Single mum or single dad? The effects of parent residency arrangements on the development of primary school-aged children

These analyses showed that on the SPPC there were significant differences between the groups in the scholastic domain, the athletic domain and the physical domain. Post-hoc comparisons revealed that boys in the mother-residency group scored significantly higher on these three specific domains. Boys in the mother-residency group scored higher than boys in the father-residency group on the scholastic domain and higher than girls in the mother-residency group in the athletic and physical domains. There were no significant differences in performance between the four residential groups on the social and behavioural domains, in global self-esteem and the discrepancy scores.

On the WRAT-R1, there were significant differences between the groups in reading and spelling. Post-hoc comparisons indicated girls in the mother-residency group were outperforming both girls and boys in the father-residency groups in reading and spelling. Boys in the mother-residency group were also outperforming both girls and boys in the father-residency groups on the spelling sub-scale. There were no significant differences between the groups on the SSSC or the EHRLSI.

These findings confirmed the contention that when considering competence and self-esteem, single-parent children cannot be treated as a homogeneous group. The findings have identified subtle but important differences between the patterns of performance between the four single-parent residency groups. The findings also suggest that it is not necessarily advantageous for single-parent children to be raised by a parent of the same sex.

Implications

There appear to be two major sets of implications flowing from this research: one primarily for researchers and the other primarily for professionals who work with single-parent families. There are also some implications pertinent to both researchers and professionals. For example, for both researchers and professionals, the study highlights the need to develop a more sophisticated way of identifying and talking about single-parent children, because single-parent children cannot be treated as a homogeneous group.

Of particular importance for researchers are the methodological implications. Whereas recent methodological advances in researching this field have seen a distinction between a child experiencing single parenthood as a result of parental death and one experiencing single parenthood as a result of the ending of a marital relationship, the same level of distinction must be exercised when considering parent residency arrangements and their potential impact on the child’s development. To date, the research methodology has generally not taken residency arrangements into account.

Findings from this study suggest that on the whole, most children will make satisfactory adjustments and cope adequately with these changes to family structure and family process resources. Therefore, it would behoove professionals working with children whose parents had separated or divorced to be aware of the more positive rather than negative prognosis for these children that this study and some other Australian studies have identified.

The study has identified that there are different profiles of competence for each residential group. This would suggest that professionals working with single-parent families must consider the different profiles generated by both children and parents and tailor any necessary involvement to accommodate these profiles. There is thus a case for teachers to specifically monitor children from father-residential arrangements in terms of their individual academic achievement as findings from this study indicate that both boys and girls resident with their fathers are not performing as well as their matches from two-parent or mother-resident families.

There are also some implications for public policy and legal decision making. The findings suggest that fathers, as parents with sole residency responsibilities, are just as able as mothers in raising their children to be competent and have a healthy self-esteem. The study has not identified any particular support for the "tender years doctrine" which in the past has favoured the mother as the residential parent and minimised fathers’ opportunities for gaining residency of children.

Residential fathers appear to be capable of providing a supportive and nurturing home environment comparable to that provided by residential mothers. This residential-father family home encourages the development of a range of competencies in the children that are age-appropriate and developmentally normal. It would appear that the guiding judicial principle of "in the best interests of the child" must also accommodate fathers who wish to undertake the responsibility of caring for and raising their children as sole residential parents.

Finally, the predominantly positive single-parent child outcomes identified in the study are consistent with and, substantiate previous Australian research findings in this area. This adds weight to the claim that single-parent children growing up in Australia do have a different experience of single parenthood in comparison to children in other countries. Additionally, the study underscores the importance to both researchers and professionals of collecting contextual and contemporary data about Australian single-parent families and not being solely reliant on outcomes generated from studies overseas.