Rejection

Growing up in a stable, two-parent family is the exception, not the rule, for Oklahoma teenagers.

Using 2008 Census data to measure the proportion of children who have grown up in an intact married family, Patrick Fagan finds that the parents of 6 in 10 Oklahoma teenagers have rejected each other.

• Only 40 percent of Oklahoma 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 teenager’s birth.
• 60 percent 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.