One parent alone does not have the time to do these things, whereas two parents working together often do. Finally, children who live in single-parent families lack the community resources that other children frequently have. They are more likely to live in disadvantaged neighborhoods and to associate with peers who have negative attitudes toward school. They are also more likely to change residences, which disrupts their lives even further, since it usually means going to a new school and losing contact with old friends. Although single motherhood hurts, some things help, relatively speaking.
Children raised by widowed mothers do better than children raised by other single mothers.
Boys born to unmarried mothers do worse than boys whose mothers divorced or separated. For black teenagers, success in school is more likely if their parents stayed together until their children were old enough for school. Black children are also more likely to be successful if they have a stepfather in the house. McLanahan and Sandefur close with a discussion of policies that would increase the chances that all children, whether raised by one parent or two, make a successful transition into adulthood. Some of these policies require government spending, some do not.