<img src=”https://thechildsupporthustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/0_cA-VUAD-8vWi9RNc-3<img=”” alt=”” height=”222″> Source: Kelly Sikkema
Kenya N. Rahmaan
A recent article by Elicia Jane was published in The Knowledge of Freedom. The article argues that single-father households do vastly better than single-mother households. The report is a hit among fathers’ rights and shared parenting groups on social media. However, after reading the article, I realized that although there’s no doubt about fathers’ capabilities of providing great homes for children, the claim Jane makes lacks evidence. The first red flag jumps out immediately.
According to Jane (2023), studies have found that children from single-mother households are:
While multiple organizations have reported these statistics when comparing single-mother homes with two-parent homes, there have never been any studies yielding the same results comparing single-mother vs. single-father homes. Lending Tree (2023) provided the most recent and accurate count of father-only households, reporting 1,535,301 or 4.6% in 2020. The Census Bureau reported 6,329,029 or 19.1% of mother-only homes. Still, neither business nor agency provided data or evidence concluding which household provided an advantage or was a disadvantage to their children.
Economics is always at the top of the debate when comparing nuclear families and single-family structures. Undeniably, when two parents work, the household has more income stacked against one income of an individual’s earnings. That example changes, of course, when the single salary reaches five or six figures. Jane explained why the income debate was unfitting when comparing single moms and dads not by statistics but by visiting her children’s expensive private school. Jane said, “I asked the teachers, and they told me that more often than not, the children that caused the most problems and have the most problems tend to come from single-mother households.” Whether children attend private school is not a determination of wealth, nor is it empirical evidence to determine better home advantages for single-parent children.
Jane did note that when asked about single-father children, the teachers responded that there were few and the teachers “did not notice any problems.” In the context of the interview, the interviewer, the delivery, and the interviewee, I would question how the teachers treated the problematic children because they were from only mom homes. Jane continues the useless “study” by sharing that her university friend observed the same with their students and the same melancholy behavior. She writes, “When it comes to the students, the ones he normally has the most trouble with, and the ones most likely to drop out and skip lectures, come from, you guessed it, single-mother households.”
As a student of several colleges, not one professor has ever asked if I came from a two-parent home.
Jane continues with some fluff in the middle, but there is an exceedingly important section I need to highlight. Jane writes,
It’s well documented that women are far more likely, on average to succumb to stress and mental health problems than men are, with women being nearly twice as likely to suffer depression and other stress-related mental health problems than men. Inevitably, this means a single mother is more likely to suffer from mental health problems than a single father.
If a parent suffers mental health problems, it typically causes trouble for the children. Because women are more prone to mental health problems, you guessed it, single-mother households inevitably succumb to these problems more than single-father households. This inevitably again gives single-father households an advantage over single mothers, i.e., they are more likely to be healthy places.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) 2023, it is estimated that more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (57.8 million in 2021). Statistically, women are diagnosed with ‘any mental illness’ or AMI more than men at any age. However, because there has been limited focus on father and their well-being mentally and otherwise, statistics are few. We know that the child support program and family court caused irrefutable damage to fathers nationwide and worldwide.
Mental health issues do not help when dealing with problems arising from these biased systems. The impact of mental illness on men can be catastrophic, with suicide being the biggest killer of men under 45 (The Center For Perinatal Psychology). I’m sharing this information because fathers and mothers are amazing sole parents. Additionally, when articles declare an ‘either-or” scenario, such as father against mother, everyone must analyze the claim. We all want what is best for children; if parents separate, the best parent should raise the children. Child support reform, shared parenting, and fathers’ rights have become cluttered with unresearched information and dangerous rhetoric that is more harmful than helpful.
References
Jane, E. (2024, March 7). Single father households do vastly better than single mother — Here’s the real reason why. Medium. https://medium.com/the-knowledge-of-freedom/single-father-households-do-vastly-better-than-single-mother-heres-the-real-reason-why-8a7fd7c5611d
LendingTree. (2022, June 6). States with the highest share of single dads. https://www.lendingtree.com/debt-consolidation/single-dads-study/
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). (n.d.). Mental illness. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). (n.d.). Suicide. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide
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