Only 45 percent of American teenagers have spent their childhood with both parents legally married to one another, according to a recent report.

The Family Research Council's "U.S. Index of Belonging and Rejection" also found that 55 percent of U.S. teenagers live in families where their biological parents have rejected each other.  Read the entire report here.

"We have undertaken this study because, bad though it may be, the out-of-wedlock birth rate is not the key measure of family intactness," Patrick Fagan, FRC Marriage and Religion Research Institute director, said in the report.

Dr. Pat Fagan, with the Family Research Council, spoke with CBN News about the impact these numbers could have on the nation, as seen on Newswatch, Dec. 16. Click play to watch.

"Increased rates of divorce and childbearing outside of marriage have turned growing up in a stable, two-parent family into an exception, rather than the rule, for young Americans," he added.

The findings were compiled from 2008 reports from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

Married, two-parent families are still the norm for teenagers in 11 states including Utah, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

FRC found that in most southern states, fewer than 40 percent of teenagers live with both married parents. Mississippi and Louisiana rated fairly low, with only one-third of children entering adulthood from an intact family.