Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jan 2003
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2003 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Associated Press

STUDY SAYS BROKEN HOMES HARM KIDS MORE

LONDON - Children growing up in single-parent families are twice as likely 
as their counterparts to develop serious psychiatric illnesses and 
addictions later in life, according to an important new study.

Researchers have for years debated whether children from broken homes 
bounce back or whether they are more likely than kids whose parents stay 
together to develop serious emotional problems.

Experts say the latest study, published this week in The Lancet medical 
journal, is important mainly because of its unprecedented scale and 
follow-up - it tracked about 1 million children for a decade, into their 
mid-20s.

The question of why and how those children end up with such problems 
remains unanswered. The study suggests that financial hardship may play a 
role, but other experts say the research also supports the view that 
quality of parenting could be a factor.

The study used the Swedish national registries, which cover almost the 
entire population and contain extensive socio-economic and health 
information. Children were considered to be living in a single-parent 
household if they were living with the same single adult in both the 1985 
and 1990 housing census. That could have been the result of divorce, 
separation, death of a parent, out of wedlock birth, guardianship or other 
reasons.

About 60,000 were living with their mother and about 5,500 with their 
father. There were 921,257 living with both parents. The children were aged 
between 6 and 18 at the start of the study, with half already in their teens.

The scientists found that children with single parents were twice as likely 
as the others to develop a psychiatric illness such as severe depression or 
schizophrenia, to kill themselves or attempt suicide, and to develop an 
alcohol-related disease.

Girls were three times more likely to become drug addicts if they lived 
with a sole parent, and boys were four times more likely.

The researchers concluded that financial hardship, which they defined as 
renting rather than owning a home and as being on welfare, made a big 
difference.

However, other experts questioned the financial influence, saying Swedish 
single mothers are not poor when compared with those in other countries, 
and suggested that quality of parenting could also be a factor.

"It makes you think that what you're seeing is just the most dysfunctional 
families having these problems, rather than the low income. The money is 
really an indicator of something else," said Sara McLanahan, a professor of 
sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, who was not involved 
in the study.

"If you really thought that it was the income that makes the difference, 
you would think that Swedish lone mothers would do a lot better than the 
British or those in the U.S., but they look very similar," she said.

Other experts agreed.

In the last 20 to 30 years, poverty has been greatly reduced everywhere in 
Europe, but psychiatric problems in children have not, said Dr. Stephen 
Scott, a child health and behavior researcher at the Institute of 
Psychiatry in London, who also was not involved in the study.

He said that in previous studies, once researchers have adjusted their 
results to eliminate the influence of bad parenting, any increased risk of 
emotional problems shrinks markedly. This, he said, indicates it is not so 
much single parenthood but the quality of parenting that is at issue.

"The kind of people who end up as single parents might not have done well 
by their kids, even if they hadn't ended up alone. They tend to be more 
critical in their relationships, more derogatory toward other people," 
Scott said, adding that it is also harder to be a warm, non-critical parent 
when you're bringing up a child alone.

However, he noted that there are plenty of children from single-parent 
families who don't end up with serious emotional problems.

There may also be a genetic element: More irritable people are more likely 
to become separated, but they are also more likely, whether they are 
separated or not, to have more irritable children, Scott said.

"The whole field is highly debated. This is another piece in that debate 
that makes several important points - firstly that there really is an 
increased risk in young adulthood of pretty bad things. It also indicates 
it's not all about the money, but may be about the people themselves," 
McLanahan said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D