Research finds link between father absences and declining male college enrollment

Article here. Excerpt:

'Absent dads may be contributing to the growing male gender gap in higher education, according to research published by a professor at Brigham Young University.

Brian Willoughby, an assistant professor in the School of Family Life, was one of three authors that recently published a study in the journal “Family Relations” looking at whether the declining rate of males enrolling in college has been influenced by nonmarital birth rates and father absences.

What they found was that the gender gap opened up about 18 years after family structure changes in the late 1960s.

“I think we need to continue to talk about fathers and talk about their importance in our culture as we get more and more messages that they don’t matter,” Willoughby said.

Men now make up 43 percent of postsecondary enrollment, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. A co-author noticed that the gender gap was opening up about 18 years after the trend of increasing father absences started, which led the researchers to think it was about more than just an increase in women’s rights.

“The strength of the correlation and the strength of the association surprised us,” Willoughby said. “We went in thinking maybe we’ll find something pretty weak.”'