The Surprising Health Risk For Black Men Raised By Single Parents

Several years ago, in an episode of Iyanla Vanzant’s show, “Fix My Life”, on the OWN network, Iyanla had several men on her show who fathered multiple children by multiple women. Iyanla, one by one, urged the fathers to confront their inner demons and issues.  In other clips of this series, Iyanla also confronted the women who were a part of these multiple-child relationships.  At one point in the show, Iyanla said that there were 50 men, with a total of 87 children by multiple women. With the exception of a few, many of those children have been growing up with a steady father’s presence in their lives. This can lead to many issues for their daughters, not to mention their sons repeating the same cycle of behavior. In fact, during the episode, a majority of the men did not have a long-term healthy relationship with their biological father.  And this not only affects the mental health, but also their physical health. Research from a long-term Howard University Family Study reveals that Black men raised in single-parent households could have higher blood pressure as adults than those who grew up in two-parent homes. The study, which examined data from...