A friend recently drew my attention to an article that both confirmed some things I already suspected, and astounded me with information I’d never have guessed.

My friend is like myself, a single dad. Only his son is now grown and moved out. My son is grown and beginning to navigate the world of adulthood responsibilities. My daughter is away at school much of the time and splits her free time between our house and her mother’s.

I’ve been a single dad since they were 10 and five years old respectively.

The article is titled ‘Single Father Households Do Vastly Better Than Single Mother — Here’s the Real Reason Why’ by Elicia Jane.

The article was found in a blog titled The Knowledge of Freedom on the social media platform Medium.

The studies on outcomes of children raised in single mother households are well known and horribly depressing. Five times more likely to commit suicide than children raised in intact families. Nine times more likely to drop out of high school. Ten times likelier to have substance abuse problems, 14 times more likely to commit rape, 20 times more likely to go to prison.

In addition 70 percent of teen pregnancies occur in single-mother households and chillingly, 70 percent of child murders.

Worse, and this is what surprised and shocked me, though the data is ambiguous two-thirds of child murders in these circumstances are not committed by stepparents or live-in boyfriends, but by mothers.

This is not to say there are no single mothers doing a heroic job to avoid those outcomes. It’s just that it’s a heck of a lot harder for them and requires the kind of extended family and community support not everyone has.

And in addition to formal studies anecdotal data tends to confirm. Ask any teacher you know about students from single mother versus single father households about who the problem kids are.

So why?

Is it poverty?

Single mothers are more likely to be living below the poverty line and on public assistance.

Would it were that simple, but the answer appears to be no. Affluent single mother households show little to no difference in outcomes than poor households.

In spite of the article’s title, we just don’t know.

We can speculate of course. It seems likely it’s much easier for children of single fathers to find positive female role models. Most teachers are women for example.

And in the dating pool single dads have the advantage. Women are more willing to consider relationships with single fathers than men are with single mothers.

(I wouldn’t know. After initial enthusiasm, “Yippie back to the dating scene!” I realized somebody had to keep life simple and uncomplicated for my kids and I was elected.)

A young lady I’ve known since she was born married a single dad. She gave her stepdaughter a sister – and that stepdaughter loves her more than her own bio mom.

It’s also possible the data is skewed by relative sample size. Only 20 percent of single parent households are headed by fathers. However the correlations are so strong this seems unlikely.

So for what it’s worth here’s my speculation. In the normal course of events in a divorce, the courts award primary custody of children to the mother. A father has to ask for custody, and often to fight for it.

In the case of unmarried single mothers it’s unlikely the father will ask for custody but I’ve known one exception.

Maybe it’s just that, single fathers are self-selected to be motivated parents.

— Steve Browne is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent