New research suggests that two parents matter more to children now than ever before.
Sociology professor and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Bradford Wilcox, director of research at the Institute for Family Studies, Wendy Wang, and research associate at the institute,Thomas Murray, studied the effect married parents has on children.
They studied the National Longitudinal Studies of Youth and looked at baby boomers and millennials. Boomers and millennials are more likely to graduate from college and reach the middle class or higher if they come from intact married families, meaning both biological parents are married. They found that the benefits of children being raised by married parents is greater for millennials than for boomers, suggesting this trend will continue in younger generations.
“We have a couple of different studies, when you look at the big picture, that are telling us that it’s not just that marriage matters for kids, it’s that marriage matters more than ever for our children,” Wilcox said.
Scott Gardner, a professor in the Home and Family Department at BYU-Idaho, says the research is all about health and academic benefits. He says the benefits also include psychological and emotional benefits like higher self-esteem and less sexual promiscuity.
Wilcox says children who grow up in a non-intact family are more likely to struggle with misbehavior for boys and depression for girls. Some reasons for this could be that fathers today are more engaged with their children than in previous generations. Married parents are also more likely to have stable finances. Intact families are more likely to monitor children’s technology use.
“The more successful parents are at keeping their kids off of video games and social media, the better their kids tend to do when it comes to school and their emotional wellbeing,” Wilcox said.
While these findings might sound discouraging for those in non-intact families, Gardner says single parents should be respected.
“We want to be sensitive to single parents, et cetera,” Gardner said. “Because that’s the situation they have and they do the best with what they have. Just because somebody is in a two married parent family, doesn’t mean things are going to be perfect. Likewise, just because someone is in a single parent family doesn’t mean things are going to be horrible.”
He also encourages those who come from non-intact families to not to be afraid of marriage.
“Are there some people that you know that you really admire their marriage and you want to have a marriage like them?” Gardner said. “Great, spend some time, ask them questions.”
Wilcox’s new book, Get Married, will be released Feb. 13, 2024.