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On 27 January 2010, the Children’s Society published research into what makes young people happy. It finds that children’s well-being is far more strongly influenced by levels of family conflict than by family structure.
Young people who felt that their family got along well together were found to possess much higher average levels of well-being than those who did not, regardless of the precise nature of their particular family structure.
In the first comprehensive, UK-wide investigation of childhood well-being – or happiness – from a young person’s point of view, thousands of school pupils were asked to respond to statements which they scored themselves on a scale ranging from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'. They were also asked questions exploring the impact of family structure on well-being, such as living in a lone or step parent family.
The difference between a young person's family getting along - and not - explained 20% of the variation in overall happiness with life, whereas differences in family structure explained only 2% of the recorded variation.
Understanding children’s wellbeing: a national survey of young people’s wellbeing (PDF)