Urban Fatherhood Initiative

                                                                      Critical Overview

Children from urban communities have a higher risk for negative outcomes for health, education, welfare and family formation than those of any other demographic. One of the leading contributors is fatherless-ness.

When Fathers Fail

•  Fatherless children are twice as likely to engage in premarital sex and be parents outside of marriage.

•  Nearly half of unwed teenage mothers go on welfare within one year of their baby's birth.

•  Seventy percent of juveniles in state reform institutions grew up in single parent situations.

•  Sixty-percent of America’s rapist grew up in homes without fathers.

•  Seventy-two percent of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers.

•  Three out of four teenage suicides occur in homes where a parent has been absent. 

•  Eighty percent of adolescents in psychiatric care come from broken homes. 

•  Premarital pregnancy, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and absent fathers are the most common predictors 
of child abuse.

•  Fatherless children are five times more likely to live in poverty compared to children living with both parents,