New report investigating absent fathers

I've been wondering recently if my childhood was entirely typical. Not that it was idyllic or anything but more that it was fairly balanced and...well...fine really. I don't recall many of my friends at school having divorced parents or absent fathers.

With that in mind, I was genuinely shocked this morning when I read some sections of a new report from the Centre for Social Justice. It's been written to highlight the number of children who have no regular contact with a recognisable father figure and the potential effects of this. I say 'potential' because I've no intention of falling into the trap of assuming that single parent households cannot be terrifically good environments. They clearly can. However, this report does highlight an issue that's on the increase so I thought you might like to take a look at what it's claiming, both for the effects on children and the potential effects on the single mothers who are alone in bringing up children.

The full report is here.