Where have all the fathers gone? The National Fatherhood
Initiative (NFI) asked the question: What does prime time network television
say about Fatherhood? America is a country desparately in need
of one thing: Fathers. Tonight nearly 40 percent of America's children
will go to sleep in homes where their biological father does not live --
an estimated 24.7 million children. Children who group up without
a father are at greater risk for a myriad of educational, health, emotional,
and psychological problems. For far too many children, the
fatherhood portrayals they see on television will serve as their primary
means of understanding what a good father is and does.
The worst offenders, NFI claims are CBS's "The Nanny" and ABC's "Brother's Keeper." The most favorable portrayals of (married) fathers can be found on WB's "Seventh Heaven" and CBS's "Promised Land," NFI says.
For More Information: For Fatherhood & TV, write NFI, One Bank Street, Suite 160, Gaithersburg ND 20878, or go on-line at www.fatherhood.org.
Youths Lack Developmental Assets: Few youths are receiving enough of the developmental assets they need to succeed in life, reports the Search Institute. The institute identifies 40 "assets," categorized as either "external" --such as outside support, boundaries, expectations--or "internal" --e.g., commitment to learning, positive identify and social competencies. Of 100,000 surveyed youth in grades six to 12, only 8% had 31 of the 40 assets, and most experience only 18 of the 40, the institute reports.
INFO: Search Institute, 612/376.8955: www.search-institute.org
Survey Finds "Propensity" for Youth Violence: Youth, especially males, exhibit "troubling" attitudes towards guns and violence, concludes the Josephson Institute of Ethics.
INFO: Data are on-line at http://www.charactercounts.org.