Are Single Mothers Messing Up Men? Scientifically Based Grounds for Skepticism
The insights of cutting-edge thinkers complicate the story told by an op-ed in the New York Times
New York Times opinion columnist Thomas B. Edsall is worried that there may be a “whole class of men who no longer fit into the social order.” Some boys and men are having a hard time these days. Early in his essay, Edsall makes it clear that single mothers are going to get a lot of the blame:
“Family structure is an important correlate of boys’ behavioral deficit. Boys that are raised outside of a traditional family (with two biological parents present) fare especially poorly.”
About 1,600 words into his 2,500-word essay, Edsall warns us that men who are not highly educated are headed into a “vicious cycle” in which not being married gets implicated at every turn:
“With the onset of lower marriage rates of less-educated males, their children face comparatively low odds of living in economically secure households with two parents present. …male children born into low-income single-parent-headed households — which in the vast majority of cases are female-headed households — appear to fare particularly poorly on numerous social and educational outcomes.”
