Study: Young men from ‘intact’ families fare better in life
By Kimberly Heatherington, OSV News/Angelus.
Young men from “non-intact” families without a father are more likely to end up in prison or jail than to graduate from college, according to the findings of a new study from the Institute for Family Studies, a Charlottesville, Virginia-based think tank dedicated to researching marriage, family life and the well-being of children.
“The Family-to-Prison-or-College Pipeline: Married Fathers and Young Men’s Transition to Adulthood” — written by Brad Wilcox, Sam Herrin, Jessie Smith and Wendy Wang — also notes that young men from intact families are twice as likely to graduate from college than those from non-intact families.
“Family structure,” the study adds, “is more predictive than race when considering these life outcomes.”
Wilcox is the Future of Freedom fellow at the institute, or IFS, and a professor and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. Herrin is a recent economics graduate from Georgia College & State University; Wang is director of research at IFS; and Smith is an assistant professor of sociology at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.
“We see for young men today a family-to-prison-or-college pipeline that sees greater likelihood of young men from intact families headed towards college graduation,” the authors assert, “and young men from non-intact families headed towards prison or jail.”
Much media attention has recently centered on young men’s “failure to launch” — an inability to leave home and support oneself — a trend examined in books such as “Boys Adrift” by Leonard Sax and “Of Boys and Men” by Richard Reeves. Progressive advocate Melinda Gates — wife of Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates and a champion of women’s issues — has expressed her own concern, pledging $20 million to Reeves’ American Institute for Boys and Men.
“IFS’ latest research shows marriage is absolutely vital in forming boys to become healthy men,” said J.P. De Gance, president and CEO of Communio, a Virginia-based nonprofit ministry that trains and equips churches to renew healthy relationships, marriages and the family. “It also shows what we have always known to be true but have forgotten as a culture — marriage is vital for a healthy society,” he told OSV News.
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