Where Are All the Fathers?

The current crop of presidential candidates, from both major parties, is once again regularly invoking the health and welfare of children as part of their rhetoric. That makes it all the more disappointing that no candidate has come forward to emphasize one of the most important ways we can truly help children: making sure they have a relationship with their fathers.

Social science data is crystal clear: children raised by both a mother and a father have dramatically better prospects. What's more, there's an epidemic of what might be called "father absence" in the very states that are about to hold primary elections.

Let us review some of the facts. Children born to single mothers suffer greater instances of infant mortality, low birth weight, and delayed cognitive development. Compared with those born to two parents, they are at increased risk for abuse, run away from home more often, battle more mental health deficiencies, and are up to five times more likely to commit suicide.

As adolescence sets in, the stakes rise and the ramifications of social dysfunction begin to materialize. Children without a father in their life, regardless of racial and socioeconomic background, are far more likely to engage in criminal activity than their peers in two-parent homes. Children cared for by a single parent are up to 10 times more likely to use drugs and 20 times more likely to spend time in prison than those reared in a traditional family setting.

More than 40 years ago, Daniel Moynihan, the then secretary of labor, lifted the curtain on this developing crisis. At the time, single parent homes were characterized by as many as 25% of children in black ghettos being born out-of-wedlock. By today's standards, those figures would be hailed as heroic progress. According to the National Center for Health Statistics nearly 39% of children were born in 2006 without married parents. Adding historical context, the rate of children born out of wedlock between 1980 and 1994 rose to 33% from 18%, and remained relatively steady at about 32% or 33% until 2000, when the trend resumed its upward trajectory.

In 2006, census records indicated as many as 65% of African-American children born in urban areas began their life in a fatherless home. In Michigan, more than 35% of the women who gave birth in 2005 were unmarried, placing the Midwestern state just below the national average.

Widen the lens a bit, and we see that the rate of unmarried mothers in Michigan has doubled in the last quarter of the century, mirroring the national trend.

In South Carolina, a four-year average spanning between 2000 and 2003 found that more than 37% of children were born out-of-wedlock. That same average, applied to unmarried mothers who fall below the federal poverty level, jumps to nearly 45 %.

In Florida, perhaps the most highly coveted electoral prize of the south, 44.6% of those who gave birth in 2006 were unmarried, up more than 5% since 2002. The percentage of non-white unmarried mothers was 61.2%.

Some of the candidates have highlighted a drop in teen pregnancies during the last decade as a selling point for progress, yet that safe-vessel has clearly sailed. Teen birth rates for children between the ages of 15 and 19 jumped 3% between 2005 and 2006; for non-Hispanic black teens the increase was 5%.

Newly sobering statistics on unmarried mothers were released last month, showing that the number of single mothers reached a record high in 2006, rising nearly 8%. The soaring numbers capped a 20% increase in the number of fatherless children since 2002.

Yet not one of the presidential contenders has pushed the connection between fatherless children and social dysfunction to the forefront, despite the indisputable need for new innovations and for action. The nation must find a way to reduce the number of fatherless children, one of the most threatening trends our generation has failed to even a mention.

A prophetic quote from President Johnson, speaking at Howard University's commencement in 1965 and cited by Kay Hymowitz in her recent tome, "Marriage and Caste in America," summarizes well our present crisis: "When the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged," Johnson told the graduates. "When it happens in on a massive scale, the community itself is crippled."

One need look no further than to the post-Katrina images of New Orleans to see that our cities are indeed becoming crippled and that many families struggle to stay afloat and together.

Repairing the ruptured family structure and reducing the number of fatherless children is our chance to close this chasm, but it cannot happen without leaders willing to do something about the correlation between a father absence's and social dysfunction.

Mr. Cove is the founder of America Works, a private company securing jobs for welfare recipients and ex-offenders.