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CHILDREN OF TWO PARENT FAMILIES HAVE AN EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGE, SAYS STUDY

17th May, 2013

Children of two parent families have an educational advantage, according to the findings of a global study.

Dr Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and co-author of the inaugural 2013 World Family Map Report, said the study showed that in "the vast majority of the developed world, children are more likely to thrive academically when they have two parents in the home".

This includes Australia, where he said children from two parent homes "are more likely to excel in reading, and to avoid being held back in school, compared to children raised in single parent families".

The data, which Dr Wilcox presented at the World Congress of Families being held in Sydney this week, shows that 80 per cent of children in Australia are growing up in a two-parent family.

"On average, these Australian children are more likely to benefit from the love, attention, and financial resources that a two parent family can deliver," Dr Wilcox noted.

The report also shows that while 11 per cent of Australian children live in relative poverty – defined as living in households where income is less than half of the national median income, a figure which is higher in Canada (13 per cent), the US (23 per cent) and Mexico (22 per cent)

"One explanation for this is that there are higher levels of public benefits to families – such as child care support, tax breaks – than in North American countries," Dr Wilcox said. "In fact 2.8 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Australia is spent on these benefits compared to 1.0 to 1.4 per cent in North America."

The study – which looked at data from 45 countries – shows that although two parent families are becoming less common, they still represent the majority of family types around the world with children most likely to live in two parent families in Asia and the Middle East and less likely in the Americas, Europe, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa.

The World Family Map project is sponsored by Child Trends – an international non-profit research organisation focused on children and youth, along with the Institute Of Marriage And Family Canada, Netherlands Youth Institute, Seoul National University, Universidad De Los Andes (Chile), University Of Asia And The Pacific (Philippines), Universidad De La Sabana (Colombia), and Universidad De Piura (Peru).

~ www.worldfamilymap.org

~ http://wcfsydney2013.org.au

– DAVID ADAMS

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