The Health Of The American Family

This is family policy matter program is produced by the North Carolina family policy Council of profamily research and education organization dedicated to strengthening and preserving the family enough in the studio.

Here's John Rushton, president of the North Carolina family policy Council and thank you for joining us this week for family policy matters. It is our pleasure to have Dr. Patrick Fagan back with us on the program. Dr. Fagan is senior fellow and Dir. of marriage and religion research Institute at the family research Council. He formally served for 13 years as a senior fellow at the Heritage foundation marriage and religion research Institute just released its annual report, the index of family belonging and rejection were to be talking with Dr. Fagan about some of the reports, key findings, including those for North Carolina. Dr. Fagan thanks so much for being with us while we appreciate your Tom tell us if you want a little bit about the annual index of family belonging and rejection report.

What is the purpose of this report and what does it seek to measure the impact of the family make sure we want to have a good read on, but it's a good quote going to get on to take your church take all of the children in the family how to get an intact family. Well, the three-year-olds are still in an intact family, but by the time they reached the end of childhood.

The parents may have divorced happily.

We know that's going to happen to a significant number of three-year-olds.

What we do is we take the measure at age 17, when there just about finished their child thought just about finished their formation in the home and are about ready to step out so we take a read at that stage and that gives the best indication of the future health of the next generation because of the impact of the family tells a lot about the capacity of children love the most disturbing findings are concerning findings from the report is that over half of American teenagers have parents who have rejected each other as the report describes it when he talks about this finding, and what you believe that it means for our current society and in the future generations about what the trigger is 54% of our teenagers, they are no longer in the family home where both her parents are present, raising families, 54% of their parents that want one of the parent walked away from the other either early on, wedlock births, but to lead onto a marriage or cohabitation that later split that's becoming an increasing pattern or the child was born into America family and that one of the parents left or both parents decided to split their the three big ways that parents reject each other and the child. Of course, is left holding the bag and it's a heavy load for a child because were made to be raised by loving parents and we thrive when we are the children who don't get that up even though they may get great love from one of the parents, but don't get great love from both United and all the data points that we could clear capacity to be the full level of they would have been had their parents stay together when we got more than half American 17-year-old in the family that she did a lot by the rejection of the parent that means the majority of her kids are going to be weaker as adult and they would have it, have a parent to assume it means that they are more likely to continue that pattern as they become adults and look at the future of their relationships, whether it be marriage, potentially, cohabitation or something like that trying to be much easier for children who grow up in an intact family to go on and be happily married adult because that's one of the capacity they learn learn how to love. I think love is something you catch more than you make. Like we need to be filled up with the children so they were not mediate making mistakes all over the place of public demand on future spouses or potential spousal that we really should be doing that. Instead, we should be contributing and giving yourself so that, but if we grow up so needy others get fed up with in the South we are able to attend to be a very competitive group of individuals, especially when it comes to sports and those types of things, but this year's report shows that the Northeast has the highest level of what is referred to in the report as family belonging in the South actually has the lowest and this may come as a surprise to many of our listeners. In fact, the report concludes," no state in the South has a majority of teenagers living with both Mary parents and you alluded to this earlier with the percentage that you cited the 54%, but if you would explain this finding for us, and why do we see more intact families in the Northeast. Then, in the South, one of the potential explanations of the culture in the Northeast. The Northeast founded by the Puritans was founded on a family Puritans migrated as families affected happen anywhere else in the nation as much. Mainly they were individuals first men that women came later. That's one of the things that make some sense don't know that that's the only explanatory variable. One of the ministries about the South is that the further south you go by and large, the more church attendance again but normally you expect intact marriage to go with church attendance.

But that's not happening. So there's something strange going on in the worshiping patterns of Christian South not leading that to intact family, which is what you would expect interest so many ministries there absolutely love the report compares family belonging and rejection in specific states and we generally want to talk about North Carolina and how North Carolina ranked in a few minutes. But first, if you would help us understand which states have the highest percentage of intact families in which states have the lowest and what are some of the reasons that you identify for this while a higher Utah voter Nebraska New Jersey x-rays appear to high to mid 50, 57% Utah the weakest woman of the District of Columbia that we could, by far, 17%, only 70% of children 17-year-old. We could stay. This all of the Louisiana and Arkansas are the three week 32, 36, 37 and we can take the role well you got a good 20, 25% difference between France and Mississippi and Utah is a significant difference.

North Carolina is there the southern cluster baby up a bit.42% which means 58% of 17-year-old in North Carolina are in the family were about a dead split only 42% is a married family with all in this report in previous reports to show how family belonging in reduction or family intactness as you put it influences state social policy give us. If you want some examples of this in relation to North Carolina.

The influence that family intactness will belonging and rejection has impacted on social policy in the state. Well, one of the fundamentals that no matter what you do on social policy.

If you want to achieve it.

You need more intact family, but very few states are product of that actually both people are coming in to try and shore up the broken methods are to shore up the applicable) where you got a single mother families which more difficult for such a family to make it a habit of food, shelter, clothing, equivocal compared with supplementary income on what date is growing intact families are actually going to get more brokenness so that policy doesn't work by itself it doesn't work in the education performance of all the big outcomes were interested in education help happiness, employability, productivity, income, saving mental health. They are all dependent on the level of intactness of the family estate committed major study last year where we did all very highly technical regression stuff looking at this heavy impact is just astronomical social sciences. If you get there is a picture called or squared together .3 your your strong and we had a .8 almost unheard of the impact of marriage called social policy is beyond question. For the first time this year. The report examined family belonging and rejection by race. Some of the key findings in terms of race and family well-being that you found while the strongest ethnic group is the American week is the African-American between then you got quite a second strong back is quite weak American Indian and African-American. By and large the Asian Americans about 64% intact. If you go to New Jersey where they are most intact, 78% of Asian Americans in New Jersey and intact family for the African-American national average is 17% in the District of Columbia. There's only 111 17-year-old African-American. An intact family in Milwaukee at the Little in Wisconsin but the black family of Wisconsin's baby is almost all the walking so that's where it's weakest of all of the whole country.

Only 9% in DC 7% stopped. Clearly these numbers and percentages have a deeper meaning, and that being the impact that children growing up in either an intact family oriented family that is broken has on the children and don't on our society as a whole and you talk about this some little bit earlier but just in, taking a step back and looking at this report and the findings of this report.

Generally, what should our listeners be concerned about family intactness and the issues of family belonging and rejection as it relates to the stability and the structure of our society and how that influences our daily lives every way all the bigger the church family itself church education, the economy government. They are all affected by the what we have actually designed is: we decided we fall into it. We have built a culture and a society in America today is March American men and women cannot cooperate on the most important thing they covered bring a new child into existence, the genders, the sexes are at war with each other by large in the United States there failing to cooperate on the most important task they can undertake. This is crisis at the deepest and most profound level it's already we could list economically most people probably don't know this but divorce alone because cohabitation and divorce alone has reduced the growth rate of the American economy. By 16 every year for the last 20 years were slowing down people know that they go were slowing down the don't make the connection to this sort of data are banned are not as productive.

Our boys are becoming less and less productive, fewer and fewer of them are graduated from high school and less about boys are graduated from college compared to girls again is the male-female that things are getting really out of plaque between the sexes and the ones who bear the brunt most of the children. We are nearly out-of-town for this week.

I know that many of our listeners would be very interested in reading more about the index of family belonging and rejection report where can I go to get a copy of that report and to learn more about it. Go to Mary's website to remember Barry MA, double RI.Y marriage and religion research is very.US) homepage.

Okay let me repeat that MAR RI .us Mary .us and also there are tremendous resources at the family research Council and FRC's website is FRC.org again that's FRC.org Dr. Pat Fagan is always a pleasure to have you with us on family policy matters. We thank you so much for your time the great work that you're doing in the great work of family research Council is doing for concerned citizens in our country.

Thank you so much for being with us today. Always good to be with North Carolina's family policy matters. Information and analysis feature of the North Carolina family policy Council join us weekly discussion on policy issues affecting the family.

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