Kenya N Rahmaan
The ‘studies’ that The Fathers’ Rights Movement claims to prove that single fathers are somehow better than single mother homes do NOT show any such data. These studies, often cited in support of their argument, are typically outdated and fail to consider the changing dynamics of modern families.
A former Pew Research Center and Branch Chief of Quantitative Research for the Women’s Bureau for the U.S. Department of Labor, Gretchen Livingston, published an article in 2013 entitled “The Rise of Single Fathers: Ninefold Increase Since 1960.” The meticulous fact-sharing and researched data show a significant increase in single-father households and characteristics of the rising population.
What is missing is the very data that father’s rights groups often reference when sharing the Pew Research Center’s article to support the inference that single fathers are better parents than single mothers are statistics to prove their claim. Livingston’s thoroughly researched data reveals that long-term time-use data analysis shows that fathers are narrowing the still sizable gap with mothers in the amount of time they spend with their children.
A few more points in the article lend themselves to the claim of better parenting based on gender. Livingston shares that:
Like single mothers, single fathers
- are typically less educated and less well-off than their married counterparts,
- They are also younger and less likely to be white,
- Households headed by single fathers appear to be much better off financially when compared with those headed by single mothers,
- Single-father householders are more likely to be white than single-mother householders,
- Single-father households are less likely to be white than married-father householders,
- Single fathers are much less likely to be black (15%) compared with single mothers (28%),
- Single fathers are likelier to be Black than fathers in married two-parent households (7%), and
- Almost one-fourth (24%) of single-father households lived at or below the poverty level, compared with just 8% of married-father households and 43% of single-mother households.
Lastly, according to Senior Chief Livingston (2013), although Black fathers are the most likely to be heads of single-father households at 29%, this share drops to 20% among Hispanic fathers and 14% among White fathers. The information provided debunks the wildly believed myth that Black fathers are more likely to desert their children and become deadbeat fathers. These are a few statistics relating to single fathers compared to single mothers and married parents. Similar to the other commonly shared sources to support the recently popular push of parental competition, the data used to reach these statistics are outdated.
The Pew article, while highly informative, is over 20 years old. In the now-viral article by Elicia Jane, former sex worker and current therapist, “Single Father Households Do Vastly Better Than Single Mother Households–Here’s the Real Reason Why,” the implication that single fathers do better than single mothers is misleading. In reality, single fathers tend to have higher incomes than single mothers; however, the researchers based this conclusion on comparing both to two-parent households.
According to Jane (2023), studies have found that children from single-mother households are:
- Five times more likely to commit suicide than children from both unbroken households and single-father households,
- Nine times more likely to drop out of high school,
- Ten times more likely to abuse chemical substances,
- 14 times more likely to commit rape,
- 20 times more likely to end up in prison and
- 32 times more likely to run away from home.
The statistics may have been accurate two decades ago, but the family structure has drastically changed since 1960. There is greater extended family involvement, which means single mothers are not alone when raising their children. This extended support network plays a crucial role in the lives and outcomes of single-parent families, challenging the monolithic mantra applied to lone parents.
The debate should not be about which gender is a better parent but which parents provide the safest, most loving, and nurturing environment for children. Parents may comfortably achieve this lifestyle by marrying and raising children within a nuclear family structure. On the other hand, a plethora of unmarried parents who share children have adopted alternate family structures in the best interest of their children. Embracing co-parenting as a healthy and viable option can empower parents to provide the best possible environment for their children.
This approach, as highlighted by Nationwide Children’s Hospital (2023), can lead to greater overall well-being and fewer behavioral problems for children. Nationwide Children’s Hospital (2023), research shows that children in homes with a unified parenting approach have greater overall well-being and fewer behavioral problems. Parents of both genders can have positive and negative effects on their offspring; the behavior towards the children and the results of raising them to adulthood as a solo parent has yet to be determined. What is clear right now is that both parents are essential, and neither is ‘better’ than the other. Stop letting them lie to you.
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
Livingston, G. (2013, July 2). The rise of Single Fathers. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/07/02/the-rise-of-single-fathers/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFnleFleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHbZ5NJx4nq43gikrnw8ztIxxRVBAK-dXIO00bXOSPnX8Y9rug31MDazkHg_aem_2bEZwM288oHNk8GVqf5hpw
Nationwide Children’s Hospital. (2023, April 25). Is your co-parenting relationship healthy?. Nationwide Children’s Hospital. https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/family-resources-education/700childrens/2023/04/healthy-coparenting