Changing Family Structure Puts Children at Risk

CitizenLink 11/20

Changing Family Structure Puts Children at Risk by Devon Williams, associate editor

Research stresses importance of children being raised by their married biological parents.

A growing number of children are living in homes that are not conducive to their overall health and welfare, according to Glenn Stanton, director of global family formation studies at Focus on the Family.

“We find more and more kids being raised in homes that are unfortunately not suited to the well-being of children, but addressing and fitting the whims of adults, like cohabiting homes and single-parent homes,” he told Family News in Focus.

Stanton draws his conclusions from research compiled in a new report, Family Formation Trends and Analysis, that shows while most children are still being raised by their married biological parents, the trend is moving the opposite direction.

Stanton reports that 40 percent of cohabiting-couple homes include children – and the number is steadily increasing. At the same time, family form has replaced parental employment as the primary driver in child poverty.