[Image] [Image] Father Facts Wade F. Horn, Ph.D. National Fatherhood Initiative ------------------------------------------------------------ The Physical Health of Children "Some of our nationŐs most urgent problems, ranging from infant mortality, to drug abuse, to AIDS, to teen pregnancy, to the disproportionately poor health and excess mortality afflicting the children of our minority citizens... arise precisely from an erosion of basic values, and the collapse of the institutions that teach them, like family and community." Former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, 1991 "Each year, nearly 40,000 babies born in the United States die before their first birthdays. Black babies are twice as likely to die as white babies. This nationŐs infant mortality rate is higher than those of 21 other industrialized countries." The National Commission on Children, 1991 "The mortality rate of infants born to college educated but unmarried mothers is higher than for infants born to married high school dropouts." Former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, 1992 General Health and Father Absence A longitudinal study of over 1500 California adults found that those whose parents divorced died an average of four years sooner than their counterparts whose parents remained married. Source: Joan Tucker, Howard Friedman, Joseph Schwartz, Michael Criqui, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, Deborah Wingard, and Leslie Martin, "Parental Divorce: Effects on Individual Behavior and Longevity," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73 (1997): 381-191. "...men and women who experienced parental divorce or separation as children (before the age of 21) tend to have a shorter life span, by more then 4 years, than children who did not experience parental divorce." Source: Joseph E. Schwartz, et. al., "Sociodemographic and Psychosocial Factors in Childhood as Predictors of Adult Mortality," American Journal of Public Health 85 (1995): 1237-1245. A child health study of 17,110 children indicated that children who live with their single, divorced mothers had risks of injury that were 20% to 30% higher than for children who live with both biological parents. These children also had higher risks of asthma, speech defects, and frequent headaches. Source: Deborah Dawson, "Family Structure and ChildrenŐs Health and Well-Being: Interview Survey on Child Health," Journal of Marriage and the Family 53 (August 1991): 573-584. Children from broken homes are at greater risk of being involved in dangerous or unhealthy behaviors because "adolescents in mother-only families are more susceptible to peer influence than those living with both natural parents." Source: Sara S. McLanahan, Nan Marie Astone and Nadine F. Marks, "The Role of Mother-Only Families in Reproducing Poverty," in Aleth C. Huston, (ed.), Children in Poverty: Child Development and Public Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). After adjusting for social and demographic characteristics, the results of a multivariate analysis revealed that children from disrupted marriages had a 20-30 percent higher probability of having experienced common health problems like accidents, injuries and poisonings than did other children. Source: L. Remez, "Children Who DonŐt Live with Both Parents Face Behavioral Problems," Family Planning Perspectives (January/February 1992). A study on nearly 6,000 children found that children from single parent homes had more physical and mental health problems than children who lived with two married parents. Additionally, boys in single parent homes were found to have more illnesses than girls in single parent homes. Source: Gong-Soog Hong and Shelley I. White-Means, "Do Working Mothers Have Healthy Children?" Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 14 (Summer 1993): 163-186. In a study of childrenŐs health, male children from one parent families were found to have more illnesses than female children from single parent homes. Boys and girls living with an unmarried parent in the study had poorer mental health than children living with married parents. Source: Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, Growing Up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1994. Children living in father-absent households are significantly less likely to use both preventive and illness-related ambulatory care compared with children in two-parent families. These differences exist even after taking into account differences in income and health insurance coverage. Source: Peter J. Cunningham and Beth A. Hahn, "The Changing American Family: Implications for ChildrenŐs Health Insurance Coverage and the Use of Ambulatory Care Services," The Future of Children 4 (Winter 1994): 24-42. Prenatal Care, Infant Health and Father Absence "Unmarried mothers are less likely to obtain prenatal care and more likely to have a low birthweight baby. Researchers find that these negative effects persist even when they take into account factors, such as parental education, that often distinguish single-parent from two-parent families." Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Report to Congress on Out-of -Wedlock Childbearing, Hyattsville, MD (Sept. 1995): 12. "An overview of the professional literature concluded that the main reason for AmericaŐs low international standing on infant mortality was the rate of young mothers giving birth outside of marriage." Source: David Lester, "Infant Mortality and Illegitimacy," Social Science Medicine 35, no. 5 (1992): 739-740. Black babies born outside of marriage were nearly four times as likely to have received no prenatal care as black babies born in marriage. White infants born outside marriage were five times as likely to have received no prenatal care as white babies born in marriage. Source: Nicholas Eberstadt, "AmericaŐs Infant Mortality Puzzle," The Public Interest (Summer, 1992). According to the National Center for Health Statistics, both black and white unmarried women have a significantly higher risk of having infants with very low or moderately low birth weights compared to black and white married women. Source: Joel C. Kleinman and Samuel S. Kessel, "Racial Differences in Low Birth Weight," New England Journal of Medicine 317 (1987): 749-753. Children born to unwed mothers tend to be shorter, have smaller head circumferences and evidence more developmental delays than children born to married women. Source: Jane Wadsworth, et. al., "Teenage Mothering: Child Development at Five Years," Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 25 (1984): 303-313; see also A. Walsh, "Illegitimacy, Child-Abuse and Neglect, and Cognitive Development," Journal of Genetic Psychology 15 (1990): 279-285. [Image] [Previous | Table of Contents | Next ] (c) 1998, National Fatherhood Initiative. All rights reserved. Father Facts 3 is available in softcover from the National Fatherhood Initiative. NFI Resource Catalog Price: US $8.00. National Fatherhood Initiative 101 Lake Forest Boulevard, Suite 360 Gaithersburg, MD 20877 phone: (301) 948-0599 fax: (301) 948-4325 email: info@fatherhood.org web: www.fatherhood.org [-] Printer-Friendly Version [-] See Related Resources ------------------------------------------------------------ copyright (c) 1995-2002 Leadership U. All rights reserved. This site is part of the Telling the Truth Project. Updated: 4 May 2002