A new report on the effects of family structure on children shows that children raised outside marriage still do 
worse on a range of measures than children raised within marriage even after various factors such as poverty are taken into account.
However, it found that the effects of family structure are reduced when factors like poverty or the education level of the parents are taken into account.
The report [1] is called ‘Growing up in a One Parent Family: The relationship between family structure and child outcomes’. It is based on the ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ longitudinal study and has been produced by academics based at the University of Limerick.
It has been funded by the Family Support Agency.
The report says that it is misleading to compare one-parent and two-parent families without controlling for factors like poverty and education.
However it acknowledges that differences still remain even after controlling for these factors.
It looks at almost 7,000 married families and almost 1,000 one-parent families and their nine year old children.
It is not clear from the report at what stage in the children’s lives the parents married, separated or divorced.
International studies have consistently shown that even when factors like poverty are controlled for, the educational and other outcomes for children from one-parent families still tend to be worse than for children from two-parent married families.
This is acknowledged in a UN report (Innocenti Report Card 7) which says: “..at the statistical level there is evidence to associate growing up in single-parent families and stepfamilies with greater risk to well-being – including a greater risk of dropping out of school, of leaving home early, of poorer health, of low skills, and of low pay.
“Furthermore such risks appear to persist even when the substantial effect of increased poverty levels in single-parent and stepfamilies have been taken into account..”