The Father Factor

How a father’s love changes children’s lives

Anyone with a great dad knows how lucky they are. The memories of being tossed in the air, swung around by the arms like a windmill or chased by their dad acting like a roaring lion are precious parts of growing up. The way a great dad makes us feel protected, teaches us how to hold the baseball bat just the right way, and applies discipline with a thundering velvet hand shapes more than our memories; it shapes the people we become. Research consistently shows that children with a loving father who is actively involved in their lives on a daily basis experience significant social, academic, behavioral, and health benefits long into adulthood over children who grow up in a fatherless home.

1. Boys who grow up without fathers are three times more likely to end up in jail before they turn 30.
2. Girls whose father left the home before age 6 became sexually active much earlier and were five times more likely to become pregnant as teenagers than girls whose fathers lived at home.
3. Children behave and perform significantly better in school when their father lives at home, especially boys.
4. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, children from fatherless homes are twice as likely to drop out of school and suffer obesity, experience more behavioral problems, abuse, and neglect, experience double the risk of infant mortality, and are four times more likely to live in poverty.
5. Children in fatherless homes are 70% more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, and overwhelmingly at risk for suicide with 63% exhibiting some type of mood or psychiatric disorder including depression; for girls it’s 69%.

The evidence is overwhelming that a father’s love or the absence of it has a profound effect on every aspect of a child’s life. If you’re a father, remember that the next time your child asks you to kick the ball around the backyard or to take him or her someplace special. When you share your love with your child today, you’re investing in their future. For more statistics on fathers in the home, please visit fathers.com and the fatherless generation blog.