More than one in four fathers in the United States who have children 18 or younger now lives apart from their children, according to Pew.
A movement is growing toward shared parenting or at least collegial “co-parenting” that recognizes the importance of having two parents in children's lives. And in states like Virginia and Kentucky, legislation was recently passed to encourage joint custody.
At the same time, federal health officials, educators, doctors, social workers and researchers are developing programs to help children deal with the absence or departure of a parent and the other traumatic events known as "adverse childhood experiences" (ACEs). By improving children’s coping skills, they hope to improve their mental and physical health, and increase life expectancy.
“Not having that father is much more traumatic than people have appreciated in the past," says Jonetta Rose Barras, author of "Whatever Happened to Daddy's Little Girl: The Impact of Fatherlessness on African-American Women." “Family is a messy institution, but it's the only institution we have that even when it's done in a flawed way, really prepares a child for functioning and thriving in the world.”
Having a parent leave the home permanently can cause trauma in a child’s life, just like having an incarcerated or physically abusive parent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which developed the method of tracking adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs.
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