Being raised by a single parent is detrimental to children outcomes
Children’s Interests are best served when they have the support and guidance from both parents and a continued relationship with both sides of their extended families such as grandparents. An overwhelming amount of scientific evidence suggests that children fare better under ESP under pretty much any metric.
Children who do not maintain a meaningful relationship with both parents are at a higher risk of failure in multiple areas of life, notably crime, poverty, school outcomes, health and wellbeing and drug use.
Youth Crime
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Individuals from father-absent homes are 279% more likely to carry a gun and deal drugs than their peers living in father-present homes (Allen & Lo, 2012)
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A 1% increase in a neighbourhood’s proportion of single-parent families is associated with a 3% increase in adolescent violence (Knoester & Hayne, 2005)
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Children who grow up fatherless are 8x more likely to go to prison (O’Neill, 2002)
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66% of juvenile delinquents experienced fatherlessness (Kofler-Westergren, Klopf, Bernhard, 2010)
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Fatherless kids are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated (Seidel, 2022)
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82% of school shooters grew up in an unstable family environment or without both biological parents together (Langman, 2016)
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85-90% of incarcerated youth and adults come from the single-family homes
Child Poverty
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Fatherless families are four times more likely to raise children in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020)
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Children living in female-headed families with no spouse present had a poverty rate of 47.6%, over 4 times the rate in married-couple families (ASPE Human Services Policy Staff, 2012)
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84% of homeless families are headed by women (Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women, 2013).
School Outcomes
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Students living in paternal-absent homes are twice as likely to repeat a grade in school (Nord & West, 2001)
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Children who grow up fatherless 1/10 as likely to get A's in school (O’Neill, 2002)
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Children who grow up without a father are nine times more likely to drop out of school (Politico Staff, 2008)
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Children with an actively engaged father are 33% less likely to repeat a class and 43% more likely to get A’s in school (Nord & West, 2001)
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71% of high school dropouts are fatherless (Kruk, 2012)
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~90% of runaways and homeless come from single family homes
Children's Health and Wellbeing
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Children from single-parent families are 3x more likely to experience depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disorders (Cuffe, McKeown, Addy, & Garrison, 2005).
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Children who grew up fatherless are 5x more likely to commit suicide (O’Neill, 2002)
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Children who grew up fatherless are 20x more likely to become rapists (O’Neill, 2002)
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Children who grew up fatherless are 32x more likely to become runaways (O’Neill, 2002)
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Children from single-parent families are twice as likely to suffer from mental health and behavioural problems as those living with married parents (Anderson, 2014)
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33% of pregnancies in a fatherless home end in abortion (Beckwith, 2019)
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Girls whose fathers left home before they were five years old were 8x more likely to get pregnant as adolescents (Anderson, 2014)
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Children who lost their father have 14% shorter telomeres, a cellular marker for trauma and life expectancy (Mitchell et al 2016)
Drug Use
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Children who grow up fatherless are 10x more likely to abuse chemical substances (O’Neill, 2002)
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Children who grow up in mother-only households are at a 23% increased risk of smoking marijuana (Hemovich, & Cran, 2009)
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Children who grow up in father-only households are at a 41% increased risk of smoking marijuana (Hemovich, & Cran, 2009)
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Living with one’s father decreases an adolescent’s risk of substance use by 26% (Booth, Scott, & King, 2010)
ESP is good for everyone
Equal Shared Co-Parenting (ESP) not only benefits children, but also parents. This includes custodial parents (typically mothers) who until now have had a higher burden of childcare awarded by the Courts at the expense of their careers and well being.
A 2020 study also found that joint custody, which is closely related to ESP, led to a reduction in domestic violence over sole custody.
The benefits of ESP are also particularly significant for marginalized communities.
Notably, only 35% of Indigenous children under 14 live with two parents, compared to 82% of non-Indigenous children. Many of the negative outcomes on children associated with single parenthood are heightened:
For instance, in single-parent Indigenous households, rates of child depression and behavioral issues are 30–50% higher than in two-parent families. Indigenous youth also exhibit lower high school completion rates—72% versus 93% among non-Indigenous youth.