In the United States alone, 21.2 million children (26% of all children) are growing up in a household with only one custodial parent.¹

Among Black children, 48.5% are growing up with a single custodial parent.²

5 out of every 6 custodial parents are mothers (84%), 1 in 6 are fathers (16%).³

Poverty

Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy

Adolescent females between the ages of 15 and 19 years reared in homes without fathers are significantly more likely to engage in premarital sex than adolescent females reared in homes with both a mother and a father.⁶

Children in single parent families are more likely to get pregnant as teenagers than their peers who grow up with two parents.⁷

Educational Achievement

In studies involving over 25,000 children using nationally representative data sets, children who lived with only one parent had lower grade point averages, lower college aspirations, poor attendance records, and higher drop out rates than students who lived with both parents.⁸

Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school.⁹

Crime

References

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