not sexier, but probably one factor of many.

I think a large part of the problem is the lack of fathers. And that's attributable directly to feminist organizations like NOW that insist on shoving fathers out the door and demand sole custody.

Remember: no-fault divorce was needed and reformed divorces. But no fault divorce itself caused enormously expensive and hurtful divorces and many psychological problems for kids.

Most studies show that kids need fathers.

A world of no fault divorce needs a world with a rebuttable presumption of shared physical custody.

to hear what:

brightstar65

Roger Apocalypse

and ♀♀♂♀♀!

have to say about this one! Where will they go with?! What will they say?! I wonder - will it, once again, and on cue, be another rigid ideological rant about how "women TOTALLY suck" while simultaneously slamming Broadsheet for having a rigid ideological stance on how "men TOTALLY suck"?!

Stay tuned! More of the same is anticipated....

; )

#12: The rates of juvenile crime, teen pregnancy, teen drug abuse, and school dropouts are tightly correlated with fatherlessness, often more so than with any other socioeconomic factor.

Source: The largest predictor of juvenile crime is the presence of a father is from, among others, “Douglas A. Smith and G. Roger Jajoura, “Social Structure and Criminal Victimization,” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Vol. 25, Number 1, February 1988, pages 27-52. In this study children of poor and wealthy families had equal juvenile crime rates if there was a father in the home.

Source: The largest predictor of drug use is from, among others, Robert H. Coombs and John Landsverk, “Parenting Styles and Substance Abuse During Childhood and Adolescence,” Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 50, May 1988, p. 479, Table 4. The study considered various factors, including race, social class, gender, etc., and father presence was five times more important than any other factor.

Source: The teenage pregnancy statistic is from, among others, Frank F Furstenberg, Jr. and Kathleen Mullan Harris, “When and Why Fathers Matter: Impact of Father Involvement on the Children of Adolescent Mothers.”

Source: Father presence and education is discussed in Warren Farrell, Father and Child Reunion: How to Bring the Dads We Need to the Children We Love, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2001, pp 31-34. The presence of a father in a child’s life has more impact on a child’s educational achievement, beginning, in early elementary school, than race, social class, gender, etc.

#20: "According to a long-term study conducted in the United States and in New Zealand and published in Child Development, a father’s absence greatly increases the risk of teen pregnancy. The study found that it mattered little whether the child was rich or poor, black or white, born to a teen mother or an adult mother, or raised by parents with functional or dysfunctional marriages. What mattered was dad." Source: "Father's Absence Increases Daughter's Risk of Teen Pregnancy," Health Behavior News Service, May 26, 2003 #21: "When Arizona State University psychology professor William Fabricius conducted a study of college students who had experienced their parents’ divorces while they were children, he found that over two-thirds believed that 'living equal amounts of time with each parent is the best arrangement for children.' His findings were published in Family Relations in 2003." Source: Fabricius, W. V. (2003). Listening to children of divorce: New findings on living arrangements, college support and relocation that rebut Wallerstein, Lewis and Blakeslee (2000). Family Relations, 52, 385 – 396.

#22: "The new report, What About the Dads? Child Welfare Agencies’ Efforts to Identify, Locate, and Involve Nonresident Fathers, examines the foster care systems of four states. The report contains a shocking finding: when fathers inform child welfare officials that they would like their children to live with them, the agencies seek to place the children with their fathers in only 8% of cases."

Source: What About the Dads? Child Welfare Agencies’ Efforts to Identify, Locate, and Involve Nonresident Fathers, The Urban Institute, April 2006. Under the heading “Father Involvement” the Institute notes that half of the nonresident fathers with whom they had been in contact were interested in having their kids live with them, but that in only “4% of cases the child's case goal was placement with the father.”

#25: "A study by psychologist Joan Kelly, published in the Family and Conciliation Courts Review, found that children of divorce 'express higher levels of satisfaction with joint physical custody than with sole custody arrangements,' and cite the 'benefit of remaining close to both parents” as an important factor.'"

Source: Kelly, J., Current research on children's postdivorce adjustment. Family and Conciliation Courts Review, 31.29-49, 1993

#26: "A Harvard University study of 517 families conducted across a four-and-a-half year period measured depression, deviance, school effort, and school grades in children ranging in age from 10 to 18. The researchers found that the children in joint custody settings fared better on these indices than those in sole custody."

Source: Buchanan, C., Maccoby, and Dornbusch, Adolescents After Divorce, Harvard University Press, 1996.

#27: "According to psychologist Robert Bauserman's meta-analysis of 33 studies of children of divorce, which was published in the American Psychological Association‘s Journal of Family Psychology, children in shared custody settings had fewer behavior and emotional problems, higher self-esteem, better family relations, and better school performance than children in sole custody arrangements."

Source: Bauserman, R., "Child Adjustment in Joint-Custody Versus Sole-Custody Arrangements: A Meta-Analytic Review", Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 16, No. 1, (2002) 91-102.

#28: "Even after controlling for all major socioeconomic factors, including income, teens not living with their fathers were twice as likely to abuse drugs as those living in intact, two-parent married families."

Source: Hoffmann, John P., and Robert A. Johnson. "A National Portrait of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use." Journal of Marriage and the Family 60 (August 1998): 633-645.

#29: "A published Harvard review of four major studies found that, accounting for all major socioeconomic factors, children without a father in the home are twice as likely to drop out of high school or repeat a grade as children who live with their fathers."

Source: Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, Growing Up with a Single Parent (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), p. 41. The four national surveys reviewed were: The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the High School and Beyond Study, and the National Survey of Families and Households.