Family Research Council

Index of Belonging and Rejection

By Pat Fagan Senior Policy Analyst

THE US INDEX OF BELONGING AND REJECTION

AMERICA'S FAMILY CULTURE HAS BECOME A CULTURE OF REJECTION:

THE PARENTS OF A MAJORITY OF AMERICAN TEENAGERS HAVE REJECTED EACH OTHER

Patrick Fagan

The Index of Belonging (45%) and Rejection (55%) gives an instant read on the social health of America by measuring the proportion of American children who have grown up in an intact married family [See Appendix 2: Chart 1: Belonging and Rejection Indices for the US].

We have undertaken this study because, bad though it may be, the out-of-wedlock birth rate is not the key measure of family intactness. Rather what gives a much better read of how our American families are faring is what proportion of our children grow up in an intact home. When we take that measure (see Appendix 1 for the method) we find that:

• Only 45% of U.S. teenagers have spent their childhood with an intact family, with both their birth mother and their biological father legally married to one another since before or around the time of the teenagers birth.
• 55% of teenagers live in families where their biological parents have rejected each other. The families with a history of rejection include single-parent families, stepfamilies, and children who no longer live with either birth parent but with adoptive or foster parents.
• The Index uses data from the Census Bureaus American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS gathered complete data about family relationships�"parent's marital history and detailed parent-child relationships�"for the first time in 2008. The large national sample allows for accurate estimates of the health of American families at the county, state and national level.
• This report is the first of a series of annual indicator reports using ACS data to track the health of American families. Future reports will be able to use 3-year combined samples and make estimates for even smaller geographical units.

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