Shouting-type parents, arguing with siblings and being bullied at school, were found to have the biggest effect on kid’s happiness and these things can happen in all types of families.
The stigma in society that, single-parent families are not as good as a two-parent families, is what feeds the single-parent negativity, but in reality relationship quality is more important than family composition.
Some two-parent families who are struggling, falsely think their struggling situation is still better than a single-parent family, but findings suggest they should think again! It is a false sense of security, two-parent families thinking they are so much stronger than other family types, simply because two parents live in the house!
Two-parent families were once the norm, but times have changed and it would help our kids immensely if our attitudes changed too. All family types have similar advantages and disadvantages, but for some reason two-parent families seem to automatically receive family awards, but often without real credit.
I have heard mothers suggest that their friend’s children are difficult because it is a one-parent family, but don’t two-parent families have children who need coping strategies, discipline strategies and routines to help children grow to their potential as well????
Jenny Chanfreau, a senior researcher from NatCen, a London-based social research institute, said: ‘The family relationship is more important than the type of family. These findings were drawn from a study of more than 12,000 seven-year-olds and it was found that the quality of the relationship was more important than the composition of the family.
‘Staying together for the children but fighting all the time and shouting at the children, not having fun together, not sitting down to eat dinner is not going to be good for a child’s happiness.
‘We found that the family type had no significant effect on the happiness of the seven-year-olds or the 11 to 15-year-olds.
‘It’s the quality of the relationships in the home that matters – not the family composition.’ Ms Chanfreau said.
‘I think it’s more about the dynamics of what goes on inside the household and whether there’s stability in every day life.
‘If they feel secure in the home it doesn’t mean so much whether there’s one parent or more,’ she said.
Larissa Pople, senior researcher at charity The Children’s Society, agreed that being in a loving home was far more important than the number of parents in it.
She said: ‘Family is massively important to children’s happiness, but it is quality of relationships that are much, much more important than the structure of the family.
Some single parents face challenges, when it comes to finding flexible work and affordable childcare, however, two-parent families face challenges too and it is good for kids to see parents being strong and coping because this helps provide kids with coping skills.
I am urging people to write more positive articles about single parent families because the people who run these type of families are amazing. Some of the resources out there are so shocking, it is humorous!!!!
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