Single parents only have one income coming into the house. On top of that, single parents often have to spend a greater proportion of their income on child care because they do not have a co-parent to stay home with the child while they work. Even beyond having more income, two parents also have more time to spend with the child. A recent study by Richard Reeves and Kimberly Howard finds that parenting skills vary across demographic groups and that forty-four percent of single mothers fall into the weakest category and only 3 percent in the strongest category.
The weak parenting skills found among single parents in the study may be related not only to the lack of a second parent, but to a lack of income and education as well. Education, in particular, stands out as the most critical factor in explaining poor parenting. But it is not clear that we should look at these variables in isolation from one another. In real life, compared to married parents, single parents tend to be poorer because there is not a second earner in the family and less well-educated in part because early childbearing interrupts or discourages education , and this is what matters for their children.
Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group. Case closed? Some studies have even found that newborns tend to resemble their mothers more than their fathers.
In a photo-matching trial with pictures of one-, three- and five-year-old children and their parents, subjects identified mothers and fathers equally well.
Bressan added that, to the best of her knowledge, "no study has either replicated or supported" the finding that babies preferentially resemble their fathers. But the babies' mothers tend to say just the opposite, emphasizing the child's resemblance to the father. That, too, has a possible evolutionary explanation, according to D. McLain and his colleagues even speculated that evolutionary pressures may have actually reduced the amount of paternal resemblance in newborns, thus ensuring that a putative father will care for a child even if the father has been cuckolded.
That both high and low degrees of paternal resemblance have ready explanations highlights one of the challenges in linking subtle human features to changes that played out over millions of years of evolution. John Matson is a former reporter and editor for Scientific American who has written extensively about astronomy and physics.
Source: Nomaguchi, K. Journal of Family Issues, 38, Depression and delinquency scores were much higher among the portion of adolescent respondents who reported having a father that had, at some point, been incarcerated. Source: Swisher, R. Paternal Incarceration and adolescent well-being: Life course contingencies and other moderators.
In , children living in female-headed homes with no spouse present had a poverty rate of This was over four times the rate for children living in married-couple families. Information on poverty and income statistics: A summary of current population survey data. Men who grew up with absent fathers were more likely to become absent fathers. They also found that women who grew up with absent fathers are more likely to have children with absent fathers.
Source: Pougnet, E. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74 3 , Father involvement seems to reduce the occurrence of behavioral problems in boys and psychological problems in young women, as well as enhancing cognitive development, while decreasing delinquency and economic disadvantage in low-income families. Source: Sarkadi, A. Acta Paediatrica , 97, — Father absence increased the risk of infant mortality, and that the mortality rate for infants within the first 28 days of life is four times higher for those with absent fathers than those with involved fathers.
Source: Alio, A. Journal of Community Health, 36 1 , In other words, according to absent father statistics, for many of our most intractable social ills affecting children, father absence is to blame. Source: McLanahan, S. The causal effects of father absence.
Annual Review of Sociology, 39, Mississippi has the highest number of children living in father absent homes The three states with the lowest rates of father absence are Utah This is over four times the rate for children living in married couple families. Additionally, Children living in female-headed homes with no spouse present have a poverty rate of A study using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study revealed that in many cases the absence of a biological father contributes to increased risk of child maltreatment.
It is believed that in families with a non-biological social father figure, there is a higher risk of abuse and neglect to children, despite the social father living in the household or only dating the mother. Even after controlling for community context, there is significantly more drug use among children who do not live with their mother and father. Source: Hoffmann, John P. Father involvement in schools is associated with the higher likelihood of a student getting mostly A's.
This was true for fathers in biological parent families, for stepfathers, and for fathers heading single-parent families. Additionally, students living in father-absent homes are twice as likely to repeat a grade in school. NCES
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