so parents who are married....constantly argueing, at each others throat night and day, are deeply unhappy, should stay together because the government thinks its for the best. Its the biggest load of codswallop you can ever read. Life over the decades has changed, there are more pressures and opportunities out there now. People do grow apart. Surely it is better for a child to be looked after by two parents seperatly, that are happy, than two parents together that are deeply unhappy ????
The study was carried out by Harry Benson, who is director of the Bristol Community Family Trust, which carries out research into parenting and relationships.
The findings are based on a study of 15,000 mothers who gave birth during 2000-01 - the so-called Millennium Cohort Study. It found that cohabiting couples were twice as likely to experience a family breakdown during the early years of parenthood than married couples of a similar income.
When the sample was expanded to include all unmarried couples — including those cohabiting and "closely involved" — family breakdown is five times more common than among married couples.
Almost 3,000 of the women involved in the study had become lone parents during the first three years of their child's life.
However, analysis of the figures reveals that six per cent of married couples had experienced a family breakdown compared with 32 per cent among all unmarried couples. When the unmarried figures are broken down, they show that 20 per cent of cohabiting couples experienced breakdown while the figure among "closely involved" couples was 74 per cent.
Evidence from the study suggests that the low breakdown rates among married couples can be explained by a range of factors including commitment, fathers playing a greater role in their children's upbringing and better communication.
Haven't read such pseudo scientific twaddle in at least a week.
wouldn't it be better for the kids to have parents who divorced than live with parents who are rather dysfunctional people in a bad marriage ?
What children need is a stable family unit in which to develop and grow. Statistically marriages are less likely to collapse than non-marriage-relationships - simply because non-marriage-relationships include those that are new, short-term or experimental. They are conflating two factors. Bad maths. Bad statistics. Bad conclusions - ie marriage should be supported over and above any other potentially stable relationship between adults.
But a bad relationship between adults is ALWAYS a bad situation within which children may be expected to grow.
