I recently read an article on American Enterprise Institute website aei.org by W. Bradford Wilcox, associate professor in the department of sociology at the University of Virginia. Teenagers with involved fathers are significantly more likely to graduate from college. Specifically, compared to their peers whose fathers are not involved, young adults with involved fathers were at least 98 percent more likely to graduate from college.

Wilcox offered four possible reasons why paternal involvement is linked with a college degree.

• Involved fathers may provide their children with homework help or other knowledge that helps them become academically successful.
• Involved fathers help children stay on the right track and steer away from risky behaviors that could prevent them from completing college.
• Involved fathers also help to create an authoritative family environment conducive to learning.
• Involved fathers may be more likely to support their children financially.

Bradford stated in his conclusion that in today’s global economy, a college diploma has emerged as an increasingly important ticket to achieving the American Dream. Among today’s millennials between ages 25 and 32, every year college graduates earn on average about $17,500 more than their peers with only a high school diploma.[11] A recent Brookings Institution study found that, over a lifetime, a college degree provides an income premium of about $570,000—what this study calls a “tremendous return” on this education investment.[12]

This brief shows that young men and women with involved fathers are significantly more likely to earn a college diploma. Specifically, compared to their peers whose fathers are not involved, young adults with involved fathers were at least 98 percent more likely to graduate from college. Moreover, paternal involvement is especially prevalent among young adults from college–educated homes, and these young adults are also more likely to live in an intact family.[13] This means that young adults from such homes tend to be triply advantaged: they typically enjoy more economic resources, an intact family, and an involved father.

The good news about paternal involvement is that fathers have almost doubled the average amount of time they spend with their children each week, from 4.2 hours in 1995 to 7.3 hours in 2011.[14] The bad news is that partly because fewer adolescents are living in intact, married families, a large minority of the nation’s teens—especially ones from poor and working-class homes—are not experiencing today’s ethic of engaged fatherhood. Thus, if we wish to increase the odds that all young adults have a shot at the higher education of their choice and—by extension—the American Dream, one thing we need to do is figure out how to bridge the fatherhood divide between children from college-educated and less-educated families.

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DFFC Fathers and Parents this is a great event to enjoy together with your children and help promote the prevention of substance abuse.

Something broke inside Kasai Guthrie when his father returned to the Philadelphia area. He was closer, sure – much closer to Kasai's Newark home than when he lived in Florida, where he had moved when Kasai was 4 years old.

For years, Kasai had been told his father couldn't see him often because of that distance. Five states were between Delaware and Florida.

But now there would be just one borderline, only about 35 miles door to door, and Kasai was psyched. He knew how things would go. His father would come to his basketball games at Layton Preparatory School. They would hang around together and spend hours talking about girls, basketball and other stuff fathers and sons discuss.

But it didn't happen. Kasai was not seeing his father any more than when he lived five states away. He was crushed.

The strong, confident Kasai, who aced almost all of his classes, stood as a leader among his peers, and excelled in basketball, started to disappear. A powerful depression descended upon him. He didn't want to get up in the morning. And anger broke out in ways that left his mother stunned.

"He plummeted into someone we didn't know," she said. "Cursing out teachers? What? Bringing home F's? What? What just happened?"

It's what happened next that changed Kasai's world and launched a mission that he hopes could change the world for other kids who grew up without their fathers.

He calls it "We Need Our Fathers" and it has been the focus of presentations, like the one Jan. 17 at P.S. DuPont Middle School in Wilmington. The purpose is to promote strong role models for young males of color.

Kasai Guthrie, now a 17-year-old junior at Glasgow High School, is coming back.

Distant parents

Kasai's father, William Guthrie, knew nothing of this trouble. The former International Boxing Federation light heavyweight world champion (1997) stayed in touch with his son – one of 12 children (four boys, eight girls) he fathered over the years. They spent time together in the summers and had periodic visits. But he had no clue that his son wanted more.

Truth be told, William Guthrie had never known the kind of father Kasai was looking for either. He loved the two men who held the title in his life – his biological father, who was a junkie, and his stepfather, who was a hard worker and reliable, but also a junkie until he beat heroin and became an alcoholic. Both now are dead.

Read full article by Beth Miller, The News Journal