Our studies show that a mom under the age of 18 usually has a brother who is in our juvenile delinquency system. One out of three of our minor moms' families are connected to our child welfare system. Yet we focus our programs on her. Most minor moms come from households where there has been no adult male in the household for at least two generations. The need for males in families is critical.
Girls learn the difference between affection and sex from their fathers.
A study done in Europe a couple of years ago looked at households where there were no fathers and found that the puberty age of girls actually dropped. In single parent households, puberty starts earlier, at 12 and 13 years old. That is very young and it means that pregnancy happens earlier. Fathers are extremely important, both biologically and psychologically to our girls. We need to move from the idea that government owes you something to the idea that you owe yourself something.