Youth Mentoring Program Statistics & Research
You can go to the Center for Disease Control website http://www.cdc.gov/DataStatistics/and look at stats by state. You can also google Fatherlessness and get stats. I hope they help.
Another useful site is – www.datacenter.kidscount.org - You can search reports by state.
Youth Mentoring Works
In a landmark study on mentoring 1,000 kids were taken from a mentoring program waiting list to be studied. 500 of the kids were matched with a mentor and 500 of the children were not matched with a mentor. In just 18 months, here is what happened. Kids matched with a mentor were 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 33% less likely to engage in violence, 53% less likely to skip school, and 27% less likely to begin using alcohol. (Public Private Ventures / BBBS, 1993)
Relationships are Key
According to Ruby Payne in her article, Understanding and Working with Students and Adults from Poverty, “When individuals who made it out of poverty are interviewed, virtually all cite an individual who made a significant difference for them (Payne, 4).”
According to Jean Rhodes in her book Stand by Me, “A key difference between successful and unsuccessful youth from lower-income urban communities was mentoring – the successful ones had mentors, the unsuccessful ones did not (Rhodes, 9).” Also, “resilient children often had at least one significant adult in their lives (Rhodes, 29).”
Jean Rhodes also sites four mentoring studies in her book, Stand by Me, that show that the common denominator for kids making it out of some of the most challenging environments and circumstances was that they learned to trust one adult outside of their family (Rhodes, 29 & 30).
Prevention
One study estimates that, in present value terms, the societal savings that would result from diverting one career criminal would be roughly $1.5 million; simply keeping a dropout in school would save almost $400,000
-“The monetary value of saving a high-risk youth.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 14(1) 5-33 (1989)
Fatherlessness
According to the 2010 census information, 1 out of 4 children in the U.S. live in fatherless homes, which means at least 20 million children are growing up without the steady, guiding hand of a caring father. Fatherlessnessis one of the greatest social problems facing our country today.
An estimated 24.35 million children (33.5 percent) live absent their biological father. Source: Krieder, Rose M. and Jason Fields. Living Arrangements of Children2001. Current Population Reports, p. 70-104. Table 1. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005.
Nearly 40 percent of babies born in the United States in 2007 were delivered by unwed mothers, according to data released last month by the National Center for Health Statistics. The 1.7 million out-of-wedlock births, of 4.3 million total births, marked a more than 25 percent jump from five years before.
As of the end of 2008 40% of all births in the United States were from unwed mothers. (Center for Disease control, 2009)
The divorce rate in the U. S. is over 50%.
According to a recent study by the U.S. government, children living in female-headed single-parent households account for:
· 90% of homeless runaway
· 85% of children with behavioral problems
· 71% of High School dropouts
· 85% of youth in prison
· 75% of families living in poverty
U.S. Government Statistics (National Center for Health Statistics) Study completed in 2006 studied the effect of a father’s absence in a child’s life. It covered all 50 states and studied children from infant to age 17.
Here are some more staggering results of studies regarding fatherless children:
- 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorderscome from
- 71% of all high school dropoutscome from fatherless homes ( National
- 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centerscome from
- 70% of kids that live in state operated institutions are from fatherless
- 85% of all kids locked up in youth prisonshad no father involved in
Fatherless Stats
1. 23.6% of US children (17.4 million) lived in father absent homes in 2014.
[US Census Bureau, 2015] Living arrangements of children under 18 years and marital status of parents, by age, sex, race, and hispanic origin and selected characteristics of the child for all children: 2014. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau.
2. In 2011, children living in female-headed homes with no spouse present had a poverty rate of 47.6%. This is over four times the rate for children living in married couple families.
[Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (2012). Information on poverty and income statistics: A summary of 2012 current population survey data. Retrieved from: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/12/PovertyAndIncomeEst/ib.cfm]
3. A study of 1,397,801 infants in Florida evaluated how a lack of father involvement impacts infant mortality. A lack of father involvement was linked to earlier births as well as lower birth weights. Researchers also found that father absence increases 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. Paternal absence is also found to increase black/white infant mortality almost four-fold.
[Source: Alio, A. P., Mbah, A. K., Kornosky, J. L., Wathington, D., Marty, P. J., & Salihu, H. M. (2011). Assessing the impact of paternal involvement on Racial/Ethnic disparities in infant mortality rates. Journal of Community Health, 36(1), 63-68.]
4. A study of 263 13- to 18-year-old adolescent women seeking psychological services found that the adolescents from father-absent homes were 3.5 times more likely to experience pregnancy than were adolescents from father-present homes. Moreover, the rate of pregnancy among adolescents from fatherabsent homes was 17.4% compared to a four (4) percent rate in the general adolescent population.
[Source: Lang, D. L., Rieckmann, T., DiClemente, R. J., Crosby, R. A., Brown, L. K., & Donenberg, G. R. (2013). Multi-level factorsassociated with pregnancy among urban adolescent women seeking psychological services. Journal of Urban Health, 90, 212-223.]
5. A study of 1,618 Latina high school students found that lower perceived father support is a predictor of suicidal ideation and behavior.
[Source: De Luca, S. M., Wyman, P., & Warren, K. (2012). Latina adolescent suicide ideations and attempts: Associations with connectedness to parents, peers, and teachers. Suicide and Life-Threat Behavior, 42, 672-683.]
6. Disengaged and remote interactions of fathers with infants is a predictor of early behavior problems in children and can lead to externalizing behaviors in children as early as age 1.
[Source: Ramchandani, P. G., Domoney, J., Sethna, V., Psychogiou, L., Vlachos, H. and Murray, L. (2013). Do early father–infant interactions predict the onset of externalising behaviours in young children? Findings from a longitudinal cohort study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54, 56–64.]
7. Researchers using secondary data from the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research examined gun carrying and drug trafficking in young men, linking father absence to the likelihood of engaging in these behaviors. Results from a sample of 835 juvenile male inmates found that father absence was the only disadvantage on the individual level with significant effects on gun carrying, drug trafficking, and co-occurring behavior. Individuals from father absent homes were found to be 279% more likely to carry guns and deal drugs than peers living with their fathers.
[Source: Allen, A. N., & Lo, C. C. (2012). Drugs, guns, and disadvantaged youths: Co-occurring behavior and the code of the street. Crime & Delinquency, 58(6), 932-953.]
8. A study of the relationship between father absence and lower educational attainment for African American females found that a longer duration of father absence is a predictive factor for lower educational success. Researchers discovered that longer duration of father absence often leads to lower income and family economic stress, which puts young women at risk for lower educational achievement.
[Source: Gillette, M. T., & Gudmunson, C. G. (2014). Processes linking father absence to educational attainment among african american females. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24(2), 309-321.]
9. Children with negative attitudes about school and their teachers experienced avoidance and ambivalence with their fathers. On the other hand, children with a secure attachment to their father and whose father was involved had a higher academic self-concept. The father-child attachment was more associated with the child’s social-emotional school outcomes than their academic achievement.
[Source: Newland, L., Chen, H., & Coyl-Shepherd, D. (2013). Associations among father beliefs, perceptions, life context, involvement, child attachment and school outcomes in the U.S. and Taiwan. Fathering, 11, 3-30.]
10. Father involvement is related to positive cognitive, developmental, and socio-behavioral child outcomes, such as improved weight gain in preterm infants, improved breastfeeding rates, higher receptive language skills, and higher academic achievement.
[Source: Garfield, C. F., & Isacco, A. (2006). Fathers and the well-child visit, Pediatrics, 117, 637-645.]
11. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of children with an incarcerated father grew 79% between 1991 and 2007. Black fathers accounted for nearly half (46%) of all children with an incarcerated father.
[Source: Glaze, L.E., & Maruschak, L.M. (2010). Parents in prison and their minor children. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics.]
12. Fifty-five (55.2) percent of WIC recipients are raised by single-mothers, 48.2% of all Head Start recipients are from father-absent homes, and 37% of public assistance and Section 8 housing are female-headed households.
[Source: Nock, S.L, Einolf, C.J. (2008). The one hundred billion dollar man: the annual public costs of father absence. Germantown, MD: National Fatherhood Initiative.]
Unmarried Childbearing – 2014
Data are for the U.S.
- Number of live births to unmarried women: 1,604,870
- Birth rate for unmarried women: 43.9 births per 1,000 unmarried women aged 15-44 years
- Percent of all births to unmarried women: 40.2%