Only 45 percent of American Children Growing Up In Intact Families

December 15, 2010

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Only 45 percent of American children have spent their childhood in an intact family, according to the Index of Belonging and Rejection. Fifty-five percent of American teenagers' parents have rejected each other, either through divorce, separation, or choosing not to marry.
The Index, produced by Pat Fagan, Ph.D. of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, a project of Family Research Council, defines an intact family as a biological mother and father remaining legally married to one another since before or around the time of their child's birth. the rest

"American society is dysfunctional, characterized by a faulty understanding of the male-female relationship," said Dr. Pat Fagan. "Our culture needs a compass correction, learning again how to belong to each other when we have begotten children together. If we fail in this, as a nation we will continue to 'define deviancy down,' in the inimitable phrase of Daniel Patrick Moynihan.