6 March 2025

I have been reading the report ‘Lost Boys’ which has just been produced by the Centre for Social Justice. The headline statistics are concerning – 550,000 young men are not in work, education nor training, 96% of the prison population is male and 2.5 million UK households are without a father figure.

In the report, there is a chapter entitled, ‘Families and Fathers’. It puts down the crisis in masculinity to fatherlessness. British parents are more likely than their European counterparts to have a child outside a union and in almost nine-tenths of these households, the single parent is the mother.

Among older children, increased emotional problems are apparent for both boys and girls who live without their father. However, ‘heightened behavioural issues were observed in boys only’. A boy’s behaviour is adversely affected by fatherlessness regardless of age.

In 2023, one-third of young men aged 20 to 34 years i.e. 2.2 million in total, were living at home with their parent(s) compared to less than a quarter of young women. There are various reasons for this but the truth remains that the independence of young men is reducing.

Without a male role model at home, boys are seeking alternatives. ‘The third most googled person in the world in 2023 was Andrew Tate.’ He is a toxic misogynist. The use of technology to find a role model is not surprising since children nowadays are more likely to have a smartphone than a father.

The Church has much to say about fathers not least the  compelling image of God, the Father. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is the supreme exemplar of what true fatherhood entails with its waiting, embracing, forgiving love. But it is the love of the Bridegroom for his Bride which must inform, strengthen and inspire our marriages.