The vast majority, 93 per cent, of US mothers believe that there is a “father absence” crisis in America, but single mothers are far less likely to have a positive view of a father’s role in the family than married, according to a survey carried out by a leading family research institute.
A study, entitled Mama Says, published by the National Fatherhood Initiative, shows that there is a huge gap between the assessments of fathers by mothers who are married to or live with their children’s dads and those who do not.
According to the survey, the first ever study of mother’s attitudes towards fathers, more than eight in 10 mothers married to or living with the father of their children were satisfied with his performance as a dad, but only two of 10 mothers not living with the father were satisfied.
Furthermore, only one of three moms not living with dad reported a “close and warm” relationship between their child and the father, while nearly nine in 10 married mothers classified the relationship as close and warm. A majority of mothers – 2 out of 3 – agreed that fathers perform best if they are married to the mothers of their children.
“This survey provides additional, powerful evidence that family structure matters. The enormous differences in responses between the moms who are married to or live with dads and those who do not are of a magnitude I have rarely seen in my years of analysing data from social surveys. The mothers from the Mama Says survey have shown us that when fathers, mothers, and their children live together, fatherhood is optimised,” said Dr Norval Glenn, one of the report’s co-authors.
Conducted by the University of Texas Office of Survey Research, the study surveyed 1,533 mothers over the age of 18 with at least one child in the home under the age of 18.
They were asked a series of over 80 questions dealing with a range of topics, such as their general opinions about fatherhood, views on work-family balance, and obstacles to good fathering. The report was co-authored by Dr. Glenn and Dr Barbara Dafoe Whitehead.
The survey revealed nearly identical views on fatherhood by both married and cohabiting mothers. However, other research has shown the relative instability of cohabiting relationships compared to marriages.
Married couples are at least three times more likely than cohabiting couples to be together two years after the birth of a child – further reinforcing the central role marriage plays in helping men be the best fathers they can be for the long term.
The study also showed that a slight majority of mothers, 55 per cent, believed that fathers are replaceable by moms or other men.
More than half of the women agree that fathers are replaceable by mothers, and two out of three agree that fathers are replaceable by other men. However, in a national survey of fathers’ attitudes on fatherhood released by NFI in 2006, similar but slightly lower proportions of fathers agreed with these statements.
The study also found that white mothers reported significantly more satisfaction with fathers than did black mothers.
However, the report says that this difference could be explained by the fact that black mothers are significantly less likely to be married to or live with the fathers of their children.
According to the study, very religious mothers reported significantly more satisfaction with fathers’ performances than all other mothers, even when controlling for the father’s family situation.
