Household Transitions Hold Key to Impact on Children, Study
Shows
The idea of a "nuclear family" has been a cornerstone of
American culture since our beginnings as a nation of family farmers. Since that
time, two parents running a household has been widely viewed as the desired
norm, and any parent forced by circumstance to go it alone is regarded as
working at a disadvantage.
New research
suggests that these beliefs have less factual basis than you might expect.
According to a study by Claire Kamp Dush, an assistant
professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University, the
number of parents in the house matters less to a child's success in school
and/or life than the stability of what parents are around.
A single parent who remarries or moves in
with a partner can provide just as much disruption to a child's life as a
divorce, according to Kamp Dush.
"Based on this study, we can't say for sure that marriage
will be a good thing for the children of single mothers, particularly if that
marriage is unhealthy and does not last," she tells the Atlanta Jounal-Constitution.
One group bucked the overall trends seen in the study. African American children participating in
the study showed a particular advantage with two parents versus just one. African American children from stable married
families scored better on reading and math tests than those from single parent
households.
In all other cases, children of single parents did just as
well academically and behaviorally as children of married parents. Stability seems to be the most important
factor.
"Our results suggest that the key for many children is
growing up in a stable household, where they don't go through divorce or other
changes in the family, whether that is in a single-parent home or a married
home," Kamp Dush says.
Her findings appear in Marriage
and Family: Perspectives and Complexities, a book Kamp Dush
co-edited. In her research, she examined
information gathered from almost 5,000 households across the country over at
intervals over thirty years.
Past studies
have shown that children growing up in married households do have an advantage,
but Kamp Dush believes these studies did not properly draw a distinction
between the structure of a child's family and the stability of the household.
In one aspect of her study, Kamp Dush found that in similar
households distinguished only by the mother's marital status, there was little
difference how the children did in school if their mother stayed single or
married for the duration of the study.
"My message to single moms is to think carefully before they
decide to get married or live with a partner," Kamp Dush says. "Both romantic relationships and parenting
are hard work. Unless you think that you
and your partner can make it for the long haul, I think it would be better for
single moms to avoid moving in with romantic partners. Family transitions are hard for kids."
Source: The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
