The Value of Family Values

Oct 9, 2007

The value of family values

by Nick Staha

To many people, especially the young, talk of "family values" is

reserved for religious fanatics and middle-aged white males who are

unable to cope with a dynamic modern society. But as more and more

American children are being raised by divorced or single parents, the

degradation of family values is a cause for concern, if not already an

outright catastrophe.

Because government welfare policies subsidize families with single

mothers - and thus grant social acceptance of divorce and out-of-

wedlock births - the importance of children being raised by both

biological parents is largely taken for granted. Previous generations

understood that the traditional family model was society's only

possibility for raising well-adjusted, successful children, but that

understanding has become frayed by time. For every hundred children

born from 1950 to 1992 (the last year the Federal government compiled

the data), the percentage of children born into broken families rose

from 12 percent to 58 percent. Between 1950 and 1992 the number of

children living with a divorced single parent increased 354 percent.

Since 1992, about a third of children have been born to single

mothers. Statistics on the financial impact of divorce and single-

parenthood on children are staggering and poignant. According to

University of Michigan Professor Mary Corcoran, families with two

parents have an average income of $43,600, while families with one

parent have an average income of $25,300. Almost half of families with

children find themselves in poverty after a divorce. Children living

with a single mother are six times more likely to live in poverty than

are children whose parents are married.

Of course, divorce has more than an economic impact on children.

According to the Heritage Foundation report "How Broken Families Rob

Children of Their Future Prosperity," children of divorced parents are

more likely to get pregnant and give birth outside of marriage,

especially if their parents' divorce occurred during their teenage

years. Moreover, divorce appears to coincide with reduced educational

accomplishment, weakened psychological and physical health, a

predisposition to rapid initiation of sexual relationships and higher

levels of marital instability for the affected children. Children of

divorced parents, especially boys, are less likely to marry.

As detrimental as divorce can be, its consequences are eclipsed by

those produced by out-of-wedlock births. With rare exceptions, having

a child out-of-wedlock is almost certainly a disaster for both the

mother and child. The Heritage Foundation report concluded that a

single-parent family background and the poverty that usually

accompanies it put affected children at higher risk of dropping out of

high school, unemployment and becoming out-of-wedlock teen parents

themselves.

These children also miss more days of school, have lower educational

aspirations, receive lower grades and eventually divorce more often

than other adults. And in comparison to children from two-parent

families, children born out-of-wedlock are predisposed as adults to

antisocial behavior, anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, dependence

and suicide.

The liberalization of attitudes towards family values has had a

detrimental impact, which is confirmed by statistics. But common sense

tells us there is no better circumstance in which to raise a child

than in a situation where both biological parents take responsibility.

Liberal ideology that suggests we shouldn't "judge" each other's

choices causes us to ignore the fact that our society is mistreating

its children in a way that's unprecedented in American history. The

problem is growing and largely intractable. It took more than 1,000

years to develop a tradition that supports the optimal family

structure that passes from generation to generation. And it has taken

only 50 years to tear it down.

Staha is a law student and former chairman of the Senate of College

Councils.