Father absence

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) yesterday published a press release about a forthcoming report about lone parents and family breakdown.

Here are some of the headline claims:

• Lone parent families are increasing at a rate of c. 20,000 year
• c.1 million children are growing up without a father
• In some very poor parts of the UK there are very few male primary school teachers

The press release also states:

• Father absence is linked to higher rates of teenage crime, pregnancy and disadvantage

This is a press release, made slightly before the release of the full report, so one must be cautious in interpreting this.  But it is also worth reflecting on what press releases are for - they are designed to focus attention and support an agenda.

Linking father absence to teenage crime, pregnancy and disadvantage is another way of saying that there are associations, or correlations between these variables.  It is not a claim for causality, and at no point in the press release are causal models addressed.  None the less, the press release exhorts the current government to address the problem of family breakdown and fatherless families.  By implication the authors of this release have interpreted father absence as causal.

There is much evidence for an association between father absence and teenage pregnancy in the literature.  In my field, and in my own work with colleagues, we have demonstrated this.  But we have also shown it is one of many predictors and that the accumulation of these predictors increases the risk of early motherhood.  So, multiple residential moves, father absence, relatively short periods of breastfeeding, low birthweight and socioeconomic position all have an effect on the odds of a girl entering into menarche sooner than the rest of her cohort and also of becoming a teenage mother.  These variables predict an increased likelihood in the desire, at an early age, to become a mother sooner compared to the rest of the cohort.  We interpret these findings as evidence for individual calibration to specific life history circumstances including factors best described as a part of the physical and social ecology.  For an overview see this paper and for previous discussion go to this post.

The only ecological measure mentioned in the press release was poverty. Yet poverty has not be analysed in ecological terms.  If we see poverty as resource stress, which might include problems sourcing energetic and nutritious food, increased competition and a reduction in cooperation between non-relatives then we might further predict changes in the social and reproductive ecology. An uncertain future will lead to faster development, earlier reproduction, and shorter lifespans.  Indeed, the mortality and morbidity differences between areas in the UK were again a news item today.

An interesting way to rethink this situation is to ask yourself the following questions;

• Why do we live as long as we do?
• Why do we reproduce when we do?
• Why would we continue to live so long after we have reproduced?

I suspect that embedded within the CSJ's mission statement is a belief that a long and healthy life is a right. But that is a legal notion, and not one based on biological facts.  Life expectancy, reproductive timing and various other aspects of development are expected to vary with key ecological factors. Organisms, including humans, have been designed by natural selection to track those factors and to calibrate themselves to their ecologies. There are differences in life history both between and within species as a consequence. It is using this perspective that has enabled my community to focus upon the detail of these issues. It is this perspective that suggests policy initiatives should be focused upon ecology and policy makers should talk to biologists, not just social scientists.