Fathers Matter, Really Matter
– By Howard Sierer –
On this Father’s Day, let me return to the family structure by emphasizing the importance of fathers. Mothers, we all love you, and for most of us, our fondest memories of growing up center on our mothers. As the old saying goes, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy; if Papa ain’t happy, nobody cares.”
Yet increasing numbers of recent studies continue to reinforce the importance of fathers: a child has the best chance of success when raised in a two parent home and that means a home with a father. There are many great stories of courageous and dedicated single parents, usually mothers, who have raised happy and productive children. But sadly, they are in a distinct minority.
Professor Stephen Baskerville writes, “Virtually every major social pathology has been linked to fatherless children: violent crime, drug and alcohol abuse, truancy, unwed pregnancy, suicide, and psychological disorders—all correlating more strongly with fatherlessness than with any other single factor, surpassing even race and poverty.”
America’s crime debate often focuses on joblessness. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have responded with jobs programs. But crime has flourished in times of high employment as well as low.
Authors Rafael Mangual, Brad Wilcox, Seth Cannon, and Joseph Price, in their “New Report: Stronger Families, Safer Streets,” agree that a variety of factors influence criminal behavior. They note that among them, “changes in law enforcement and the prosecution of criminals have also had a hand in the recent uptick in violent crime in American cities.” (It’s clear to me that the “uptick” to which they refer is a result of progressive district attorneys refusing to prosecute many crimes in the name of “equity.”)
Nonetheless, the paper’s main argument is that family instability is the biggest factor of all and that it’s not receiving the attention it deserves. The authors write that “cities are safer when two-parent families are dominant and more crime-ridden when family instability is common.”
They go on to explain that nationwide, the total crime rate is about 48% higher in cities “that have above the median share of single-parent families, compared to cities that have fewer single-parent families.” Even when controlling for variables such as race, income and educational attainment, “the association between family structure and total crime rates, as well as violent crime rates, in cities across the United States remains statistically significant.”
Having a father at home, the authors note, is about more than an additional paycheck. Fathers teach their sons responsibility, self-control, how to carry themselves, and how to treat women. They tend to be more effective disciplinarians, and their involvement in childrearing is linked to positive outcomes in the academic development of their children, “especially in mathematics and verbal skills.”
These findings have been “established for both sons and daughters but, unsurprisingly, it is especially pronounced among boys. The presence of married fathers is also protective against school suspensions and expulsions, as well as the risk of dropping out of high school.”
The study concludes, “Shifts from the late-1960s to the 1990s away from stable families have left some cities, and especially some neighborhoods, vulnerable to higher rates of crime, especially violent crime. We need to realign material and cultural incentives in our cities to favor marriage and stable families, not undercut them.”
As I wrote in a previous column on the benefits of two-parent homes, the country’s history of ever-expanding welfare benefits for single mothers left increasing numbers of children with no father in the home. According to Harvard’s Paul Peterson, “some programs actively discouraged marriage,” because “welfare assistance went to mothers so long as no male was boarding in the household.”
Now, with the increasing body of research showing the importance of fathers, liberal welfare advocates find themselves in the awkward position of acknowledging what they call “conservative” insistence on the importance of marriage and fathers in the home.
It’s fair to ask why the importance of fathers is a political issue at all. What is “conservative” about valuing a reduction in violent crime, drug and alcohol abuse, unwed pregnancy and suicide? What is “conservative” about having self-control, treating women well, and achieving verbal and math skills? If “conservative” means preserving and cultivating our society’s progress toward a better day, we all should be supporters fathers in the home, independent of our politics.
