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'A Childhood for Every Child'
| Article
# : |
19558 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1991 |
3,541 Words |
| Author
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Lynn Musgrave Criner
Lynn Musgrave Criner is a Life editor at The World & I. |
Wade Horn is an outspoken young policy-maker who is becoming known for his cogent defense of the two-parent family. In this interview, he offers interesting insights into the cultural myths that have brought American families to their present state of instability. Well versed in the statistics that reveal our plight, he explores approaches to the meaning of family that he believes could help Americans have a brighter future.
Horn is commissioner of the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There he awards grants and administers such programs as Head Start, Foster Care and Adoption Assistance, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Runaway and Homeless Youth Shelters, and programs targeting youth at risk for joining street gangs. A psychologist, Horn directed outpatient psychological services at Children's Hospital National Medical Center before coming to HHS. He is married and has two daughters.
THE WORLD & I: Some academics are arguing that America is beginning to shift away from an ethos of expressive individualism toward one of family commitment. Certainly you are being tagged a new breed of government official because you are speaking out about the central importance of families.
Wade Horn: I certainly hope Americans are shifting more toward a family commitment. It wasn't too long ago that our culture was deeply inculcating a false mythology of family relativism--the misguided belief that family structure is irrelevant to good outcomes for children. Actually, family structure is the most important variable related to successful outcomes for children.
W&I: The most important?
Horn: There is lots of data coming out indicating the importance of family structure for children. For example, the connection between crime and single-parent homes is so strong that when one controls for family configuration, the relationship between crime and race, as well as crime and low income, virtually disappears.
We also know that children from single-parent families are more likely to be involved in violence, drug abuse, and youth suicide, and they have more mental and physical illness.
Saying so does not denigrate the efforts of single parents who are trying, sometimes with much success, to
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