As of March 1998, 9.8 percent of the population were divorced, totaling 19.4 million Americans over the age of eighteen, and increase of 3.6 percent, and nine and one-half million people since 1980.

(Source: U. S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P20-514, Tables 61 and 62, and earlier reports and unpublished data in U. S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1999 [119th edition] Washington, DC, 1999, p. 57.)

"...there is much wisdom that requires no genius. It takes no education and no great intellect to know that it is best for children to be raised in two parent families. Yet, those who dare say this are often accused of trying to impose their values on others. This condemnation does not rest on some great body of counterevidence; it is purely and simply an in-your-face response. It is, in short, intimidation. For brutes, the most effective tactic is to intimidate an opponent into the silence of self-censorship."

(Source: Justice Clarence Thomas, Francis Boyer Lecture, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 13 February 2001 [to be published in The American Enterprise, April/may 2001].)

Perhaps it is unrealistic to look for sexual restraint from children reared in broken homes.  Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who recently completed a national study of adolescent sexual behavior, documented little of such restraint.  Collecting national survey data from almost 4,000 youths aged 12 to 21, the researchers determined that "both parental education and family structure were strongly associated with ever having had sexual intercourse."

Further scrutiny of the data revealed that the link between family structure and sexual experimentation persisted even in statistical models, which took into account such variables as age and race.  In these multi-variable statistical models, "both male and female adolescents from nonintact families were...more likely to have had sexual intercourse" than were peers from intact families.  The researchers calculate that female adolescents from mother-only families were nearly twice as likely to report having had sexual intercourse (Odds Ratio of 1.73; p < 0.01) than peers in intact families.  Furthermore, adolescent daughters living in father-only families were more than three times as likely to report having lost their virginity (Odds Ratio of 3.24; p < 0.05) than peers from intact families.  Among adolescent boys, an increased likelihood of sexual experimentation showed up among those living in mother-only homes (Odds Ratio of 1.29), but it did not reach the threshold of statistical significance.  However, compared to boys living in intact families, boys living with just their father or with neither parent were more than twice as likely to report sexual experience (Odds Ratios of 2.43 and 2.28 respectively; p < 0.05 for both cases).

The authors of the new study note that their findings have "implications for the prevention of STD infection and unintended pregnancy among adolescents."  More to the point, these findings may hold significance as well for such intangibles as character development and personal integrity.

(Source: John S. Santelli, "The Association of Sexual Behaviors With Socioeconomic Status, Family Structure, and Race/Ethnicity Among US Adolescents," American Journal of Public Health 90[2000]: 1582-1587.)