Nevertheless, as research contained in Growing Up in Canada , a publication of Human Resources Development Canada and Statistics Canada, consistently demonstrates, there is strong evidence that the majority of children in lone-parent families grow up healthy. The reasons why most children in lone-parent families do well have not, however, been examined extensively in the empirical literature. A recent study by David Ross, Paul Roberts and Katherine Scott of the Canadian Council on Social Development examined the factors associated with variations in developmental outcomes for children living in lone-parent families. To accomplish this, the researchers constructed indices to measure vulnerability among lone-parent children aged 2 to 11. These indices were based on measures of health, behaviour, and emotional and academic achievement outcomes.
Large differences are, on average, due to the poor scores of a small subset of lone-parent children.
Comparing children in lone-parent families with high vulnerability scores and those with low vulnerability scores, Ross, Roberts and Scott observed that the variable most strongly associated with vulnerability was parenting style. Children who score higher on the vulnerability index are much more likely to be living in households where the parenting style is ranked the least effective. The authors compared the relative importance of variables measuring family income, parental resources, community resources and family characteristics for the vulnerability index. They observed that the scale measuring ineffective parenting styles was by far the most influential variable with regard to vulnerability for all age groups. The findings of the research lead the authors to suggest that lone-parent families warrant more attention from a policy perspective.