According to a 2006 study investigating paternal and youth involvement, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, "[t]he greater the fathers' involvement was, the lower the level of adolescents' behavioral problems, both in terms of aggression and antisocial behavior and negative feelings such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Fathers' involvement was measured by the frequency with which fathers discussed important decisions with and listened to their adolescents, know whom their adolescents are with when not at home, miss events or activities that are important to their adolescents, along with adolescents' reports of closeness to their fathers and whether their fathers spend sufficient time with them and how well their share and communicate with one another."

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  'Honor your father and mother' (this is the first commandment with a promise), 'that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.'  Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."

Teenage Pregnancy: The Fathers 

Despite their intense concern for the teenage mother, social scientists have paid remarkably little attention to the father involved in teenage pregnancy.  As the authors of a new Australian study remark, "Most studies on adolescent pregnancy have focused on the female, with their male partners largely escaping scrutiny."  The Australian scholars question this narrow research focus, however, since "it is the male who may have the decisive role in initiating the sexual encounter."  Consequently, the Australian investigators set out to identify the characteristics of "fathers in the setting of teenage pregnancy."

To better understand fathers in this setting, the Australian scholars collected data from a cross-sectional cohort of 50 male partners of pregnant teenagers and 50 male partners of pregnant women over 20.  Statistical analysis revealed a number of significant differences between these two groups. 

Unsurprisingly, the men involved with pregnant teenagers were not particularly religious.  "Teenage fathers," report the researchers, "were ... significantly less likely [than other fathers] to state that they had a religious belief" (p < 0.0001).  Also unsurprising is the finding that men involved with pregnant teenagers were far less likely than other fathers to be married to the pregnant woman involved (p < 0.0001). 

But perhaps more surprising is the finding that a highly disproportionate number of the men involved with pregnant teenagers experienced the separation or divorce of their parents.  "Our findings indicate that an overwhelming 50% of teenage fathers had experienced parental separation or divorce during their early childhood," write the authors of the new study.  "This is in sharp contrast to just 12% of older fathers" (p < 0.0001).  Childhood experience of parental separation or divorce persists as a statistical predictor of teen-pregnancy fatherhood in statistical models that take into account differences in socioeconomic background. 

The Australian scholars note that earlier research has identified bad childhood family experiences, including parental separation or divorce, as distinctively common among young women who become pregnant as teenagers.  But this new Australian study shows that "the fathers [involved with pregnant teenagers] were just as likely as the mothers to have been raised in a home environment where the childhood relationships with and between the parents were negative or absent, and childhood experiences of violent parental relationship and/or parental separation or divorce were present." 

Americans have reason to fear that the numerous parental divorces of recent decades have helped produce far too many men willing to impregnate unmarried teenage girls.