Did You Know That… According to the 2008 US Census: 69% of US children live with both parents, 23% live with just their mother, 4% live with just their father and 4% of children live with neither parent. So… out of the total number of children in the US whose parents are divorced, 87% live primarily with their mothers, while only 13% live primarily with their fathers.

And…the hard truth is that fatherless homes produce the vast majority of troubled children. A father's influence, just like a mother's, is essential and irreplaceable.

Here is the chilling truth about our children who come from fatherless homes:

• 70% of juveniles are in State Institutions ¹⁾
• 71% of High School dropouts ²⁾
• 75% of children in chemical abuse centers ³⁾
• 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes ⁴⁾
• 80% of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from broken homes. ⁵⁾
• 85% of youth sitting in prisons grew up in fatherless homes. ⁶⁾
• 85% of children with behavioral problems ⁷⁾

Teenage Pregnancy

• “Daughters of single parents are 53% more likely to marry as teenagers, 164% more likely to have a premarital birth, and 92% more likely to dissolve their own marriages. All these intergenerational consequences of single motherhood increase the likelihood of chronic welfare dependency.” ⁸⁾
• Daughters of single parents are 2.1 times more likely to have children during their teenage years than are daughters from intact families. ⁹⁾
• 71% of teenage pregnancies are to children of single parents. ¹⁰⁾

Child Abuse and Domestic Violence

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that there were more than 1,000,000 documented child abuse cases in 1990. In 1983, it found that 60% of perpetrators were women with sole custody. Shared parenting can significantly reduce the stress associated with sole custody, and reduce the isolation of children in abusive situations by allowing both parents' to monitor the children's health and welfare and to protect them.
• KN2P abhors domestic violence, and believes that children who witness domestic violence in many cases are harmed by the experience. We are eager to become part of the solution of the domestic violence problem.
• In each case, as in many others every year, the alleged or convicted perpetrator had been the boyfriend of the child's mother — men thrust into father-like roles which they tragically failed to embrace. ¹¹⁾ 

• “This is the dark underbelly of cohabitation,” said Brad Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociologist. “Cohabitation has become quite common, and most people think, 'What's the harm?' The harm is we're increasing a pattern of relationships that's not good for children.'' ¹²⁾
• Children living in households with unrelated adults are nearly 50 times as likely to die of inflicted injuries as children living with two biological parents, according to a study of Missouri data published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2005. ¹³⁾
• Children living in stepfamilies or with single parents are at higher risk of physical or sexual assault than children living with two biological or adoptive parents.
 ¹⁴⁾

Poverty

• “The National Fatherhood Institute reports that 18 million children live in single-parent homes. Nearly 75% of American children living in single-parent families will experience poverty before they turn 11. Only 20% in two-parent families will experience poverty.” ¹⁵⁾
• “The feminization of poverty is linked to the feminization of custody, as well as linked to lower earnings for women. Greater opportunity for education and jobs through shared parenting can help break the cycle.” ¹⁶⁾

Kidnapping

• Family abductions were 163,200 compared to non-family abductions of 200-300. The parental abductions were attributed to the parents' disenchantment with the legal system. ¹⁷⁾