Statistics | Natural Bourne Leaders

Alarming Statistics

The number of teens growing up without fathers in their lives has reached epidemic proportions. High rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births have created a generation of fatherless teens.

According to Florida’s Department of Education ninth-through twelfth-grade, single-year dropout rate has fluctuated slightly over the past five years from a high of 2.0 percent in 2009-10 and 2012-13 to a low of 1.9 percent in 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2013-14.

One in three children are born to unmarried parents.
An estimated 24.7 million children do not live with their biological father.
43% of urban teens live away from their father.
42% of fathers fail to see their children at all after divorce.
Since 1960 the rate of U.S. teens without fathers has quadrupled.
It has been determined that 73% of at risk teens come from broken homes.

1 in 6 black men had been incarcerated as of 2001. If current trends continue, 1 in 3 black males born today will spend time in prison in his lifetime.

The Consequences

A Newsweek article “The trouble with many teens“ states one of the most reliable predictors of whether a teen will succeed in life rests on a single question: does he or she have a mentor in their life to look up to? Too often, the answer is no.” These are the consequences of fatherless homes:

85% of youths in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.
71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
80% of rapists with displaced anger come from fatherless homes.
63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes.
Gang membership increased from 50,000 in 1975 to 1,150,000 in 2008.
90% of homeless children are from fatherless homes.
85% of children with behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes.
90% of adolescent repeat arsonists live with only their mother.

Fatherless teens are 4 times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems.

“When young people are connected to caring adults, communities do well .”

—Mark Edwards, Executive Director, Opportunity Nation

Young People Report Mentoring is linked to Higher Educational Outcomes and Aspirations

A rich body of research supports the concept that quality mentoring is associated with positive outcomes for youth. The benefits of mentoring can be seen across many facets of an individual’s life, including better attendance and attitude toward school, less use of drugs and alcohol, improved social skills and interactions with peers, more trusting relationships and better communication with parents, and an increased chance of continuing on to college.

Based Mentoring, explains, “Virtually every aspect of human development is fundamentally shaped by interpersonal relationships. So it stands to reason that when close and caring relationships are placed at the center of a youth intervention, as is the case in mentoring programs, the conditions for healthy development are ripe.”

A recent and comprehensive meta-analysis of more than 73 independent mentoring program evaluations published between 1999 and 2010 found positive outcomes across social, emotional, behavioral, and academic areas of youths’ development. In comparison to the positive gains of mentored youth, non-mentored youth were actually found to exhibit declines in some outcome areas, suggesting mentoring can function as both intervention and prevention.