Myth #2: There are not many custodial fathers
Many people think that the number of custodial fathers is so
small that it is insignificant. In fact, some researchers use
the terms "single-parent families" and "female-headed
families" interchangeably, as if only women head one-
parent fa mi lie^.^ At one time, female-headed families made
up such a large percentage of one-parent families that re-
searchers could safely assume that they were representative
of all single-parent families. Today, however, this may no
longer be the case. According to data from the CPS, in
1989, there were 1.4 million father-only families, com-
pared with 7.4 million mother-only families and 25.5 mil-
lion two-parent fa mi lie^.^ And although father-only fami-
lies do constitute the smallest number of families with
children in the United States, they have been growing at a
faster rate than mother-only families and two-parent fami-
lies. As indicated in Figure 1, between 1959 and 1989, the
number of father-only families increased by almost 300
percent, with most of this increase occurring after 1973.
The number of mother-only families increased by almost
200 percent during this same period, while the number of
two-parent families remained the same.6