File Under: Duh

I can't wait to see how much coverage this study, reported in The (UK) Guardian, gets in the American media. Britain's Office of National Statistics has released the results of a huge study that shows:

Children born out of wedlock were not only disadvantaged at birth, he said. "It seems that this will go on throughout the life of those children," he added.

Mr Haskey said the study raised the question of how social policy should be formulated.

He asked: "Should the Government be encouraging marriage, or at least encouraging people to stay together in a stable relationship?" Only 1.7 per cent of single parents had a "high income" compared to 17.4 per cent of co-habiting parents (with a joint income of £31,200 or more) and 33.5 per cent of married parents (also with a joint income of £31,200 or more).

The number of single parents on income support was 69.8 per cent. The number of married parents on income support dropped to just 3.2 per cent.

And while 81.1 per cent of married parents owned their own home, only 12.2 per cent of single parents did so, with 58.4 per cent of them living in council housing.

Remember, now, that these statistics are for England, not America, though I am sure the correlation is pretty close.

"It is clear that children born to single, non-cohabiting parents are the most disadvantaged," the study said....

"The most advantaged children are those born to married parents," it concluded.

"The co-habiting couples are substantially better off than the single parents not living with anyone, but are more disadvantaged than their married counterparts."

The best part are these two statements, taken from the write-up:

Mr Haskey said the study raised the question of how social policy should be formulated....

Ministers have so far been unwilling to act to reverse the decline of the instutition of marriage.

You think that last might have something to do with the problem? Could it be that a waning Church is unwilling to shame away the people it depends on, or is so liberal now that more devout folks just don't bother any more?

Is it possible that previous government policy, which has made it more and more possible for non-married people, usually women, to think they can strike out on their own with little harm to children, even if we've known since the beginning it's a bad idea? Will anyone even pay this study much attention, flying as it does in the face of prior policy and requiring, as it does, a near-total turn-around? Will the American media want to tell American women that they've been wrong all along, and are harming their children's future?

Don't hold your breath.