Less college, less work, more jail for growing young men

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In a new research assignment of the Institute for Family Studies, Brad Wilcox, Wendy Wang, and Alysse ElHage highlight the links between fatherlessness, family structure, and the increasing number of young men who are faltering in life and posing a threat to themselves and their communities.

That new research assignment uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) to examine the association between family structure and three outcomes for young men in the 2000s and 2010s: college graduation, idleness, and involvement in the criminal justice system.

Key findings include:

• Fathers keep their sons on the college track. Young men who grew up with their biological father are more than twice as likely to graduate in their late 20s as men who grew up in families without their biological father.
• Fathers discourage their sons from idleness. Young men who did not grow up with their biological father in an intact family are significantly more likely to be idle in their mid-20s than young men who grew up in an intact family (19% vs. 11%).
• Fathers help keep their sons out of jail. Young men who did not grow up with their biological father are about twice as likely to have served time in prison by their mid-20s as those who grew up with their biological father in the household.

“This IFS letter shows that young men are far more likely to thrive when raised by their own fathers,” said IFS Senior Fellow Brad Wilcox. “By contrast, young men who grew up apart from their fathers are much more likely to fail — at school, at work, and in the criminal justice system.”

walk here to read the full research report.

For more information contact: Michael Tuscany.

• Percentage of young men arrested or imprisoned by father presence
• Percentage of young men who graduated from college between the ages of 28 and 34 by father presence