of 736 adolescents found that those living in nuclear families were less likely to engage in drug and alcohol use than those adolescents from any other family type.[xxxv]

Fatherlessness Increases Sexual Problems

• Studies from many different cultures have found that girls raised without fathers are more likely to be sexually active, and to start early sexual activity. Father-deprived girls “show precocious sexual interest, derogation of masculinity and males, and poor ability to maintain sexual and emotional adjustment with one male”.[xxxvi]
• A US study found that girls who grow up without fathers were “53 percent more likely to marry as teenagers, 111 percent more likely to have children as teenagers, 164 percent more likely to have a premarital birth, and 92 percent more likely to dissolve their own marriages.”[xxxvii]
• Another US study made this conclusion: “Youth who spend part of their childhood/youth living in a household that does not include their biological father are more likely to smoke regularly, become sexually active, and be convicted of a crime.”[xxxviii]
• New Zealand research has found that the absence of a father is a major factor in the early onset of puberty and teenage pregnancy. Dr Bruce Ellis, Psychologist in Sexual Development at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch found that one of the most important factors in determining early menarche is the father: “There seems to be something special about the role of fathers in regulating daughters sexual development”.[xxxix]
• A British study found that girls brought up by lone parents were twice as likely to leave home by the age of 18 as the daughters of intact homes; were three times as likely to be cohabiting by the age of 20; and almost three times as likely to have a birth out of wedlock.[xl]
• A study of nearly 400 adults found that young people have fewer casual sex partners when they spend a longer time growing up with their biological father.[xli]

Fatherlessness Increases Physical and Mental Health Problems

• From nations as diverse as Finland and South Africa, a number of studies have reported that anywhere from 50 to 80 per cent of psychiatric patients come from broken homes.[xlii]
• A Canadian study of teenagers discharged from psychiatric hospitals found that only 16 per cent were living with both parents when they were admitted.[xliii]
• A study of nearly 14,000 Dutch adolescents between the ages of 12 to 19 found, “In general, children from one parent and stepparent families reported lower self-esteem, more symptoms of anxiety and loneliness, more depressed mood and more suicidal thoughts than children from intact families.”[xliv]
• A massive longitudinal study undertaken in Sweden involving over one million children found that children from single parents showed increased risks of psychiatric disease, suicide or suicide attempt, injury and addiction. The authors, writing in The Lancet, concluded that growing up in “a single-parent family has disadvantages to the health of the child”. Bear in mind that Sweden is one of the most highly advanced welfare states on earth. Thus even with a comprehensive welfare net, children still suffer when not in two-parent families.[xlv]
• A US study of 2,733 adolescents found this: “The greater the fathers’ involvement was, the lower the level of adolescents’ behavioral problems, both in terms of aggression and antisocial behavior and negative feelings such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.”[xlvi]
• Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles have shown that fatherlessness is directly related to childhood obesity. Statistical analysis of the data established that “family structure was significantly associated with the obesity rate.” In each grade, children from single-mother families had higher rates of obesity than children from two-parent families.[xlvii]
• A researcher from the University of South Australia’s School of Health Sciences found that children from single families do less well than those from married families because they are less active and do not have as much opportunity for physical activity.[xlviii]
• A more recent Australian study showed that obesity among girls in single-parent households continues to be a major problem. Deakin University health researchers studied nearly 9000 children aged between four and nine and found higher rates of overweight and obesity in girls from single-parent families than those in two-parent families.[xlix]
• A recent study from Rhode Island found that while “the incidence of mental-health problems ran particularly high (33 percent) among children living with parents reporting high levels of parental stress… the complete story involves not just parental stress. It involves family structure as well: the rate for mental-health problems came in significantly higher among children living with a single mother (25.7 percent) or in a stepfamily (26.6 percent) than it did among children living with two biological or adoptive parents (13.3 percent; p<.001).”[l]
• An American study involving nearly 68,000 children under the age of 18 found that children have better health outcomes when they are living with their biological fathers.[li]
• A US survey of adults found that those who lived with both biological parents as children had a lower prevalence of suicide ideation than those who did not live with both biological parents.[lii]

 Fatherlessness and Family Breakdown Cost Australia 13 billion Dollars Per Year

• In the UK the costs of family breakdown is astronomical: “The 2012 total cost of family breakdown to the UK was £44 billion (£43.94 billion), up from £42 billion last year. The annual cost per taxpayer is now £1,470.”[liii]
• An even newer UK study said this: “Family breakdown is costing taxpayers almost £50 billion a year and the bill is rising fast, a new analysis said yesterday. The costs generated by family breakdown – including subsidised housing, crime, health and social care and disrupted education – have gone up by nearly a quarter in just four years.”[liv]
• Dr Bruce Robinson, from the University of Western Australia, and author of Fathering from the Fast Lane, has estimated the cost of fatherlessness in Australia to be over 13 billion dollars per year.^[lv]
• In Australia it has been estimated that marriage breakdown costs $2.5 billion annually. Each separation is estimated to cost society some $12,000.^[lvi]
• Also, Australian industry is reported to lose production of more than $1 billion a year due to problems of family breakdown.^[lvii]
• Homelessness is also closely linked with family breakdown. A recent Australian study conducted at two Melbourne universities has found that children whose biological parents stay together are about three times less likely to become homeless than those from other family types.^[lviii]

Fatherlessness Increases Physical and Sexual Child Abuse

• A 1994 study of 52,000 children found that those who are most at risk of being abused are those who are not living with both parents.[lix]
• A recent American review of the studies found that “fathers, especially married fathers who live with their children, play an important role in protecting their children from abuse and neglect”. It found that 15.5 children out of 1000 children were mistreated in married-parent families, whereas 27.3 children per 1000 were mistreated in single-parent families.[lx]
• A Finnish study of nearly 4,000 ninth-grade girls found that “stepfather-daughter incest was about 15 times as common as father-daughter incest”.[lxi]
• A study examining 126 profiles of perpetrators of fatal assault in United States found that non-biological parents were 17 times more likely to commit a fatal assault toward a child than biological parents.[lxii]
• In Australia, former Human Rights Commissioner Mr Brian Burdekin has reported a 500 to 600 per cent increase in sexual abuse of girls in families where the adult male was not the natural father.[lxiii]
• A recent study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that “a relatively high proportion of substantiations [of child abuse] involved children living in female-headed one-parent families and in two-parent step or blended families.”[lxiv]
• And more recent Australian research continues to bear this out: “The data shows that almost half of all proven cases of child abuse and neglect involved ‘broken’ families in 2010–11, even though (according to theABS Family Characteristics Survey) only 26 per cent of all Australian children lived in sole-parent and step or blended families.”[lxv]
• Children are at most risk of neglect when not living in a two-parent family. Specifically, a US study found that kids with two biological parents had a neglect rate of 4.29% compared to other households where the rates were 7.95% to 14.10%.[lxvi]

Fatherlessness and Family Breakdown are the Major Social Problems of Our Society

The evidence of the harmful effects of a father’s absence could fill many pages. The above is just a small sampling of a very large body of research findings on the issue. The social science research on the need for children to be raised by both a biological mother and father, preferably cemented by marriage, is vast and growing.

Indeed, the evidence is so overwhelming that the reader is advised to look at recent summaries of the data.[lxvii] However, several recent academic studies can be mentioned here, which demonstrate the importance of children growing up with their married biological mother and father.

One American study of 19,000 young people conducted by the Bowling Green State University (Ohio) found that teens fare best when living with two married biological parents: “Adolescents in married, two-biological-parent families generally fare better than children in any of the family types examined here, including single-mother, cohabiting stepfather, and married stepfather families. The advantage of marriage appears to exist primarily when the child is the biological offspring of both parents. Our findings are consistent with previous work, which demonstrates children in cohabiting stepparent families fare worse than children living with two married, biological parents.”[lxviii]

Another large-scale American study found that there are “overall disadvantages” in not living with both biological parents.[lxix] The author concludes, “My analyses have clearly demonstrated some overall disadvantages of living with neither parent. Among adolescents from all six family types, those in non-biological-parent appear to rank the lowest in academic performance, educational aspiration, and locus of control. Further, they appear to fare less well in the remaining outcome areas (self-esteem, behavioural problems, and cigarette smoking).”[lxx]

Cornell University Professor Urie Bronfenbrenner, a leading expert in developmental psychology, summarises the evidence in this fashion:

Controlling for associated factors such as low income, children growing up in [single-parent] households are at greater risk for experiencing a variety of behavioral and educational problems, including extremes of hyperactivity or withdrawal; lack of attentiveness in the classroom; difficulty in deferring gratification; impaired academic achievement; school misbehavior; absenteeism; dropping out; involvement in socially alienated peer groups; and, especially, the so-called ‘teenage syndrome’ of behaviors that tend to hang together – smoking, drinking, early and frequent sexual experience, a cynical attitude to work, adolescent pregnancy, and in the more extreme cases, drugs, suicide, vandalism, violence, and criminal acts.[lxxi]

Similar comments can be made about the situation in Britain. After amassing a wealth of data on the negative effects of fatherlessness in the UK, Rebecca O’Neil makes this concluding remark:

The weight of evidence indicates that the traditional family based upon a married father and mother is still the best environment for raising children, and it forms the soundest basis for the wider society. For many mothers, fathers and children, the ‘fatherless family’ has meant poverty, emotional heartache, ill health, lost opportunities, and a lack of stability. The social fabric – once considered flexible enough to incorporate all types of lifestyles – has been stretched and strained. Although a good society should tolerate people’s rights to live as they wish, it must also hold adults responsible for the consequences of their actions. To do this, society must not shrink from evaluation of the results of these actions. As J.S. Mill argued, a good society must share the lessons learnt from its experience and hold up ideals to which all can aspire.[lxxii]

An American family expert offers these summarising words as he introduces his 370-page book on the war against fathers, marriage and family:

No successful human society has ever been based on the mother-child dyad or on any other structure than the married, two-parent family. So much has been written in recent years about the destructive effects on both children and society of fatherlessness that it hardly needs to be labored. Virtually every major social pathology of our time: violent crime, drug and alcohol abuse, truancy and scholastic failure, unwed pregnancy, suicide, and other psychological disorders – all these correlate more strongly to fatherlessness than to any other single factor.[lxxiii]

Wade Horn, the head of the National Fatherhood Initiative in the USA offers this concluding word:

“The news is not good when large numbers of children are growing up disconnected from their fathers. It’s not that every child who grows up in a fatherless household is going to have these kinds of difficulties. But it is true that there’s an increased risk of these negative outcomes when kids grow up without fathers.”[lxxiv]

And the latest (9^th) edition of Father Facts put out by the National Fatherhood Initiative restates what the research continues to show:

Decades of data and research proves that the involvement of fathers in the lives of children has numerous, positive benefits for children, fathers, mothers, and communities. The precious eight editions of Father Facts included examples of this data and research on how important fathers are for a healthy, vibrant culture in which everyone can thrive. Research on father involvement since the last edition continues to build on this solid foundation.[lxxv]

With the rise of fatherlessness, Australia and the Western world have also experienced a marked increase in social problems. And the brunt of these problems has been borne by children. We owe it to our children to do better.

We urgently need to address the twin problems of fatherlessness and family breakdown. Public policy must begin to address these crucial areas. Until we tackle these problems, our children and our societies will continue to suffer.

___

Image courtesy of Adobe.

[i] David Popenoe, War Over the Family. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2005, p. 117.

[ii] Wade Horn and Tom Sylvester, Fathers Facts. Gaithersburg: National Fatherhood Initiative, 2002, p. 15.

[iii] Armand Nicholi, “The Impact of Parental Absence on Childhood Development: An Overview of the Literature.” Journal of Family and Culture, v. 1, n. 3, Autumn 1985.

[iv] David Blankenhorn, Fatherless America. New York: Basic Books, 1995, p. 1.

[v] Wade Horn, “Fathers and welfare reform,” Public Interest, no. 129, Fall 1997, pp. 38–49, p. 49.

[vi] Bryan Rodgers, “Social and Psychological Wellbeing of Children from Divorced Families: Australian Research Findings,” Australian Psychologist, vol. 31, no. 3, November 1995, pp. 174–182.

[vii] Daniel Lees, Going Further with Fathers. Auckland: Maxim Institute, 2007, p. 3.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Bronislaw Malinowksi, Sex, Culture, and Myth. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962, p. 63.

[x] U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1991.

[xi] C. DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, B. D., and Lee, C. H., “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005,” The Current Population Survey, Vol. 2006, pp. 60–231.

[xii] Kate Funder, et. al., Settling Down – Pathways of Parents After Divorce.  Melbourne, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 1993.

[xiii] Bob Birrell and Virginia Rapson, “More single parents equals more poverty,” News Weekly, 18 October 1997, p. 8.

[xiv] “Divorce shrinks income,” The Herald Sun, 6 April 2005, p. 29.

[xv] Kenneth Aarskaug Wiik, Renske Keizer, and Trude Lappegard, “Relationship Quality in Marital and Cohabiting Unions Across Europe,” Journal of Marriage and Family, June 2012, vol. 74, pp. 389–98.

[xvi] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, “Current population survey,” Table 4, “Poverty status of families by type of family, presence of related children, race, and Hispanic origin: 1959 to 2022.”

[xvii] Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, Growing up with a Single Parent. Harvard University Press, 1994.

[xviii] Cited in Nicholas Davidson, “Life Without Father: America’s Greatest Social Catastrophe.” Policy Review, Winter 1990.

[xix] Erin Pougnet, et. al., “Fathers’ Influence on Children’s Cognitive and Behavioural Functioning: A Longitudinal Study of Canadian Families.” Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. 2011, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 173–82.

[xx] Sotirios Sarantakos, “Children in Three Contexts,” Children Australia, vol. 21, no. 3, 1996, pp. 23–31.

[xxi] Caroline Milburn, “Fathers key to success,” The Age, 5 October 2002, p. 11.

[xxii] D. B. Jackson, J. Newsome and K. M. Beaver, “Does early paternal involvement predict offspring developmental diagnoses?,” Early Human Development, vol. 103, no. 5, 2016, pp. 9–16.

[xxiii] T. Cano, F. Perales and J. Baxter, “A matter of time: Father involvement and child cognitive outcomes,” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 81, no. 1, 2019, pp. 164–184.

[xxiv] Robert Sampson and Byron Groves, “Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory.” American Journal of Sociology 94, Jan. 1989.

[xxv] Andy Bloxham, “Children from broken homes ‘nine times more likely to commit crimes’,” The Telegraph, November 4, 2010.

[xxvi] Douglas Smith and Roger Jarjoura, “Social Structure and Criminal Victimization.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 25, Feb. 1988.

[xxvii] Alan Tapper, “Welfare and Juvenile Crime” in Mike Nahan and Tony Rutherford, eds., Reform and Recovery. Institute of Public Affairs, 1993.

[xxviii] Beth Vanfossen et al., “Neighborhood Context and the Development of Aggression in Boys and Girls,” Journal of Community Psychology, April 2010, vol. 38. No.3, pp. 329–49.

[xxix] W. C. Jacobsen, “The intergenerational stability of punishment: Paternal incarceration and suspension or expulsion in elementary school,” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency,” vol. 56, no. 5, 2019, pp. 651–693.

[xxx] Cited in Bryce Christensen, When Families Fail… The Social Costs. University Press of America, 1991.

[xxxi] Cited in Nicholas Davidson, “Life Without Father: America’s Greatest Social Catastrophe.” Policy Review, Winter 1990.

[xxxii] Vanessa Hemovich and William D. Crano, “Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use: An Exploration of Single-Parent Families,” Substance Use & Misuse, December 2009, vol. 44, no. 14, pp. 2099–2113.

[xxxiii] David Fergusson, et. al., “Parental Separation, Adolescent Psychopathology, and Problem Behaviors,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 33, 1944, pp. 1122–1131.

[xxxiv] Muhammad Hoque and Shanaz Ghuman, “Do Parents Still Matter Regarding Adolescents’ Alcohol Drinking?  Experience from South Africa,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. January 2012, vol. 9 no. 1, pp. 110–122.

[xxxv] K. T. Harcourt, et. al., “Examining family structure and half-sibling influence on adolescent well-being,” Journal of Family Issues, vol. 36, no. 2, 2015, pp. 250–272.

[xxxvi] Patricia Draper and Henry Harpending, “Father absence and reproductive strategy: an evolutionary perspective,” Journal of Anthropological Research, 38(3), 1982, pp. 255-273, p, 258.

[xxxvii] Irwin Garfinkel and Sara S. McLanahan, Single Mothers and Their Children: A New American Dilemma. Washington: Urban Institute, 1986, pp. 30–31.

^[xxxviii] Heather Antecol, Kelly Bedard and Eric Helland, “Does Single Parenthood Increase the Probability of Teenage Promiscuity, Drug Use, and Crime? Evidence from Divorce Law Changes,” UC Santa Barbara economics paper, August 2001.

[xxxix] Cited in “Early Menarche,” Catalyst, ABC TV, 2 October 2003.

[xl] Kathleen Kiernan, cited in “The Bargain Breaks,” The Economist, 26 Dec. 1992 – 8 jan. 1993.

[xli] J. A. Hehman, and C. A. Salmon, “Sex-specific development effects of father absence on casual sexual behavior and life history strategy,” Evolutionary Psychology, vol. 5, no. 1, 2018, pp. 121–130.

[xlii] Cited in Nicholas Davidson, “Life Without Father: America’s Greatest Social Catastrophe.” Policy Review, Winter 1990.

[xliii] Cited in Nicholas Davidson, “Life Without Father: America’s Greatest Social Catastrophe.” Policy Review, Winter 1990.

[xliv] Nadia Garnefski and Rene Diekstra, “Adolescents from one parent, stepparent and intact families; emotional problems and suicide attempts,” Journal of Adolescence 20, 1997, pp. 201–208.

[xlv] Gunilla R. Weitoft, et. al., “Mortality, severe morbidity, and injury in children living with single parents in Sweden: a population-based study,” The Lancet, 9354, 25 January 2003, pp. 289–295.

[xlvi] Marcia Carlson, “Family structure, father involvement, and adolescent behavioral outcomes,” Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 68, Number 1, February 2006, pp. 137–154.

[xlvii] Amanda M. White and Constance T. Gager, “Idle Hands and Empty Pockets?” Youth & Society, 2007, vol. 39, pp.75–111.

[xlviii] Carol Nader, “Children with sole parent ‘less active’,” The Age, 2 September 2004, p. 8.

[xlix] Geoff Maslen, “Parent link in obesity problem,” The Age, September 6, 2011.

[l] H. K. Kim et al., “Children’s Mental Health and Family Functioning in Rhode Island,” Pediatrics 119 Supplement 1, 2007, pp. S23–28.

[li] K. M. Ziol-Guest, and R. E. Dunifon, “Complex living arrangements and child health: Examining family structure linkages with children’s health outcomes,” Family Relations, vol. 63, no. 3, 2014, pp. 424–437.

[lii] R. Susukida, H. C. Wilcox and T. Mendelson, “The association of lifetime suicide ideation with perceived parental love and family structure in childhood in a nationally representative adult sample,” Psychiatry Research, no. 237, 2016, pp. 246–251.

[liii] “The 2012 Cost of Family Breakdown Index – £44 billion and counting,” Relationships Foundation, February 5, 2012. <http://www.relationshipsfoundation.org/web/News/News.aspx?News=135>

[liv] Steve Doughty, “Family break-ups ‘cost taxpayers £50bn a year’,” MailOnline, March 18, 2013. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2295040/Family-break-ups-cost-taxpayers-50bn-year-foot-subsidised-housing-crime-health-social-care-disrupted-education–cost-rising.html#ixzz2SlyITvhY>

[lv] Bruce Robinson, private research paper by the author of Fathering in the Fast Lane, Sydney: Finch Publishing, 2001.

[lvi] Kevin Andrews, “The family, marriage and divorce,” The Australian Family 13(4), December 1992.

[lvii] Caroline Milburn, “Industry told family splits cost $1b a year,” The Age, 2 August 1990.

[lviii] Tim Pegler, “Homeless link to families,” The Age, 29 October 1997, p. 9.

[lix] Catherine Malkin and Michael Lamb, “Child maltreatment: a test of sociobiological theory,” Journal of Comparative Family Studies 25, 1994, pp. 121–130.

[lx] W. Bradford Wilcox and Jeffrey Dew, “Protectors or Perpetrators? Fathers, Mothers, and Child Abuse and Neglect,” Center for Marriage and Families, Research Brief No. 7, January 2008, pp. 1, 4.

[lxi] Keikki Sariola and Antti Uetela, “The Prevalence and Context of Incest Abuse in Finland,” Child Abuse and Neglect, vol. 20, no. 9, 1996, pp. 843–850.

[lxii] S. Yampolskaya, P. Greenbaum, and I. Berson, “Profiles of child maltreatment perpetrators and risk for fatal assault: A latent class analysis,” Journal of Family Violence, 2009, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 337–348.

[lxiii] Michael Pirrie, “Child Abuse Law Alert.” Herald Sun, 28 August 1993.

[lxiv] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Child Protection Australia 2002-03. Canberra 2004, p. 22.

[lxv] Jeremy Sammut, “Don’t mention the M-word,” The Drum, January 31, 2013.

[lxvi] J. Vanderminden, et. al., “Rates of neglect in a national sample: Child and family characteristics and psychological impact,” Child Abuse and Neglect, vol. 88, no. 8, 2019, pp. 256–265.

[lxvii] See for example my two research papers, “The Benefits of Marriage” (Melbourne, 2004), and “The Case for the Two-Parent Family” (Melbourne 2004).

[lxviii] Wendy Manning and Kathleen Lamb, “Adolescent well-being in cohabiting, married, and single-parent families,” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 65, no. 4, November 2003, pp. 876–893, at p. 890.

[lxix] Yongmin Sun, “The well-being of adolescents in households with no biological parents,” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 65, no. 4, November 2003, pp. 894–909, at p. 894.

[lxx] Ibid., p. 905.

[lxxi] Urie Bronfenbrenner, “Discovering what families do,” in David Blankenhorn, Steven Bayme and Jean Bethke Elshtain, eds. Rebuilding the Nest, pp. 27–38, p. 34.

[lxxii] Rebecca O’Neill, “Experiments in living: The fatherless family,” London: Civitas, September 2002, p. 14.

[lxxiii] Stephen Baskerville, Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family. Nashville: Cumberland House, 2007.

[lxxiv] Wade Horn, in Katherine Anderson, Don Browning and Brian Boyer, eds, Marriage: Just a Piece of Paper? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002, p. 295.

[lxxv] Christopher A. Brown, Father Facts, 9^th ed. National Fatherhood Initiative, 2024.