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Among other charged topics that were brought up on a recent thread (that was finally closed), one referenced single parent households, and how somehow we had "bipartisan" agreement (at least amongst the married males?) that they are "bad for kids" (amongst a number of other similar comments). No real studies were cited because it's such common knowledge that kids from single parent households do worse, period.
Right?
Well, just wanted to throw out there some actual recent studies, since people's preconceived notions haven't shifted much despite quite a bit of new data on the topic. I was actually surprised that smart docs on here didn't seem to consider the lack of controls in the sources they had likely heard about from the past in making the judgement about how kids from different families tend to do. It's human nature to be biased by personal perspective though. There are actually several studies (and books) that have since been published which debunk the prior thoughts on the effect of the single parent household. I can link a few, but the upshot is basically that one has to consider correlation vs causation (remember that stuff?).
The current data actually show that, when controlled for other factors (education, finances, family stability, poverty level) there's not much difference. What matters more is famililal stability, parental education, intentional childbearing, and if mom works or not (working mom = better, regardless of finances) -- all of which can occur in single vs married households. There does appear to be a benefit to "stable adult role models" (more = better), but no correlation how many of those have to be parents (strong social network = as good or better than 2 parents in the home).
One interesting stat I noted was that kids seem to do better living with single mom vs dad+stepmom (I kind of get it, but interesting that it was noted in studies).
Take-home message I'm getting for avoiding family structure pitfalls is: 1. Get an education, 2. Try not to be poor, 3. Better to be single than marry+divorce, 4. Better to have a "working mom" than one who stays at home.
In my circles (family stuff analyzed heavily) this stuff is somewhat common knowledge, but I figured I'd pass the info on for those open to hearing it. Some links are easily digestible and summarize the ideas, a couple are original articles where you can skip to the conclusion.
If you don't buy it, you don't have to. It is what it is.
https://nypost.com/2017/03/14/children-of-single-parents-grow-up-just-as-successful-as-peers/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705095332.htm
https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1329&context=mps
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/living-single/200901/children-single-mothers-how-do-they-really-fare
https://www.hbs.edu/news/articles/Pages/mcginn-working-mom.aspx
Right?
Well, just wanted to throw out there some actual recent studies, since people's preconceived notions haven't shifted much despite quite a bit of new data on the topic. I was actually surprised that smart docs on here didn't seem to consider the lack of controls in the sources they had likely heard about from the past in making the judgement about how kids from different families tend to do. It's human nature to be biased by personal perspective though. There are actually several studies (and books) that have since been published which debunk the prior thoughts on the effect of the single parent household. I can link a few, but the upshot is basically that one has to consider correlation vs causation (remember that stuff?).
The current data actually show that, when controlled for other factors (education, finances, family stability, poverty level) there's not much difference. What matters more is famililal stability, parental education, intentional childbearing, and if mom works or not (working mom = better, regardless of finances) -- all of which can occur in single vs married households. There does appear to be a benefit to "stable adult role models" (more = better), but no correlation how many of those have to be parents (strong social network = as good or better than 2 parents in the home).
One interesting stat I noted was that kids seem to do better living with single mom vs dad+stepmom (I kind of get it, but interesting that it was noted in studies).
Take-home message I'm getting for avoiding family structure pitfalls is: 1. Get an education, 2. Try not to be poor, 3. Better to be single than marry+divorce, 4. Better to have a "working mom" than one who stays at home.
In my circles (family stuff analyzed heavily) this stuff is somewhat common knowledge, but I figured I'd pass the info on for those open to hearing it. Some links are easily digestible and summarize the ideas, a couple are original articles where you can skip to the conclusion.
If you don't buy it, you don't have to. It is what it is.
https://nypost.com/2017/03/14/children-of-single-parents-grow-up-just-as-successful-as-peers/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705095332.htm
https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1329&context=mps
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/living-single/200901/children-single-mothers-how-do-they-really-fare
https://www.hbs.edu/news/articles/Pages/mcginn-working-mom.aspx
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