A new study from the UK’s Department for Education shows that growing up with married parents tends to make children more confident, kind and responsible while showing lower levels of anti-social attitudes and hyperactivity.
The analysis of 3,000 children from the early years to the age of 16, found a “small but significant tendency” towards poorer behaviour management among children from single-parent families and those brought up by unmarried mothers and fathers.
According to the Telegraph, researchers said it suggested married parents were able to provide a more stable domestic environment to nurture children’s social attitudes.
The study – part of the Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education project – also found that “family factors influenced behaviour and dispositions as well as attainment”.
As well as charting exam outcomes, the study was based on a “pupil profile” carried out by teachers when children turned 16.
This covered children’s “self-regulation” (traits such as confidence, taking responsibility and showing leadership) as well as “pro-social behaviour” (the ability to share, apologise, display sympathy and be kind to younger children). The survey also covered “hyperactivity” and “anti-social behaviour”.
It said parents’ socio-economic status had a major bearing on pupils’ behaviour but added: “The marital status of parents in the early years, when children were first recruited to the study, was also a significant predictor of changes in self-regulation and pro-social behaviour during secondary education.
“Single parent status also predicted increases in hyperactivity in adolescence and anti-social behaviour. Students in lone parent families showed small but statistically significant increases in both negative behaviours and decreases in both positive behaviours.”
“In addition, students of parents who were living with their partner but unmarried in the early years were found to show small decreases in self-regulation and pro-social behaviour and an increase in hyperactivity.”
Academics plotted the effect of various characteristics and the effect they had on behaviour.
In terms of “self-regulation”, researchers said that being raised by unskilled parents had the biggest effect (-0.61) compared with those with professional parents.
Boys’ deviation from girls was worth -0.43, the effect of being from a single-parent household was -0.25 and being raised in a large family resulted in deviation of -0.22.
The study also found that pre-school education was correlated with better results in GCSE exams, but that “family influences” and financial income were the “strongest predicators of exam success” at all key stages of children’s education.
Pupils whose parents had university degrees earned 141 total GCSE points more than students whose parents had no qualifications at all – almost three times the effect of pre-school education.
