单亲家庭对孩子的影响是长期的
Growing up with only one parent has been found to have a lasting effect on the children of broken homes. A study shows adults born into a single-parent home earn 27 per cent less than those whose parents stayed together. They can expect to take home 273 pounds less a month, while having fewer friends and seeing their families less often. Having grown up without seeing their two parents together, they are nine per cent less likely to be in a romantic relationship themselves and more often divorced. Dr. Sakari Lemola, from the University of Warwick, said: 'These findings suggest that both parents still provide important resources even when children have already grown up and left their parents' home. Dr Lemola said children of divorce, or who never knew a parent, may be more self-sufficient and opt out of a relationship themselves. Or, he added: 'It is possible that some individuals who experienced parental divorce as a child are going to be more afraid of being left by their partner too – or it can also be that they are more afraid of starting a relationship in the first place.' The idea that all family forms are to be equally celebrated flies in the face of the evidence. We need to take into account the long-term consequences of being deprived of a parent of either sex. Neither fathers nor mothers are optional extras. Both are needed because they complement each other and together provide a richness of care that can't be replicated in any other living arrangement. |