Christian Family Services Ministry

4-23-2016 – A Word to the Wise: To get an idea of the magnitude of the effects of single parenthood, consider the following statistics. During the 1980s, the high school dropout rate was approximately 18 percent for all children in the U.S., 13 percent for children in twoparent families, and 26 percent for children in single-mother families. The statistics show that living with a single parent increases the risk of dropping out of school by a factor of two, a nontrivial effect. In general, the effects are more negative for behavior-related outcomes, such as “acting out,” skipping school, or dropping out of high school.