The real problem; single parent families and stepfamilies, or stigmatisation of them?

UNICEF published a comprehensive report on children's welfare in developed countries last week. It was widely reported as it contained an explicit ranking of 21 countries that arouses competitive spirit among nations. For some countries who gloriously topped the ranking, it is time to celebrate; congratulations the Netherlands and Sweden. But for countries that are lagging behind, it is time for some homework, discussions and blame-game. The UK narrowly beat the US for the worst place this year; therefore, not surprisingly, the British media is providing a great amount of stories of the plight of British kids and how to improve children's well-being.

However, the Daily Telegraph's article reporting the 'scathing' UNICEF report exploited this opportunity by stigmatising certain families as the source of the problem. I don't know if the report was 'scathing' to the UK, it just complied the set statistics and Britain happened to come last; there is always a country that comes last (Thatcherites might not notice, but competition always creates losers). But the real problem with the article is the second sentence of it; "The nation's high number of single parents and step-families has contributed to the ranking", the Telegraph claims, as if it were the main reason of the country's place in the ranking.

To single them out as a problem is a blatant disregard for their rights and dignity. But is it even true? Even if it were true, is it the focus they should devote half the article on?

I should point out that a part of the responsibility rests with UNICEF that included the 'percentage of children living in single parent families/stepfamilies' as the negative factor. In the page 23 of the report, it notes a legitimate concern that it 'may seem' 'unfair and insensitive'. (Well, it doesn't only seem, it IS.) Then it goes on to claim that 'at the statistical level' 'there is evidence to associate growing up in single-parent families and stepfamilies with greater risk to well-being'; obviously, correlation doesn't imply causation! It provides no evidence that proves the causation. It included the single-parents/stepfamilies data only because of that weak allegation of correlation. (It admits that the correlation was mainly researched in the UK and the US, not in other 20 or more OECD countries). Furthermore, even if they had shown the causation, there are already separate categories for problems that they claim are related to single parents/stepfamilies, such as 'a greater risk of dropping out of school', or 'poor health'. It doesn't make sense to include factors that are correlated to negative factors, not only negative factors themselves, unless they don't consider single parents/stepfamilies in themselves as evil.

Despite its so many grave flaws, the Telegraph chose to highlight the weak 'statistical evidence' part in the beginning of the article, instead of so many other valid points in the UNICEF report. And though Britain's relatively high percentage of single parents/stepfamilies indeed has 'contributed' to its bottom ranking as they are listed as criteria, its impact is minimal; even if Britain had none of single parents/stepfamilies in the country whatsoever, Britain would still be the second-worst in the ranking after the US.

It then goes on to claim that 'The nation has far more single-parent families than any other EU nation'. According to the UNICEF, it is simply untrue. Latvia has 18.6% and 17.7% of Estonian kids live with a single parent. The Iron Curtain no longer exists; the Baltic states are also a part of Europe! And indeed the UK had the highest percentage of single-parent families in the EU countries that are included in the ranking, it was far from 'far more'; the UK has 16.9%, while Sweden has 16.8%! How can a 0.1% difference (the smallest difference possible in the data) be described 'far more'? Then, according to the Telegraph, what is narrow margin? Denmark and Norway has 16.5% and 16.2% respectively; intriguingly and ironically, Sweden and Denmark, the second and third highest in the percentage of single-parent families, came second and third best in the overall ranking!!! If you look outside the Europe, the US has 20.8% of kids living with single parent families, making it nearly 4% higher than the UK figure.

Instead of attaching stigma to single parents and stepfamilies, it is time to learn from the countries in which children are well and happy (not only for the UK, but for New Zealand, and other countries that didn't do well too). The Independent articles reporting the successful examples of the Netherlands and Sweden illustrate that they didn't come to the top of the ranking by blame-game and alienation. In the Netherlands 'from a tender age, their opinions are valued, their wishes respected', and Sweden is the first country in the world to ban violence against children, called corporal punishment, in 1979. 5 out of top 7 countries ban corporal punishment, including all top 4. Only 2 out of the bottom 7 do. Here I'm only showing statistical correlation, not causation; but it is still worth examining, as corporal punishment is in itself evil while single parent families/stepfamilies are not.