from the October 23, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *2   BAD BEHAVIOR IN SCHOOL:  CANADIANS BLAME SINGLE MOTHERS
->    A Canadian study concludes that young children raised by
-> single mothers in Canada demonstrate higher rates of behavior
-> problems and school failure than other students (Lipovenko, THE GLOBE
-> AND MAIL, 10/18).  Statistics Canada and the Department of Human
-> Resources Development released the data as part of a major federal
-> study on the well-being of Canada's children.
->    According to the study, about 458,000 of Canada's 2.8
-> million children age four to 11 live in single-mother families. One
-> in six of those children displayed some type of "conduct
-> disorder," including engaging in physical violence against a
-> person or property, writes the paper.
->    One in nine of the 324,000 children age 6 to 11 raised by
-> single mothers had repeated a grade in school.  The paper notes that
-> the national average for repeating a grade among this age
-> group is one in 16.
->    The study also found that while slightly more than one-
-> quarter of children from all types of families had at least one
-> problem, such as anxiety, depression or physical aggressiveness, 41%
-> of children with single mothers exhibited those qualities.
->    The GLOBE AND MAIL reports that the findings from the
-> National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth are "among the
-> most comprehensive on the state of Canadian children and the
-> risks that can affect their subsequent development."
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I quoted this piece primarily because I thought it was an interesting
example of statistics use (or misuse), and since the topic of valid
research methods has been much discussed here recently..
Note that from the observation that 1 in 6 children raised by single
mothers displays some type of conduct disorder, and other similiar
observations of the same type, the conclusion is somehow drawn or
implied that single mothers are doing a bad job of raising children.
All that can be reasonably noted from this data is that there is a high
correlation. Exactly why it is that children raised by single mothers
tend to have more frequent problems of these types would bear further
study and investigation. One cannot simply assume from the data supplied
that the mothers are doing a poor job raising their children.
Sheila
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