In Brief: The Epidemic of Fatherless Boys
Boys who have an absent father are less likely to graduate college, more likely to idle in their 20s, and more likely to go to jail.
Our Mark Alexander has practically made a career of advocating for fatherhood, warning many times over the years of the societal ills caused by absentee fathers. Tim Goeglein of Focus on the Family agrees:
A recent research brief by Brad Wilcox and his colleagues at the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) on how the lack of an involved father impacts boys verifies the effects of that “dad-shaped” hole on boys.
In the brief, Wilcox reports that the percentage of boys living in homes without a biological father has almost doubled since 1960 — from 17 percent to 32 percent — resulting in an estimated 12 million boys growing up without a biological dad.
Wilcox writes, “Lacking the day-to-day involvement, guidance, and positive example of their father in the home, and the financial advantages associated with having him in the household, these boys are more likely to act up, lash out, flounder in school, and fail at work as they move into adolescence and adulthood.”
Dads aren’t the only factors, of course, but not having one sets a lot of bad patterns. Far fewer fatherless boys obtain college degrees, for example, which in many cases reduces lifetime wages among other things. But it’s worse than that.
These young men are directionless, or as Wilcox and his colleagues write, “The daily life of these men is often marked by hours in front of a screen, vaping, smoking marijuana, or under the influence of some other kind of substance.” They are not contributors, but instead bystanders.
And it’s worse than that — “fatherless boys are about twice as likely to have spent some time in jail before they reach the age of 30.”
It is not a coincidence that the tragedies of Columbine, Sandy Hook, Buffalo, and Uvalde are all tied to angry young men.
And it then becomes generational:
Growing up fatherless often makes young men poor candidates for marriage. Many women are aware of this. They can see the “holes in their soul” of the young men in their lives.
Women have fewer men to choose from and they’re getting married later as a result. It’s changing family structure down the line. Goeglein concludes:
While not all dads are perfect, and there are some that are far from perfect, a father in the home still makes a major difference in the development of a boy into a man. A good father, in most cases, who invests in his son, ends up developing a successful man. …
If we want a society of successful men who do not lash out in anger, who love and cherish their families, and are good citizens, those who are fathers must realize that it is our responsibility to pass those values on to our sons. If we are absent or distant, we do not only a disservice to these boys, but also to women, and society. If we take fatherhood seriously, we can raise a generation of boys with no “holes” in their soul and future generations will be better off for it.
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- Tim Goeglein
