Kids raised by single mothers who choose motherhood thrive, says research

Children in single-mother-by-choice families do just as well as those in two-parent families, says a new study.

There were no significant differences in the children’s well-being and behavior or parental stress between those two family types, reported investigators at the Centre of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria of the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam.

The study looked at 69 single-mothers-by-choice and 59 moms from heterosexual two-parent families with a child between the ages of 18 months and six years.

It found that the single-mothers-by-choice did have a greater social support network of family, friends, neighbors and others. It still takes a village — whether there’s one parent or two.

“Children in both family types are doing well in terms of their well-being,” said researcher Mathilde Brewaeys. “Single-mothers-by-choice and their children benefit from a good social support network, and this should be emphasized in the counselling of women who want to have and raise a child without a partner.”

The new study outcomes, presented on Wednesday in Geneva, refute other research that growing up in a family without a father is not good for kids.

Such studies are “based mainly on research into children whose parents are divorced and who thus have experienced parental conflict,” Brewaeys explained.

“However, it seems likely that any negative influence on child development depends more on a troubled parent-child relationship and not on the absence of a father,” the researcher added.