Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion
Top Ten Findings
Why We’re Thankful for Family
November 2006
1. Children raised in intact families have, on average, higher academic achievement, better emotional health, and fewer behavioral problems. Compared with peers in intact families and those in stepfamilies or single-parent families where either the biological father or mother was present, children who lived in households where no biological parent was present fared less well with regard to 24 out of 30 indicators of emotional well-being and behavior. This was true even when demographic factors were held constant. When compared with their peers from families with two biological parents, students who lived with neither biological parent scored lower with regard to academic performance, educational aspiration, a sense of self determination, and self-esteem, and they exhibited more behavioral problems.
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2. Fathers of intact families spend, on average, more time with their children. Fathers in households with both biological parents reported spending more time with their children and enjoying greater family cohesion than fathers of households with adopted children or stepchildren.
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3. Teens who frequently have dinner with their families are at a lower risk for substance abuse. The study found that frequent family dinners were associated with lower rates of teen smoking, drinking, and drug use. Compared with teens who frequently had dinner with their families, (five nights or more per week), those who had dinner with their families only two nights per week or less were twice as likely to be involved in substance abuse. They were 2.5 times as likely to smoke cigarettes, more than 1.5 times as likely to drink alcohol, and nearly three times as likely to try marijuana.
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4. Adolescents from intact families are less likely to become sexually active. Among a sample of adolescent virgins, those who reported living with two married parents were roughly 40 percent less likely to engage in sexual activity before the follow-up interview approximately a year later than adolescents who were not living with two married parents.
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5. Children raised in intact families by happily married parents tend to be more religious in adulthood. Parents’ marital happiness influenced their children’s religiosity in adulthood. Children whose parents were happily married tended to be more religious later in life. This “religiosity inheritance” was even greater among children who were raised in families with two happily married biological parents. Religiosity in this study was determined with regard to six measures: daily influence of religious beliefs; frequency of reading the Bible; frequency of viewing/listening to religious broadcasts; frequency of engaging in prayer; frequency of participation in church-related activities (other than services); and frequency of church attendance.
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6. Children raised in intact families are more likely to have stable and healthy romantic relationships as adults. Compared with peers who were raised in a home with married parents, males whose parents never married were significantly less likely to marry and were more likely to cheat and walk out on their romantic partners. Women with divorced parents had significantly higher rates of cohabitation and marriage but also had higher rates of dysfunction, such as walking out on their partner and divorce. Women whose parents never married were also more likely to cohabit with and walk out on their partners than women from homes with married parents.
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7. Intact families are more likely to provide a safe home for children. Compared to peers in intact families, children in other family structures experienced significantly higher rates of exposure to domestic violence. While 9.9 percent of adolescents not living with both biological parents reported witnessing violence in their homes, only 4.4 percent of those living with both biological parents reported the same. In addition, 6.9 percent of adolescents not living with both biological parents reported that they had been the direct victims of domestic violence, compared to 3.5 percent of those living with both biological parents. Finally, 11.5 percent of adolescents who did not live with both parents reported that they had both witnessed and been the victims of violence in their homes—twice the percentage (5.8 percent) of peers living with both biological parents.
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8. Married mothers tend to create a better home environment for their infants. Married mothers behaved more positively toward their infants and created better home environments than cohabiting or single mothers did in two consecutive assessments.
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9. Married mothers are less likely to experience abuse and violence. Married mothers were less likely to suffer abuse than never-married mothers. In fact, even when the very high rates of abuse of separated and divorced mothers were added into the statistic, the rates of abuse among mothers who had ever been married were still lower than the rates of abuse among women who had never married and those who were cohabiting. Among mothers who were currently married or had ever been married, the rate of abuse was 38.5 per 1,000 mothers. Among mothers who have never been married the rate was 81 per 1,000 mothers.
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10. Married fathers tend to have better psychological wellbeing. Divorced fathers were, on average, more depressed than their married counterparts, whether or not their children resided with them.
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Resources
Events:Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says October 4, 2007 |