OJJDP Runaway - Throwaway Youth Jan 18, 2007 Patrick Fagan, Ph.D. Families are the building blocks of our society. The family is God’s greatest natural gift to man. To come from a great family is a treasure, to build a great family is the greatest work in life for most of us to aspire to. As you will see from the following charts chastity (unity) is fundamental to family life and its benefits. A chart is worth a thousand words so we have 45,000 to 50,000 words to get through. Fasten your seat belts. The following charts are derived mainly from U.S. federal surveys and give a snapshot of what is occurring within U.S. families. (British data are used when there are no corresponding U.S. federal survey data.)

In Britain, a Child Whose Biological Mother Cohabits was 33 Times More Likely to Suffer Serious Abuse than a Child with Married Parents Comparative Risk Ratios for Serious Abuse, 1982-1988 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 Biological Parents Married Mother Married to Stepfather Biological Mother Alone Biological Parents Cohabiting Biological Father Alone Biological Mother Cohabiting Again, drawing from British data because there is no similar data from the United States, we get a picture of the different levels of serious child abuse across family structures. The lowest level of serious abuse occurs in the always-intact, married family. In Britain the stepfamily abuse levels are six times higher; the always-single mother family, 14 times higher; cohabiting family 20 times higher, and the single-father family 20 times higher. The most dangerous family structure is when the mother cohabits with a boyfriend who is not the father of the child. This abuse rate is 33 times greater than in the intact, married family. Here the father neither belongs to the child nor the mother. Family Structure Source: Robert Whelan, Broken Homes and Broken Children, 1994.

In Britain, a Child Whose Biological Mother Cohabits was 33 Times More Likely to Suffer Serious Abuse than a Child with Married Parents Comparative Risk Ratios for Serious Abuse, 1982-1988 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 Biological Parents Married Mother Married to Stepfather Biological Mother Alone Biological Parents Cohabiting Biological Father Alone Biological Mother Cohabiting Again, drawing from British data because there is no similar data from the United States, we get a picture of the different levels of serious child abuse across family structures. The lowest level of serious abuse occurs in the always-intact, married family. In Britain the stepfamily abuse levels are six times higher; the always-single mother family, 14 times higher; cohabiting family 20 times higher, and the single-father family 20 times higher. The most dangerous family structure is when the mother cohabits with a boyfriend who is not the father of the child. This abuse rate is 33 times greater than in the intact, married family. Here the father neither belongs to the child nor the mother. Family Structure Source: Robert Whelan, Broken Homes and Broken Children, 1994.

In Britain, a Child Whose Biological Mother Cohabits was 33 Times More Likely to Suffer Serious Abuse than a Child with Married Parents Comparative Risk Ratios for Serious Abuse, 1982-1988 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 Biological Parents Married Mother Married to Stepfather Biological Mother Alone Biological Parents Cohabiting Biological Father Alone Biological Mother Cohabiting Again, drawing from British data because there is no similar data from the United States, we get a picture of the different levels of serious child abuse across family structures. The lowest level of serious abuse occurs in the always-intact, married family. In Britain the stepfamily abuse levels are six times higher; the always-single mother family, 14 times higher; cohabiting family 20 times higher, and the single-father family 20 times higher. The most dangerous family structure is when the mother cohabits with a boyfriend who is not the father of the child. This abuse rate is 33 times greater than in the intact, married family. Here the father neither belongs to the child nor the mother. Family Structure Source: Robert Whelan, Broken Homes and Broken Children, 1994.

This graph tells its own story: Who is least likely to get expelled from school and who is most likely?

Here we see the combined effect of worship and intact family life on drug use among adolescents. The two high worshipping families are those to the right. The low – to – no – worship families are the two to the left. The blue families are the always intact married families and the red are those where the natural parents have split from each other (divorced, always single, step and separated). The low blue bar illustrates the family where there is unity between the parents and unity with God (worship is a poor sociologists way of getting some idea of the level of living life united with God). On every measure I have ever looked at this family does best …on everything. I will illustrate this with some other issues. But it applies to many more than will be illustrated.

School Expulsion Source Add Health Wave II 1996 Children from intact, always unified, families are least likely to be expelled from school, then children of divorced parents, then always single mother families (who have the hardest job supervising their children, particularly once adolescence has arrived).

This chart illustrates the “Rejection Ratio” for the United States since 1950. This measure is calculated by showing how many children are born out-of-wedlock or how many children under age 18 experience the divorce of their parents in a particular year compared to the number of newborns coming into our society that year. This ratio gives us a handle on what proportion of a generation experience serious rejection as they grow up. In 1950, for every 100 children born that year, 12 experienced serious rejection: four by being born out-of-wedlock and eight by experiencing the divorce of their parents. By the year 2000, almost 60 children experienced this form of rejection for every 100 children born that year. America has built a culture of rejection. We illustrates some links to chastity.

The basic tasks of the five institutions are present in all the actors at all stages of life: In the family where (obviously) the children are born and the next generation learns the basics of life from their parents; The child learns to learn and study The child learns the fundamentals about God and the transcendent issues of life The child learns fairness, justice and responsibility for others – basis of citizenship The child learns to work and sees his parents cooperate in work

Here we see the fruit of family life in the adult who is ready to take on the five basic tasks and has acquired the rudimentary strengths (virtues) needed to be a hard-worker with honesty (foundations of marketplace), who is a good citizen (foundation of government … is just and concerned with the common good), continues to study and learn and becomes increasingly engaged in teaching others (example and word to coworkers, family and friends), continues to take seriously the transcendent issues of life (implications of truth, loyalty, love, mercy, fidelity, forgiveness, guilt, creature hood, the divinity) and finally starts the process all over again in dedication to the spouse he will love and the children they will beget and nurture … repeating the cycle all over again. Having the strength (capacity) to do these tasks repeatedly and on demand is another way of describing the virtues. Certain virtues are absolutely critical to the different tasks (institutions): fidelity to family as well as affection, piety or a sense of finiteness to religion, hard work and a search for true reality for learning, justice for all things concerned with government, and hard work and honesty for success in the marketplace. These are first learnt in the home. The institution that does not cultivate its core virtue will collapse (and weaken all the others). Finally the institutions are all co-dependent even as they are totally separate. They are all present in all societies, in communities, in families, and in the individual

This is the total number of children surgically aborted each year This is the total number of children surgically aborted each year. It continues to drop in the United States. The vast majority (81 %) of abortion take place outside of marriage (yellow). 19% are to married mothers (blue).

Illustrating a different aspect of “abortions overwhelmingly take place outside of marriage” phenomenon: 80% take place to women under 25 years of age…. To women who have sexual intercourse outside of marriage.

“Rejection/Ambivalence Ratio” for Every 100 Children Born 70 Children Aborted Children of Divorce 60 Children born out of Wedlock 50 40 30 20 10 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 This chart illustrates a Rejection Ratio that includes abortion, for which reliable numbers became available in the late 1960’s. The black bars indicate the abortion ratio. By the year 2000, we can say that for every 100 children conceived, only about 28 reach age 18 living in an intact family with the mother and father who brought them into existence. America has formed for itself a culture of deep rejection. It has become an extraordinarily dangerous place for children: 72 out of every hundred conceived now experience serious rejection: abortion, out of wedlock birth or the divorce of their parents. Source: National Center for Health Statistics data and Alan Guttmacher Institute data

MENTAL HEALTH VIOLENCE Families are the building blocks of our society. Family is the place where everyone begins life and to which he always always belongs. The more that members of a family belong to each other the more each individual and each family thrives. When rejection occurs in the family, especially between the parents when they separate or divorce, the entire family suffers. The following charts illustrate the dynamics of belonging and rejection in America’s families. These charts are derived mainly from federal surveys and give a snapshot of what is occurring within our families. (British data are used when there are no corresponding U.S. federal survey data.)

This chart on emotional disorders of children comes from nationally representative data of the United Kingdom, as we have no such data for the United States. We can see the same trend here. Children from families where the parents belong to each other have the lowest level of emotional disorders. In ascending order, children of cohabiting parents come next, followed by always-single parent families, and finally the divorced-single-parent family. Normally, children of always-single parents do not experience firsthand the rejection of the absent parent. That event happened early in their life. Children of divorced parents have often lived through the pain of that rejection, and it is reflected in this measurement and in a few other emotionally-sensitive outcomes.

This chart looks at the rates of incarceration for juvenile delinquents by family structure. This particular chart illustrates not just simple correlations but the regression results after controlling for parental income and education. Interestingly, these results highlight stepfamilies’ difficulties in attaining a sense of intactness and belonging. The highest rate of incarceration (of boys in the main part) is in families where the mother comes from outside the original biological family to form the reconstructed stepfamily. The next highest is when the father is brought from outside the original biological family to form the new stepfamily. The next comes in the never married, single-mother family. The lowest rate is in the always-intact, married family. There are dramatic differences among these rates: 1, 2.07, 2.71, and 3.7. Next we will look at the correlations between belongingness and sexual activity.

EDUCATION

Intact Married Parents Grade Point Average Grade Point Average (Out of Maximum of 4.0) 3.1 3.0 2.9 2.8 2.7 2.6 2.5 2.4 Intact Married Parents Cohabiting Parents Step Parents Always Single Parents Divorced Parents This chart looks at the average grade point average for American teenagers by family structure. There is an instructive pattern in these results: the two-parent family structures form the high group and the single-parent family structures form the low group. Furthermore, within both groups one can see the influence of rejection. Children of the family without rejection --- the intact, married family --- have the highest grade point average. Children where parents belong to each other, but are not married (cohabiting parents) have the next highest, while children who have experienced rejection between their biological parents but are now in a reconstituted, two-parent family (the stepfamily) have the lowest of these three. Likewise, in the single parent family group, the children who have personally experienced the rejection of their parents in divorce have the lowest grade point average. Family Structure Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health Wave 1, 1995

SEXUALITY AND MARRIAGE Now we will look at how the handling of oneself sexually has massive impact on family life, on the life of the individual involved and on society at large. From these charts a strong conclusion that man is made to be monogamous can be drawn though it will take a number of charts for this to become obvious. Man is made to be united to just one other. Woman is made to be united to just one other. So the data tell.

On average the earlier the young person begins to engage in sexual intercourse the greater the number of “others” they will have united themselves with sexually in their lifetime. A girl who starts at age 12 will, on average have 21 sexual partners in her life time. The older the person is when first giving their body to someone else the less likely that is and the more likely they are to be monogamous.

Not surprisingly there is a very significant correspondence between age of first voluntary intercourse and the probability of out of wedlock birth. Note that 42% of those beginning in sexual intercourse at age 17-18 will have an out of wedlock birth.

Abortion is very much a product of early teen sexual intercourse … of having intercourse before being ready to take care of a baby.

Going back to those who are monogamous … you can see that the rate of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) is lowest among those who are monogamous and increases steadily as the number of partners increase. Clearly the spouse of the monogamous woman was not himself monogamous.

Even having one non-marital sexual partner leads to the probability (30%) of out of wedlock birth that is almost the same as the national average of out of wedlock births (33%).

Here is the impact of monogamy on the stability of marriage. The first bar is the woman who has never had sexual intercourse outside of marriage (0 partners outside of marriage). 80% of such women in the United States have stable marriages … stay united to their husbands. The rest of the chart tells the rest of the story: the more sexual partners the more likely they are to divorce. Even having one partner brings the rate of divorce very close to one in two chances (54 %).

This chart illustrates the significance of teenagers’ judgment that their father is warm, loving and cares for them. The child in an intact, married family is 12 times more likely to experience warmth and love from her father than is a child in the always-single parent family, 7 times more likely than a child of divorced parents, 3 times more likely than a child of cohabiting parents, and 1.5 times more likely than a child in a stepfamily. There are clear implications from this data for levels of virginity in different family structures, as the next chart illustrates.

THE CULTURE The culture is all about how we belong to each other at different levels and in different ways. At the heart of culture is ‘cult’ …the practice of worship of God. All the following data is from the Federal Government’s own survey.

We know of the connection between risks… sexual risks, drug taking risks, smoking and drinking risks. Worship protects adolescents and society from many risks ..In this case we see its impact on drug use. The less that adolescents worship the more likely they are to use drugs.

Worshipping God regularly protects people and society from drunkenness'…not totally but significantly. People who worship are still free to act as they please.

As married parents who worship God weekly know sometimes their children go wild and get drunk…but a lot less than is the case for other the other family groups. Here we see the impact of worship on the family with some history of rejection …it is powerfully good.

Who does best in school ? This is a snap shot of the teenagers of the whole United States. And we are looking at their combined Math and English scores. College professors and employers take note. Where will your best and brightest come from? Where is the strong culture? And it is related to monogamy.

Girls who worship weekly are most likely to remain virgins and chaste Girls who worship weekly are most likely to remain virgins and chaste. The less they worship the more likely they are to seek sexual fulfillment outside of marriage.

Here we see the huge impact of belonging in the family and belonging to God (as measured by rates of worship) on the rates of virginity of U.S. adolescent girls.