Is One Parent Just as Good As Two?
 
Is One Parent Just as Good As Two?
Written By Micah Clark   |   09.14.17
Reading Time: 2 minutes
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A recent article in Psychology Today named for a survey of 1,000 women announced, “One Parent Can Do Just as Good a Job as Two, Women Say.”  More than 70 percent of those surveyed believed that a single parent could do just as good a job as two parents.  This included married women and those with and without children. More than 60 percent of the women “agreed that children do best with multiple adults invested and helping, but that two married parents are not necessary.”

The article praised this finding as “women’s liberation from one narrow path” calling it “a good thing.”   But is it really a good thing that a majority of women believe one parent can do just as good a job as two when it is women and children who suffer the most from the decline of marriage in society?

A mountain of research has found that children, and parents, do better in a married relationship. One reason married parenthood is better is due to the stability it provides over other relationships.  For example, couples that marry before having children are far more likely to stay together than other living and parenting arrangements.

Marriage also provides family members economic stability. Single mother families are five times more likely to experience poverty than married parents. Single fathers and cohabiting parents are also more likely to live in poverty.

Women and children in a married home also have better physical security.  They have a lower risk of being exposed to domestic violence. Married women are less likely to experience physical abuse than single or cohabiting women.  Children are at the lowest risk for abuse when living with their married mother and father.  They are at the greatest risk for neglect and abuse when they live with an unmarried mother and her boyfriend.

Marriage is also the best means of attaching a father to his children, which is an important parenting connection.   As the American Academy of Pediatrics explained in a recent report:
“Fathers do not parent like mothers, nor are they a replacement for mothers when they are not at home; they provide a unique, dynamic, and important contribution to their families and children.”

Single parents can, and millions do, a good job of raising children, but as a society we should still promote the ideal with the lowest number of obstacles as the best form for child and family well being.


This article was originally published by AFA of Indiana.

Micah Clark
In 1989 Micah Clark graduated from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Micah interned as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives’ Republican staff and later became an Assistant Campaign Manager for a State Senator. Micah then served as a legislative assistant for Citizens Concerned for the Constitution. He served as the Indiana Family Institute’s Director of Public Policy, and later as its Executive Director, throughout the 1990’s. Micah is the only person to have served with all three of Indiana’s top statewide pro-family organizations. In November 2001, Micah became the Executive...
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