The Childhood Of Fatherless Homes

as free of sorrow as Mr. Vaughn contends. Laura and Elizabeth are asked to play the

About four in every ten children born in America in 2008 were born outside of marriage, and they are disproportionately minority and poor. “Only about 6 percent of college-educated mothers’ births are nonmarital versus 60 percent of those of high school dropouts” (5). Scholars responded to this by studying single-parent families.

Due to problems arising out of bitter divorces, custody, and support battles fathers are ostracize out of their children’s life. Fathers are often looked at as the bad person when things go wrong and being the blame. Fathers are just as responsible for the child being born as the mother. Over the years fathers continue to fight for equal rights, mothers are looked at as the victims and often make false statements about the fathers to suit their own selfish needs. Accusations of sexual and child abuse by mothers of the noncustodial fathers are often found to be untrue.

Increased incarceration rates negatively distress African Americans families and children. Per Clear (2008) parental incarceration causes strain in social relationships, and increases the economic strain on families (p.102). In African American families, men are the providers in the household. When the man is detained, the resources that he provides to the family is no longer available. Consequently, mothers must now find additional resources to compensate for his absence. Research conducted by Schwartz-Sorcher, Geller, and Garfunkel (2014), examined the effects of paternal incarceration on the material well-being of families. Using data from the Fragile Families & Child Well-Being survey, they found that paternal incarceration increases material

Moreover, another limitation as it pertains to population was the failure of the literature to make strong connection about paternal incarceration impacting African American families and children. Most publications focused on maternal incarceration and its impacts on African American families and children. However, this research study isn’t geared toward maternal incarceration. The researcher had to utilize several different databases and keywords to find relevant and valid information on this topic. This process was time consuming but necessary to provide accurate research on this

The number of two-parent African American households is dissolving. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the black family has declined from 80% in 1890 to 39% in 1990. The result of conflict, and warring souls in the African American community, this trend can be stopped and reversed. The African American family must first gain an understanding of what is causing this dissolution, then they can be taught about what principals and skills they must adapt in order to reverse it. Once this is accomplished, the black family must be given opportunities to share this information. By taking these steps, two-parent African American families would once again be prevalent in the United States.

Lowe Jr., W. (2000). Detriangulation of Absent Fathers in Single-Parent Black Families: Techniques of Imagery. American Journal of Family Therapy, 28(1), 29-40. doi:10.1080/019261800261798

The role of the family has changed in America, in which, the authority of the parent does not have much influence in the child’s future. Tocqueville note that the father has lost most of his authority from the child, "which formerly separated a father from his sons has been lessened and that paternal authority, if not destroyed, is at least impaired” (Tocqueville 219). For example, young men are able to make their own decisions based on their priorities and

Fatherless homes in the black community is at 57.6% (NCF, 2017). One of many issues of a fatherless home is children have less structure and lack of discipline; i.e. Chicago. The children suffer the most. I believe children need both parents in the household to be complete (“not all”). I believe if women have father’s in their lives (a positive male figure at minimum) it could help their decision in choosing the right mate will help this issue.

African Americans have come a long way in the last few decades. We have more rights, more opportunities to grow and prosper and more independence than ever before. But the same cannot be said for African American families as a whole. The African American family and community is in trouble (Tilove, 2005). These families are facing many issues today that are contributing to their break down. These factors include poverty, diminishing health, welfare, incarceration, the struggle to find housing and the challenges involved with providing children with higher education. The disintegration of families have gone on for too long and it’s time we do something about it (“Current Challenges”, n.d.).

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing are now epidemic in American society. Both forms of disrupted families are harmful to children and to society. The children of single parents are more likely to do poorly in school, commit crimes, and become single parents themselves. In addition, the increase in single-parent families contributes to such social problems as poverty, crime, and a decline in the quality of public education.

Especially in today’s society, it’s disturbingly common for a child to have to grow up in a single parent household, letting the consequences of this scenario internally destroy the child like a virus. The effects are usually the same, but the frequency of the effects shouldn’t deter the severity. Another misconstrued ideal about single parent households, is whether or not the “statistics” and the “studies” taken on these families is enough to summarize the general population. They aren’t. The same goes for the causes, but on a much more significant scale. The causes and effects of single parent households implied by the studies and statistics are all true, but there’s a much bigger story that can’t be accurately measured or recorded. What the numbers show, are what represent the average. The non-hispanic White race represents the average race, low class to poverty level, and women to gender. But, as can be seconded by most struggling families in this situation, “average” doesn’t describe “real.” There are some things that can’t be taken into account, and those are the things that affect the child the most.

63 percent of households with an income of $25,000 or less are fatherless, and only 18 percent of households with an income of $75,000 or higher. Almost identical statistics apply to less than high school credentials versus a bachelor’s or graduate education. 62% of parents that have less than a high school education are raising children without their father, and only 22% of parents with a bachelor’s degree and 18% of parents with a graduate degree are living in the same situation (DeBell 2008.) A correlation can be drawn here between education/income and percentage of fatherless households. Generally speaking, as education increases, so will income. As income increases, the percentage of fatherless children and households decreases. However, it could be argued that the income of the household will decrease when the father is gone and not contributing to the finances.

“I am a fatherless daughter that survived your failure. I’m moving forward, my life is better than yours. I’m better than you, and you are missing out on something spectacular.”(unknown). An experience that has shaped my identity is when my dad had left and signed his parental rights. While my mom and dad were married, he was abusive and wouldn’t treat her right. My mom would leave me with my grandma so that I wouldn’t see the stuff my dad would do to my mom. My mom decided to leave my dad, so then my dad took my mom to court.

My parents divorced when I was five, so I was raised in a single parent home by my mother. My aunt and mother both instilled in me what it means to be a strong, independent, God fearing woman. From the time I was born I attended church regularly, praise dancing and singing in the choir. Being able to touch someone while ministering the word of God is one of the greatest privliges I’ve had.