In a major study, researchers have found that family structures have a much more significant effect on boys’ early education than school type or even the gender of their teachers. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, showed that indiscipline reduced among boys brought up by two parents and increased sharply among those raised by single-mothers.
“This supports over three decades of consistent research showing that kids who grow up in a home with their married parents tend to do better in all measures of educational attainment than their peers being raised in single, divorced and cohabiting-parent homes,” said Glenn T. Stanton, director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family. “This is true from everything from grade-point average, behavioral issues, high school graduation and going on to graduate from college. Moms and dads both matter here, as well as the type of relationship between them.”
Researchers tested various theories to explain bad behavior and low standards among boys and concluded that “home-based” influences played a much bigger part than biological differences, the style of early education, teacher gender and peer pressure.
“Boys’ likelihood to ‘act out’ is sharply reduced when faced with larger and better parental inputs,” said the study. “As these parental inputs are typically higher and of better quality in intact families, this largely contributes to why boys with single mothers are so much more disruptive and eventually face school suspension.”
Source: Telegraph
