Risks of Harm from Spanking Confirmed by Analysis of Five Decades of Research

[Humanist_Activist]

49. Not sure how that is even relevant to the thread, many times the status of single parenthood...

isn't a choice by either parent, or is only a choice of one of them.

Other times its done on purpose, though that's more rare. What we could do is increase the social safety net to life single parents out of poverty much more easily, have them rely less on work to get by, so they can concentrate on child development, etc. There's also the sex discrimination in pay, which reduces a woman's ability to pay for her family without taking on multiple jobs, etc.

I'm trying to keep things gender neutral because I acknowledge the reality of LGBT couples having children, and there is no evidence that lack of the biological father negatively affects their children. The outcomes of kids brought up in same sex household where two parents are present is nearly indistinguishable from those brought up in different sex households.

It seems, given this evidence that, while its ideal when a man and a woman has a child they are both involved in that child's life, the most important things are for that child to have caregivers that can become engaged in their lives and financial and emotional stability in the home.

The other problem is that, while the lack of responsible fathers is worrying, its not something that can be legislated outside of forcing them to pay child support. You can't legally force someone to help raise their child when they aren't engaged in their lives at all.