My Life and My Trauma: Explaining the Outcomes of Children of Single Parents Through Emotional Neglect and Conservative Policies

There is no debate that children growing up in single-parent homes have poorer outcomes than those in two-parent homes. These outcomes include poorer health, more problems sleeping, participation in organized sports, involvement in crime, and educational attainment. There is disagreement about the magnitude of these differences, but there is too much research out there to deny that children in single-parent homes have poorer outcomes than children in two-parent homes.

Conservatives like to point to this link and make a cultural and political argument. The cultural argument is that traditional families fare better in so many ways, and alternative families are simply not as good for raising children. The political argument is that government assistance to single parents should be discouraged because all this does is “prop up” inferior single-parent families and send a signal to future single mothers that they can do it too.

Progressives tend to (unfortunately) ignore the links between kids growing up in single-parent homes and their poor social outcomes as adults. In some cases, there is even a celebration of the resiliency of single mothers. An excellent example of this is an article published in Huffington Post entitled “20 Perks of Being a Single Mom to a Toddler in your 20s and 30s.”