The apparent benefits of marriage, in relation to child development, are not all they seem, according to new research.
Marriage is not a magic solution to successfully raising children, rather it is the background characteristics of the parents that matter, the research, published today, has found. The results suggest that when faced with similarly adverse conditions growing up, children from one-parent families and cohabiting families fare similarly in most regards to children from families of married parents.
Complex web
Academics at the University of Limerick have pointed to a more complex web of socioeconomic factors influencing child development, insisting the idea that marriage will solve all problems is to miss the point.
Growing Up in a One-Parent Family, a study funded by the Family Support Agency, concluded that "the apparent benefits of marriage, in relation to child development, are not related to marriage per se but to the background characteristics of the parents".
The research is based on data taken from the broader State-funded Growing Up In Ireland study offering statistical insight into children's lives.
Lead researcher Dr Carmel Hannan said it was important to challenge the assumption that marriage is a solution to everything. Those who marry are often from a more “privileged” background and with a higher level of education.
“Marriage is not a golden bullet; it’s not going to solve all the problems,” said Dr Hannan.
The study acknowledges: “The majority of mothers who give birth outside of marriage come from impoverished backgrounds and, therefore, the adverse consequences of childbearing may be due to pre-existing socioeconomic disadvantages.”
Cohabiting mothers are often younger, less educated and less religious. There is a difference in educational development, the area “most negatively affected” by lone parenthood, where children score significantly lower on maths tests than those from traditional families. The same was true of health and socioeconomic factors, where lone mothers are more likely to have suffered ill health and to have come from less well-off backgrounds.
Social cycle
However, all of these points are, the researchers say, more symptomatic of a social cycle rather than family structure.
“Current policy provides supports for parents based on their family circumstances, rather than on the factors which directly influence child wellbeing,” said Dr Hannan.
“Marriage is not the answer to child disadvantage, rather better educated and better resourced parents make for better educated, healthier and happier children,” she said.
