ABSTRACT
Fathers play a crucial role in child development. Children develop best when they are provided the opportunity to have warm, intimate, continuous, and enduring relationships with both their fathers and their mothers. Yet if present trends continue, the percentage of American children living apart from their biological fathers will reach 50 percent early in the next century. Think about it. Half of all children without fathers to say good night to them. Many, when asked who their father is, will answer, “I don’t have one.”
