Relationships - Promoting fatherhood
Charlie Azzopardi encourages politicians to scrutinise international and local data deeply and try to create a prevention system against future family breakdown.
There are many reasons why I opted to scribble about fatherhood. The common denominator is dictated by what is happening in other countries, particularly in the US, UK and Australia where I get most of the research from.
In his book Fatherless America, David Blankenhom noted that fatherlessness is the most critical social issue of our time and "the most destructive trend of our generation". Many others agree that fatherlessness is the single most harmful demographic trend of the last generations.
Fatherlessness is a wide concept referring to the lack of the father figure presence, whether it's because of death or desertion, or whether it's because father's absence is work related. The research below though is strictly referring to fatherlessness involving lack of contact between father and child.
The following data might come across as unusual of my pen. I know, and I am not writing in this way to annoy any of the keen readers. Such data can be tedious, but its power of succinct comprehension cannot be undermined either. What follows offers one big reason against family breakdown.
Parental separation is a risk factor for a wide range of social and psychological problems in adolescence and adulthood, including poor academic achievement, low self-esteem, psychological distress, delinquency, substance use and abuse, sexual precocity, criminal offending, depression and suicidal behaviour. This is by no means that all the children of separated parents will end up.
Research has repeatedly been showing a link between major social, psychological and psychiatric pathologies and fatherless children. Daniels's 1998 analysis of various researches carried out in the previous 30 years has shown how the majority of prisoners, juvenile detention inmates, high school dropouts, pregnant teenagers, adolescent murderers and rapists come from fatherless homes. This became increasingly true when analysing the recent wave of adolescent murders in London. Fatherlessness also emerges predominantly.
Furthermore, research shows that children from affluent but broken families are much more likely to get into trouble than children from poor but intact ones. The connection between single parent households and crime is very strong in both the US and the UK, and it outdoes factors like race and poverty. In essence this means that children in single parent households, particularly those lacking the presence of a father, are more at risk than any other child to eventually develop difficulties.
There are many reasons for the above findings and it would be very useful to look into some of them.
Fatherlessness lowers educational performance. Children coming from broken families have approximately double the chance of dropping out of secondary school. There is also other research showing how children who had an absent father early in life generally scored significantly lower on measures of IQ and achievement tests. This might be attributed to the consuming worries children experience in the face of a distant father and trouble in the parents' marital relationship. Australian and Anglo-American studies continue to show that happily married couples offer the best environment for a child's social and educational development. Moreover, children whose father is involved in their education are more cooperative and reliant in school, than kids without father involvement. The regularity of the father involvement correlated with the child's school performance, particularly in the first year of school.
Fatherlessness increases drug abuse. The father figure seems to be an important deterrent to drug and alcohol abuse. As early as 1990 Nicholas Davidson, a well-known researcher and reviewer, noted that among homes with a strict father 18 per cent had children who used alcohol or drugs as contrasted with the 35 per cent of children who live in mother-dominated homes. Another New Zealand longitudinal study observing 1,000 children for a period of 15 years found that children who see their parents separate are more likely to use illegal drugs than those whose parents stay together.
Fatherlessness increases teen pregnancy. Many studies in many different countries have shown how girls raised without fathers show precocious sexual interest and activity, derogation of masculinity and males, and poor ability to maintain sexual and emotional adjustment with one male. Bruce Ellis, a psychologist in sexual development at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand noted that there seems to be something special about the role of fathers in regulating daughters' sexual development. Other US and British studies show similar trends.
Fatherlessness increases mental health problems. Studies worldwide reported that anywhere between 50 per cent to 80 per cent of psychiatric patients come from broken homes. A 1997 Dutch study found that generally, children from broken homes reported lower self-esteem, more symptoms of anxiety, loneliness, depression and suicidal thoughts than children from intact families. Fatherlessness has also been implicated in female personality disorders, particularly borderline personality disorder, as well as self harm and eating disorders. A massive Swedish 2003 study involving one million children showed that children reared by single parents are more vulnerable to depression, suicide attempt, addiction and even injury. The authors concluded that living in a single-parent family proves disadvantageous for the children. Even in Sweden, being the most highly advanced welfare state in the world, offering the most comprehensive welfare net, children still suffer in single parent families.
The above findings encourage me to work hard at promoting both fatherhood, and healthier family living. It should, just as well, encourage politicians to scrutinise the data deeply and try to create a prevention system against future family breakdown. The options are many.
One final point I'd like to make is that in spite of a separation, parents can still do a lot to remain in the child's life. Separation itself is not a guarantee of fatherlessness, which is ultimately a choice of both parents and is not visible in parents who in spite of their separation continue to put the children's interests as their primary focus.
• Mr Azzopardi is a systemic family psychotherapist.
In his book Fatherless America, David Blankenhom noted that fatherlessness is the most critical social issue of our time and "the most destructive trend of our generation". Many others agree that fatherlessness is the single most harmful demographic trend of the last generations.
Fatherlessness is a wide concept referring to the lack of the father figure presence, whether it's because of death or desertion, or whether it's because father's absence is work related. The research below though is strictly referring to fatherlessness involving lack of contact between father and child.
The following data might come across as unusual of my pen. I know, and I am not writing in this way to annoy any of the keen readers. Such data can be tedious, but its power of succinct comprehension cannot be undermined either. What follows offers one big reason against family breakdown.
Parental separation is a risk factor for a wide range of social and psychological problems in adolescence and adulthood, including poor academic achievement, low self-esteem, psychological distress, delinquency, substance use and abuse, sexual precocity, criminal offending, depression and suicidal behaviour. This is by no means that all the children of separated parents will end up.
Research has repeatedly been showing a link between major social, psychological and psychiatric pathologies and fatherless children. Daniels's 1998 analysis of various researches carried out in the previous 30 years has shown how the majority of prisoners, juvenile detention inmates, high school dropouts, pregnant teenagers, adolescent murderers and rapists come from fatherless homes. This became increasingly true when analysing the recent wave of adolescent murders in London. Fatherlessness also emerges predominantly.
Furthermore, research shows that children from affluent but broken families are much more likely to get into trouble than children from poor but intact ones. The connection between single parent households and crime is very strong in both the US and the UK, and it outdoes factors like race and poverty. In essence this means that children in single parent households, particularly those lacking the presence of a father, are more at risk than any other child to eventually develop difficulties.
There are many reasons for the above findings and it would be very useful to look into some of them.
Fatherlessness lowers educational performance. Children coming from broken families have approximately double the chance of dropping out of secondary school. There is also other research showing how children who had an absent father early in life generally scored significantly lower on measures of IQ and achievement tests. This might be attributed to the consuming worries children experience in the face of a distant father and trouble in the parents' marital relationship. Australian and Anglo-American studies continue to show that happily married couples offer the best environment for a child's social and educational development. Moreover, children whose father is involved in their education are more cooperative and reliant in school, than kids without father involvement. The regularity of the father involvement correlated with the child's school performance, particularly in the first year of school.
Fatherlessness increases drug abuse. The father figure seems to be an important deterrent to drug and alcohol abuse. As early as 1990 Nicholas Davidson, a well-known researcher and reviewer, noted that among homes with a strict father 18 per cent had children who used alcohol or drugs as contrasted with the 35 per cent of children who live in mother-dominated homes. Another New Zealand longitudinal study observing 1,000 children for a period of 15 years found that children who see their parents separate are more likely to use illegal drugs than those whose parents stay together.
Fatherlessness increases teen pregnancy. Many studies in many different countries have shown how girls raised without fathers show precocious sexual interest and activity, derogation of masculinity and males, and poor ability to maintain sexual and emotional adjustment with one male. Bruce Ellis, a psychologist in sexual development at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand noted that there seems to be something special about the role of fathers in regulating daughters' sexual development. Other US and British studies show similar trends.
Fatherlessness increases mental health problems. Studies worldwide reported that anywhere between 50 per cent to 80 per cent of psychiatric patients come from broken homes. A 1997 Dutch study found that generally, children from broken homes reported lower self-esteem, more symptoms of anxiety, loneliness, depression and suicidal thoughts than children from intact families. Fatherlessness has also been implicated in female personality disorders, particularly borderline personality disorder, as well as self harm and eating disorders. A massive Swedish 2003 study involving one million children showed that children reared by single parents are more vulnerable to depression, suicide attempt, addiction and even injury. The authors concluded that living in a single-parent family proves disadvantageous for the children. Even in Sweden, being the most highly advanced welfare state in the world, offering the most comprehensive welfare net, children still suffer in single parent families.
The above findings encourage me to work hard at promoting both fatherhood, and healthier family living. It should, just as well, encourage politicians to scrutinise the data deeply and try to create a prevention system against future family breakdown. The options are many.
One final point I'd like to make is that in spite of a separation, parents can still do a lot to remain in the child's life. Separation itself is not a guarantee of fatherlessness, which is ultimately a choice of both parents and is not visible in parents who in spite of their separation continue to put the children's interests as their primary focus.
• Mr Azzopardi is a systemic family psychotherapist.