A growing number of children are living in homes that are not conducive to their overall health and welfare, according to Glenn Stanton, director of global family formation studies at Focus on the Family.
“We find more and more kids being raised in homes that are unfortunately not suited to the well-being of children, but addressing and fitting the whims of adults, like cohabiting homes and single-parent homes,” he told Family News in Focus.
Stanton draws his conclusions from research compiled in a new report, Family Formation Trends and Analysis, that shows while most children are still being raised by their married biological parents, the trend is moving the opposite direction.
Stanton reports that 40 percent of cohabiting-couple homes include children – and the number is steadily increasing. At the same time, family form has replaced parental employment as the primary driver in child poverty.
David Ellwood, author of Poor Support: Poverty in the American Family, wrote in his book:
“The vast majority of children who are raised entirely in a home where parents are married will never be poor during childhood. By contrast, the vast majority of children who spend time in a fatherless home will experience poverty.”
Stanton’s research also shows a steep decline in the fertility rate and homes with children. In 2000, less than one third of households included children. In 2010, it's expected to drop to 28 percent. Stanton explained that this disturbing trend is a result of our culture’s increasing lack of child-centeredness driven by a decline in selflessness, sacrifice and maturity.
“The next generation of humanity and the next generation of Americans comes in children, and we need to be investing in the lives of children. We need more homes that are actively involved and engaged in raising kids to be healthy, happy, productive adults," he said. "Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’re not doing."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visit the Focus on Social Issues: Marriage and Family page.
CitizenLink Managing Editor Stuart Shepard offers his take on the cure for poverty in his Stoplight video commentary.
