Single parenthood doesn’t equal social breakdown – further evidence
February 3rd, 2010 by Kate Bell Posted in Inequality, attitudes, child poverty, gender, uk poverty
Kate Bell is Director of Policy, Advice and Communications at the single parent charity Gingerbread
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s book ‘The Spirit Level’ set out comprehensively to demonstrate that more equal societies are better for everyone. In their update, which they wrote about in this Saturday’s Guardian, they also knock on the head some all too prevalent myths linking single parenthood with social breakdown.
They state that ‘national standards of child well being seem unaffected by high rates of single parenthood.’ Or put another way, a country with higher rates of children brought up by married parents, won’t necessarily be one with happier children.
This finding shouldn’t come as a bombshell. Last week the Children’s Society published a study of child wellbeing in the UK, showing that levels of family conflict were much more important than family structure in explaining how happy children told researchers they were with their lives – differences in family type explained only two per cent of how happy a child felt with their life.
The OECD, had already come to the same conclusions when they looked at international evidence on the impact of growing up with a single parent on how children get on. The research does show that children in single parent families have worse chances across a range of areas. But its not the fact of growing up with one parent rather than two that explains these – it’s the poverty and family conflict that all too often accompanies single parenthood. And as the OECD put it, “If there is a causal effect on child well-being of being brought up in a single parent family, it is likely to be small.”
Single parents are still an easy target when seeking culprits for social problems. But the research shows that policies targeting single parenthood alone won’t make life better for children. It’s much harder to try and tackle poverty, to provide good quality employment for families, and to ensure that when parents do separate, children don’t get caught in the middle. Gingerbread set out some ideas of how to start in December. We hope that the debate in the run up to the election can focus on the hard questions – and not on the easy stereotypes.
2 Responses to “Single parenthood doesn’t equal social breakdown – further evidence”
By ron on Apr 25, 2010
so.. you and the authors claim that rates single-parenthood has no significant correlation on rates of inequality?
Oh, I see, it’s not the single parenthood, it’s the “it’s the poverty and family conflict that all too often accompanies single parenthood.”
But it couldn’t possibly have any correlation with their findings..
bloody brilliant.
By Joan (single parents) Minch on Jun 8, 2010
I agree to what’s been said that children raised by single parents don’t really affect social breakdown. It is when the children see that their mom and dad do not go well with each other (quarrel often, do not go well with each other) even if they live together. Single parenthood does not measure or is not mainly the cause of their unhappiness in the society. It’s what they see and feel around when inside the family.