30 April 2004 - Publication of DWP research report: the British lone parent cohort and their children 1991 to 2001
Research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions examines the circumstances and experiences of lone parents and their children over a ten year period. The research was carried out by the Policy Studies Institute, and followed an initial sample of 940 lone parents between 1991 and 2001 to explore the extent to which different pathways through lone parenthood were associated with different outcomes for the children of lone parent families.
The main findings are as follows:
DWP Research Report 209: The British Lone Parent Cohort and their Children 1991–2001
- Over the ten years of the study, the circumstances of many of the lone parents in the study changed. By 2001 a third were living with a partner, while another 17% had had a new partner since 1991 but were alone again. The majority of younger lone parents had a partner living with them by 2001 but most of the older ones remained alone.
- More than a quarter of the parents had had a new child since 1991, usually accompanied by the presence in the household of a new partner. Not all these partners stayed, and by 2001 just under half of those who had had new children were alone again. Others had seen their children grow up and move out of the family home.
- The proportion of the parents in paid work of 16 hours a week or more rose, from 27% in 1991 to 56% ten years later. Overall, their persistence in work was high – having entered work they usually stayed in their jobs. Others who had entered and then left work again usually left to have new children. In-work benefits and, from 1999, tax credits played an important role in helping lone parents enter work.
- On average, the living standards of the parent rose between 1991 and 2001. Entry to work was the factor most strongly associated with recovery from higher levels of hardship in 1991. Poor welfare and hardship were associated with persisting worklessness.
- Positive child outcomes were strongly associated with their parents forming successful new families with new partners. These results were marginally better than for children whose parents continued without a new partner. But they were significantly better than the outcomes for the children of the minority who had gone on to make new partnerships but then lose them again by 2001.
- Positive child outcomes were also associated with working families – both couples and lone parents who had worked for at least half the study period. Work was particularly associated with better educational and employment outcomes compared with lower levels of achievement among the children of workless households. High levels of hardship were independently associated with even poorer educational achievement among the children of the poorest families.
Notes for editors
- The research was carried out by Alan Marsh and Sandra Vegeris at the Policy Studies Institute on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. A sample of 940 lone parents were first interviewed in 1991 as part of the Survey of Low Income Families (SOLIF), and then followed-up in 1993, 94, 95, 96, 98 and 2001 as part of the DWP Programme of Research into Low Income Families (PRILIF).
- “The British Lone Parent Cohort and their Children 1991–2001” (report series No.209) is published on 30 April 2004. A summary and copy of the report is available on the DWP website: http//www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5.
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