http://www.examiner.com/x-29023-Phoenix-Fatherhood-Examiner~y2009m11d8-Fathers-How-Relavant-Are-They-In-Todays-SocietyBelow is an article that I posted on my fatherhood page at Examiner.com that discusses the the impact of a father on their kids. Have these facts played themselves out in your life? If so have you realized the impact your dad had, whether good or bad?
“As it has become more common to see families separated by divorce, abandonment, or even sheer neglect, we are faced with the opportunity to question the real need of a traditional family makeup. More specifically, does a father need to be present and engaged in the life of their kids?
According to Jonathan M. Honeycutt, Director of Research at the National Institute for Divorce Research, 90% of divorced fathers have only partial custody of their children. Additionally, nearly 38% of fathers have no visitation rights at all. This means that nearly 23 million homes are currently without the presence of a full time dad.
So, do these statistics actually mean something when correlated with long-term psychological health and growth? Let us provide a stark reality for those “fatherless” homes. Sixty three percent of youth suicides come from homes with absent fathers according to the US Dept. of Health and Human Services. The same organization attributes 71% of pregnant teens to a fatherless home. The Center for Disease Control has stated that 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders have absent fathers. Moreover, the exact same 85% of youths sitting in prison, according to the Texas Dept. of Corrections (1992), have been born in a fatherless home.
In light of these national statistics, does Phoenix stand in a better light? According to the data, that is certainly not the case. Phoenix marriages dissolve at a rate that stands parallel to the national projection of nearly 50%. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Arizona saw 23,000 divorces and only 32,000 marriages in 2004. As a result, Phoenix fathers face similar child rearing difficulties as demonstrated by the national statistics.
While the correlation of these numbers may be only a fraction of the full body of data, they certainly point towards the importance of a fully present, fully engaged father. Who would have thought that a dad would bring more to a family than just the ability to remove the occasional lid and the fortitude to operate the remote without incident?”
