UK study: Marriage has little to no influence on child development

April 20, 2010 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

A new study out of the UK has found little to no evidence that the status of being married has a direct impact on a child’s development.

The academic dispute of the influence of marriage on child development turned political when the Conservative Party announced its intention earlier this month to introduce a yearly 150-pound tax break to married couples.

But a new report released on Monday from the Institute for Fiscal Studies will likely undermine the plan put forward by Tory leader David Cameron.

The IFS report takes aim at marriage and how it affects a child’s development and is based on research data collected on nearly 10,000 children. The IFS found that once certain factors such as education, income level and relationship quality were considered, the status of being married had little to no impact on the cognitive, social and emotional development of children.

“Our work shows that even if more couples did decide to get married in response to the small monetary incentive, such a policy would have a limited effect on young children’s development,” the IFS said in its report.

The group elaborated on their findings, saying that children of married couples appeared develop better, but that those who are married typically already had an advantage: they are wealthier, better educated and more loving. These factors contribute to a positive environment which aids a child’s development, not the status of being married itself.

“We have shown that the children of married parents do better than the children of cohabiting parents in a number of dimensions, particularly on measures of social and emotional development at the ages of three and five,” the authors said in their report.

“But we have also shown that parents who are married differ from those who are cohabiting in very substantial ways, particularly relating to their ethnicity, education and socio-economic status, and their history of relationship stability and the quality of their relationship even when the child is at a very young age.”

“Once we take these factors into account, there are no longer any statistically significant differences in these child outcomes between children of married and cohabiting parents.”

Following on the heels of the report, activists further rallied against Cameron’s policy, promoting DontJudgeMyFamily.com. If the policy should go through, the group is urging recipients of the tax break to donate the money to children’s charities.