A family can be many different things and come in many different shapes and sizes.
Most have a mum and dad, some have two mums or two dads, some children are raised by their grandparents, or, in some cases, a family might just consist of one adult and a child or children. They are all still families. And children can thrive no matter what their family unit look like – because, really, once they are safe and loved and cared for – very little else matters.
And now some new research confirms just this – children raised in single-mother-by-chioce households exel just as much as their peers, says Mother.ly.
Recently, researchers from the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Belgium released a study that shows children raised by women who choose to be single mothers (women, for example, who became pregnant using a sperm donor), are as well off as kids in opposite-sex, two-parent households.
Yes, really. And now maybe the critics, claiming that two parents, ideally from the opposite sex, are needed to raise stellar kids, can sit back down again.
Here is that they study found:
There were no significant differences in emotional involvement or parental stress between family types. Single-mothers-by-choice showed significantly higher scores on the social support they received, but also on wanting more social support. There were no significant differences in the children's internal and external problem behavior (well-being) between both family types.
In other words: All of the kids are alright.
And look, lots of research talks about why single-parent households aren't ideal for children. But, argues investigator Mathilde Brewaeys, one of the study's researchers, to Science Daily, those findings could be contributed to dynamics, not make-up.
"The assumption that growing up in a family without a father is not good for the child is based mainly on research into children whose parents are divorced and who thus have experienced parental conflict," Brewaeys said. “However, it seems likely that any negative influence on child development depends more on a troubled parent-child relationship and not on the absence of a father."
As we know, more and more women are opting to be a single parent these days, because they know they want kids and they refuse to let other people's stereotypes get in the way – and now, they can rest assured they are doing a great job.
