Jack Brewer,
August 25, 2022
Fatherlessness In Texas
Fatherhood is foundational to strong families, and strong families are essential to a strong nation. An absent father affects all aspects of a child’s life, from socio-cognitive and socio-emotional development to academic performance and criminality. Unfortunately, the effects of fatherlessness are visible in the state of Texas.
Fatherlessness in the united States
- Approximately 18.4 million children in the United States live without a biological father, stepfather, or adoptive father present in the home.
- 23% of children in the United States are raised by a single parent. This is more than three times the world average (7%) of children raised by a single parent, and the highest rate of any country on Earth.
- Approximately 41% of children are born to unwed mothers. For women under age 30, the unwed birth rate increases to 53%.
- Fathers are absent in approximately 80% of single-parent homes.
- Fatherless children are more likely to suffer from psychosocial development issues, live in poverty, drop out of school, engage in school violence, abuse substances, and enter the juvenile justice system.
FATHERLESSNESS IN TEXAS
- In 2019, nearly 2.5 million children, or 35% of all children in Texas, lived in a single-parent home.
- This number included equates to nearly 1.4 million Hispanic or Latino children (40% of all Hispanic or Latino children in Texas), 490,000 Black children (60% of all Black children in Texas), and 495,000 white children (23% of all white children in Texas).
- In 2020, unmarried women gave birth to 155,363 children, or 42% of all births.
- Nearly 1.4 million children in Texas have one or more emotional, behavioral, or developmental conditions.
- —22,641 children were born to teenage mothers in Texas in 2020, for a rate of 22 teen births per 1,000.
- Approximately 204,000 female-headed households, or 28% of all female-headed households in Texas, receive child support.
JUVENILE CRIME DATA IN TEXAS
- Approximately 494,521 children in Texas have a parent who was incarcerated. This includes 181,292 Hispanic or Latino children and 177,901 white children.
EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES IN TEXAS
- Approximately 434,000 Texas youths ages 16 to 24 are not working or attending school, for 12% of all Texas youth and young adults.
- 25% of Hispanic children, 23% of Black children, and 12% of white children who attend public high school in Texas do not complete their education.