The advantage that children get from living in two-parent families may actually be due to family stability more than the fact that their parents are married. A new study finds that children who who are born and grow up in stable single-parent homes generally do as well as those in married households in terms of academic abilities and behavior problems. ‘Many of the studies that show an advantage for children who grow up in married households versus those who grow up with single parents don’t distinguish between family structure and family stability, said Claire Kamp Dush, author of the study and assistant professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University. ‘Our results suggest that the key for many children is growing up in a stable household, where they don’t go through divorce or other changes in the family – whether that is in a single-parent home or a married home. This study examined children who were born to always-single mothers – not those whose mothers were single as a result of a divorce, she said. Kamp Dush said she is not suggesting that there are no advantages for children living in two-parent […]