Mona Charen reports:
The other great upheaval of the past half century is the decline of the two-parent family. The great dividing line in American life is not progressive versus conservative, urban versus rural, or black versus white. It’s married versus not. For example, African-American husbands have higher labor force participation rates than white bachelors. The upper third of the income distribution, who tend to marry and stay together, also tend to raise thriving children. By contrast, the lowest third, who mostly have revolving-door relationships without marriage, tend to have kids who don’t. The middle third is more like the bottom than the top. Children in homes with a non-relative adult are 11 times more likely to be the victims of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse than those living with their biological or adoptive parents. And children in homes with a non-relative adult male are 50 times more likely to die of inflicted injuries than those who grow up with their biological or adoptive parents.
There's more:
Boys are more disadvantaged than girls when they are raised by single mothers. Two MIT economists studied pairs of siblings in Florida between 1992 and 2002. They found that “Fatherless boys are less ambitious, less hopeful, and more likely to get into trouble at school than fatherless girls.” Being raised by a single mother significantly decreased the likelihood that a boy would attend college, but had no similar effect on girls.
An article worth your time.
