A new study
commissioned by former Conservative leader
Iain Duncan Smith has concluded that
marriage is the best environment to raise
children because it offers the greatest
chance of a stable upbringing.
Unmarried parents
are up to five times more likely to experience
family breakdown, according to the survey of
15,000 mothers who gave birth during 2000-01.
It found that
cohabiting couples had at keast twice the odds
of family breakdown during the early years of
parenthood than married couples of a similar
income.
Almost 3,000 of the
women involved in the study had become lone
parents during the first three years of their
child's life.
The study's
findings are likely to pile pressure on David
Cameron to put marriage at the heart of Tory
policies on the family - something he has so far
failed to do.
But do these
findings hold for Britain as a whole? Do you
think marriage is the best way to guarantee a
good upbringing for your child, and if not, why
not?
Would pushing
marriage as the only environment to raise
children in encourage or dissuade people from
voting for the Conservatives?
CHILDREN
AT RISK FROM GOVERNMENT POLICY TO DISREGARD
MARRIAGE, WARNS NEW STUDY
Official policy to
abolish marital status and disregard marriage in
government-sponsored research is incompatible
with the claim that every child matters,
according to new independent research.
The biggest study
of family breakdown yet conducted in the UK has
found “marital status” to be the single most
important factor predicting whether couples with
young children stay together or not.
Even the poorest
married couples are more stable than all but the
richest unmarried couples.
The research sends
a warning to policy-makers whose personal
experience of relatively stable unmarried
couples, cushioned by wealth, is not
representative of the relatively unstable wider
population.
Regardless of
income and social background, unmarried
cohabiting parents are still more than twice as
likely to split up compared to married parents.
Higher income explains only part of the reason
why married parents are more stable.
Overall, young
children are five times as likely to experience
family breakdown if their parents are not
married, according to the study of 15,000
mothers with three year old children.
The warning comes
from a new paper submitted in evidence by family
policy expert Harry Benson to the Social Justice
Policy Group set up by David Cameron, the
Conservative Party Leader, to make
recommendations on tackling poverty and social
disadvantage. The SJPG plans to publish an
interim report on the late autumn and a final
report next summer.
The research
suggests that by tacitly promoting cohabitation
and undermining marriage, policy-makers are
exposing more children to the perils of family
breakdown, reflected in higher levels of crime,
anti-social behaviour, educational failure and
mental and emotional disturbance.
The estimated
annual cost of family breakdown in the UK, which
has one of the highest rates of divorce and
births outside marriage in the Western world, is
as much as £24 billion or around £800 per
taxpayer per year.
The study affirms
how it is the collapse of unmarried families,
and not divorce, that is driving family
breakdown. Three quarters of family breakdown
involved unmarried parents.
But the government
message – that marital status does not matter –
ignores the fact that for the vast majority of
parents being married helps to stabilise their
lives and to bring up their children in a secure
environment.
Policy-makers are
especially criticised for their decision to
“airbrush” marriage out of government-sponsored
family research.
Since 2003, the
term “marital status” has been removed
from government forms, reflecting the
politically correct official view that marriage
is irrelevant to the well-being of children.
Government-sponsored research now misleadingly
refers to “couple parents” or “couple
families”, terms that conceal differences
in outcomes between married and unmarried
couples and their children.
Iain Duncan Smith,
chairman of the Social Justice Policy Group
said: "I am very pleased to receive this
report from Harry Benson. This is a serious
study and will help the policy group establish
the causes of the UK's very high levels of
family breakdown .
“What is
particularly interesting is the way the report
shows that the Government's assumption that
children ' s outcomes are solely dictated by
socioeconomic factors is wrong. The structure
within which they grow up and are nurtured is
vital to their well-being .
“The
Government's corresponding attempt to airbrush
out references to marriage from family research
is a form of censorship ."
The study was
written by Harry Benson, deputy chairman of the
SJPG's family breakdown sub-group, and director
of Bristol Community Family Trust, an
independent charity that runs relationship and
parenting courses and funded the research. Data
analysis was provided by Stephen McKay of
Bristol University .
The new study is
the largest and most up-to-date comparison of
married and unmarried family stability yet
conducted in the UK .
Analysis of newly
released Millennium Cohort Study data on 15,000
mothers who gave birth during 2000/01 found that
cohabiting couples face more than double the
odds of family breakdown in the early years of
parenthood compared to married couples on the
same income. Amongst all unmarried couples,
comprising those who described themselves as
either “cohabiting” or “closely
involved” at the time of birth, family
breakdown is five times more common than amongst
married couples.
Nearly 3,000
mothers, 20 per cent of the entire sample, had
become lone parents during the first three years
of their child's life. However the risk of
breakdown was 6 per cent among married couples
and 32 per cent among unmarried couples,
comprising 20 per cent of those “cohabiting”
and 74 per cent of those “closely involved”.
The study concludes
by highlighting possible explanations for why
married couples are more likely to stay together
than unmarried couples after they have a baby.
Evidence from
outside the UK suggests commitment,
communication skills, father involvement,
specialisation of household roles and social
support all play a part. Some of these factors
may coincide with the decision to marry. Some
may result directly from the experience of being
married.
Government policy
should encourage and reopen investigation into
marriage, an area almost wholly neglected by UK
researchers in recent years and yet rich with
opportunity for policy impact.
Mr Benson concludes “Family
breakdown leads adults and children into poverty
and other social problems. Our study shows that
it is not enough to say that families split up
because of their circumstances. Any government
that wants to reduce poverty and inequality for
both children and adults alike has to address
the issue of marriage and what it is that makes
marriages work better than the alternatives”.
[ver o estudo]
[ver a intervenção no 2nd National Conference on
Relationship Education ]