The Children of Intact Families
Adult Happiness? What about the Children?
September 10, 2007
Public discourse today features no shortage of adult voices advocating for the personal happiness of adults. Marriages are viewed as “disposable,” thanks to no-fault divorce laws which make divorce easily attained. Little attention is paid to the well-being of or the perspective of children, whose voices are seldom heard. When the topic is approached, it often portrays “super children” who can withstand family breakup or alternate adult lifestyles without suffering collateral damage. In fact, the opposite is true: children suffer from such disturbances in their young lives.
For so many reasons, marriage between a man and a woman is vitally important to communities. No substitutes can contribute the same pillars of well-being to communities. This is borne out by the academics who study social science, as we read in numerous examples below.
Researchers agreed that, except in cases of high and unremitting parental conflict, children who grew up in households with their married mother and father did better on a wide range of economic, social, educational and emotional measures than the children raised in other kinds of family arrangements. 1
Growing up with both married parents in a low-conflict marriage was so important to child well-being that it is replacing race, class, and neighborhood as the greatest source of d if ference in child outcomes. 2
Adolescents from intact two-parent (mother/father) families were less likely to be suspended or expelled from school, less likely to commit delinquent crimes, less likely to be reported for problem behaviors at school, less likely to receive low grades in two or more subjects and more likely to score well on standard tests of cognitive development. 3
Students who were living with both parents in an intact family had consistently higher reading and math scores than their peers from other living arrangements. Socioeconomic factors reduced, but did not account for this correlation. 4
Adolescents living with their continuously married biological parents had significantly lower behavioral problem scores compared to all other family types, after controlling for maternal and adolescent background characteristics. 5
Children who lived with their biological parents had fewer behavior problems and experienced better general adjustment in school than children who lived with divorced parents or with a mother who had re-married. Children in intact families achieved higher grades and engaged in fewer problem behaviors than peers in single-parent or step-families.6
Marriage strengthened the bonds between fathers and their children. Married men were more involved and had better relationships with their children than unwed or divorced fathers. In part, this was because married fathers shared the same residence with their children. But it was also because the role of husband encourages men to voluntarily take responsibility for their own children. Paternity by itself does not seem to accomplish the same transformation in men's lives. 7
Teens from two-parent homes were sign if icantly more involved in constructive use of time through groups, sports and religious organizations than teens from single-parent homes. 8
Girls who lived with their married biological parents in eighth grade were one-third as likely to have a pre-marital birth by grade 12 as girls living in other family structures. 9
A national study on drug abuse found that adolescents ages 12-17 who lived with their married biological parents were the least likely to use illicit drugs. Adolescents who lived with their father only or with their father and step-mother were the most likely to use marijuana or other illicit drugs. 10
On average, children raised in married-parent families were less vulnerable to serious emotional illness, depression and suicide than children in non-intact families. 11
Married fathers can exercise an abiding, important and positive influence on their children, and are especially likely to do so in a happy marriage. 12
Community leaders, take note.
End Notes
1 Mary Parke, “Are Married Parents Really Better for Children?,” Center for Law and Social Policy, May 2003.
2 Testimony of Barbara Dafoe Whitehead Before The Committee On Health, Education, Labor And Pensions Subcommittee On Children And Families, U.S. Senate, April 28, 2004.
3 Wendy Manning and Kathleen Lamb, “Adolescent Well-Being in Cohabiting, Married, and single-Parent Families,” Journal of Marriage and Family 65(2003): 876-893.
4 Gary Marks, "Family Size, Family Type, and Student Achievement: Cross National Differences and the Role of Socioeconomic and School Factors," Journal of Comparative Family Studies 37 (2006): 1-24.
5 Marcia Carlson, “Family Structure, Father Involvement, and Adolescent Outcomes,” Journal of Marriage and Family 68 (2006): 137-154.
6 Cheryl Buehler and Kay Pasley, “Family Boundary Ambiguity, Marital Status, and Child Adjustment,” Journal of Early Adolescence 20(2000): 281-308.
7 Steven Nock, Marriage in Men's Lives (N.Y: Oxford University Press, 1998); David Popenoe, Lif e Without Father: Compelling New Evidence That Fatherhood and Marriage Are Indispensable for the Good of Children and Society (NY: The Free Press, 1996).
8 Michelle Crozier Kegler, Roy Oman, Sara Vesely, Kenneth McLeroy, Cheryl Aspy, Sharon Rodine and LaDonna Marshall, “Relationships Among Youth Assets and Neighborhood and Community Resources,” Health Education & Behavior 32 (2005): 380-397.
9 Kristin Moore, Jennifer Manlove, Dana Glei and Donna Morrison, “Nonmarital School-Age Motherhood: Family, Individual, and School Characteristics,” Journal of Adolescent Research 13 (October 1998): 433-457.
10 John Hoffmann and Robert Johnson, “A National Portrait of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 60 (August 1998): 633-645.
11 “State of Our Unions: The Social Health of Marriage in America, 2003,” (Piscataway, NJ: The National Marriage Project), 2003, pp. 8, 16, 18.
12 Paul Amato, (1998), “More Than Money? Men's Contributions to Their Children's Lives,” In Alan Booth and A.C. Crouter (Eds.), “Men in Families: When Do They Get Involved? What Difference Does it Make?” (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998). J.Belsky, L.Youngblade, M.Rovine and B.Volling, (1991), “Patterns of Marital Change and Parent-Child Interaction, Journal of Marriage and the Family 53, pp. 487-498.
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