SOCIOLOGY Study: Kids' lives are more stable if parents are married

Parents who cohabitated rather than wed were more likely to split up.
TOLEDO BLADE
Marriage is good for kids.
A recent study conducted by Wendy Manning of Bowling Green State University and Pamela Smock of the University of Michigan suggests that children born to married parents are more likely to live in a stable family longer.
The sociologists reported in the current edition of Population Research and Policy Review that children born to cohabiting but unmarried parents are more likely to see their parents split than children born to married couples.
The researchers say that understanding the effects of cohabitation is particularly important as the number of such couples increases.
"More children are likely to be born to cohabiting parents than ever before, so we're trying to understand the implications for them," Manning said.
In the decade between 1984 and 1994, the number of children born in such unions doubled. By the early 1990s, one child in eight was born to a cohabiting, unmarried couple. Forty percent of all children will spend some time with a cohabiting couple.
Data on 6,500 children
Manning and Smock looked at data for 6,500 children born to mothers younger than 30. One thousand of those children were born to cohabiting never-married parents, while 5,500 children were born to couples in first marriages.
By the child's first birthday, 15 percent of the cohabiting parents split and 4 percent of the married couples divorced. By the time the child reached age 5, half of the unmarried parents broke up, while only 15 percent of the married couples separated.
"There is a lot of research that shows that children from stable families fare better than those that experience disruption," Manning said. An unstable family life increases the risk of early adolescent sex, poor school performance and delinquency.
"Instability leads to stress. It isn't good for the child's overall welfare," Smock said.
Caution
But keep the study results in perspective, Smock cautioned.
"I don't want people to make too much of this finding. Most kids are going to come out OK," she said. Rather, the increase in family instability should be viewed as just one of many factors in a child's life.
"Most kids generally do OK, regardless of what kind of family they're from," Manning said.
Instability appears to be greatest for black children born to cohabiting couples. Sixty percent no longer live with both parents by the time they turn 5. Among white and Hispanic children, 40 percent no longer live with both parents by their fifth birthday.
This compares with divorce levels of 14 percent for Hispanic couples, 16 percent for white couples and 25 percent for black couples by the child's fifth birthday.