Policy Hub
On 23 March 2009, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a paper (Child well-being and sole parent family structure in the OECD: an analysis) which considers the impact being raised in a single parent family can have on child well-being.
Analysing 122 studies from a cross-section of OECD countries, the paper finds that the average negative effect of sole parenthood on child well-being is small.
The paper also looks at developing more sophisticated techniques of obtaining information on causality, especially those which require fewer strong identifying assumptions – such as differential exposure to divorce laws and parental death.
The overall conclusion is that the available literature, while extensive and growing in sophistication, lacks a clear consensus on the existence of causal effect.
There are sufficient grounds for suggesting that policy makers should be concerned about the implications of family structure on child well-being. The paper suggests that policy makers should also keep a close eye on social trends in terms of changes in family structure as well as on the developing research literature assessing the impact of family structure on child well being.
Child well-being and sole parent family structure in the OECD: an analysis (PDF)