Who'd be a single parent?

The Families Commission produced some research which compared one parent families with three other family types: two parent families, younger couples without children and older couples without children.

The following is a summary of what they discovered about one parent families:
 

› less likely to have felt satisfied with their life as a whole (77.8 percent)
› generally less likely to have felt calm and peaceful (66 percent)
› nearly a third were regular smokers (31.3 percent)
› fewer felt safe walking alone at night in their neighbourhood (55.7 percent)
› relatively high participation in study or training (32.3 percent)
› less than one-quarter hold a post-secondary school qualification (23.1 percent)
› less likely to be satisfied with their knowledge, skills and attitude (79.5 percent)
› significantly less likely to have an annual household income of greater than $70,000 (23.6 percent)
› much less likely to be involved in paid employment (46.7 percent)
› consistently less likely to be satisfied with their standard of living (64.3 percent)
› among the least likely to do voluntary work for a group or organisation (22.7 percent)

Today, thirty percent of all families with children are single parent families. This high proportion is the product of forty years of state subsidisation.

Any young person looking at the four groups, asked to choose which they would like to belong to 'when they grow up', is going to avoid the one-parent group.

It isn't 'compassionate' to continue encouraging the single parent lifestyle. It isn't kind to the mothers or their children. Any reasonable efforts to reverse the trend should be supported without question.