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DESPITE IMPROVEMENTS IN education, health and socio-emotional outcomes in the last century, there are persistent inequalities in children’s well-being in Ireland as it’s largely shaped by parental circumstances and social position.
That’s according to findings from the 10 year Growing Up in Ireland study, which has been published by the ESRI.
It found a consistent pattern of disadvantage for children living in one-parent families, mostly due to poorer socio-economic circumstances of one-parent families.
“Even accounting for differences in family characteristics such as income, maternal education, parent-child conflict and maternal depression, children in one-parent families are at a significant disadvantage in terms of their risk of experiencing socio-emotional and behavioural difficulties.”
It also found that the attitudes, dispositions and language skills of five-year-olds differ according to social class background, mother’s education and household income.
These social characteristics, however, although significant, do not explain as much of the social gap in school readiness as factors such as having a special educational need or disability, children’s home environment and early language and cognitive development.
The Growing Up in Ireland study found that mothers with a migrant background tend to be more highly educated than Irish mothers, especially for those from Western Europe and Asia.
However due to other family, social and economic circumstances, reading scores among migrant children are lower than among Irish children, especially for children whose mothers are from Eastern Europe. Maths scores are also lower, especially for children whose mothers are from African countries.
Health
Low birth weights of less than 2,500 gms were found to have a possible lasting impact on a child’s growth and development.
Children with low birth weights are five times more likely not to meet developmental thresholds for communications and gross motor skills at nine months of age, and even have lower scores on reading and maths tests at nine years of age.
The study also found that 7.9% of children from lowest income families were found to be low birth weight, compared to 4.6% of those from the highest income families.
Overweight and obesity are strongly linked to social disadvantage, around 25% of three-year-olds in Ireland are overweight or obese.
The children of unskilled manual parents are 65% more likely to be obese at three years of age than children of professional parents.
It also stated that breastfeeding rates in Ireland are substantially below the international average and are very strongly linked to the social background of the mother.
Some 77% of infants whose parents are professional workers are breastfed, compared to 33% among the most socially disadvantaged.
James Williams, Research Professor at the ESRI and one of the co-editors of the book, said:
Despite the changing nature of inequality over time, children’s future prospects continue to be shaped by family circumstances. Measures existing to help children flourish must be cognisant of the powerful impact of the home environment on child wellbeing and development.
Discussing if the words in the 1916 Proclamation of Independence, resolving to “cherish all of the children of the nation equally” have been realised 100 years on from the Easter Rising, Williams said:
“While we have undoubtedly made huge strides in terms of how we think about and treat children in Ireland, the book presents evidence concluding that we have not lived up to the Proclamation’s resolution to cherish all of the children of the nation equally.”
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Children need their fathers. This fact was s totally ignored in the last 30 years. Single parenthood has been socially engineered by the automatic provision of houses and social welfare for pregnant girls. It has become a career option for thousands of girls from the lower end of the socio economic spectrum Of course there are success stories but we are talking about trends and odds here and the “growing up in Ireland study” bares that out and outcomes for these fatherless children are not good.
But what if their fathers are feckless louts? What if they are violent? Children need good parenting, whether that is from a mother/father, single parents or two fathers or two mothers it doesn’t matter. Unfortunately it might be harder for a single parent to manage, but what are they to do if their partner is not interested. You can’t force someone to parent.
Not only do children need their fathers just as much as their mothers they need them to step up to the plate and be good fathers. Obviously if their fathers are abusive/violent then the child is better off away from the father but the child will still suffer from a loss in the situation which will still have a negative impact in the child. No matter how amazing a mother is a child will always question at some point: wheres my dad?
@Lisa Saputo: every individual circumstance is difference and different circumstances are not what the article is about. It’s about statistics and trends. As a rule single parenthood is not optimum. They do not produce the best outcomes for children. That said of course there are many instances of super single moms with successful children but there are many, many more who struggle, particularly boys who they cannot control. You can put in all the state supported structures you want but the state cannot be daddy. The state can’t play football with a boy or sit down with him and help,him with his homework. The state can’t take him to a movie, or KFC or most importantly, tell him when he is out of line! Fathers and mothers together are the bedrock of a functioning society.
Lisa spot on
@Lisa Saputo:
Contraception has created a culture whereby people no longer consider the parenting potential of their prospective sexual partner. That is why for millennia, marriage came before sex.
Two years of courtship before marriage. Discipline. It is not fair for a child to have a parent that is violent or sexually deviant.
@scotus, is what you are saying that women are never violent or sexually deviant, that can only be men. Or maybe the state should take every child from mothers and fathers until we prove ourselves?
@Alan Moore:
No, I was not saying that at all.
@Alan Moore:
There is nothing that makes me more upset than social workers intervening in the family. I do not believe they have any authority whatsoever. Just for the record.
The responsibility for not being in a marriage or relationship lies with the person who is violent or sexually deviant,not with the person who married him not having seen that side of his personality. Because you know,they don’t actually introduce themselves as such.it is insidious and slow and controlled and often children have arrived before the true extent of their nature erupts in not-so-glorious technicolor. I married a man like that and became a lone parent because we were not safe with him. This,despite him being a professional in a high paying job,pillar of the community type. It is a scurrilous myth that lone parents are feckless parents,teens,looking for a ‘free house’,have each child by different men or that they will amount to nowt in life,despite them being the group most affected by targeted discrimination under the guise of austerity measures.
Yes but the state can do something about helping fathers mediate with mothers and get access to their children.
I have seen dads try to get access to their kids and all services up against them. If there was more support for fathers in this country and their rights, I think, whether separated or not, there would be a lot more daddies involve in their kids lives. That’s what this state needs to look at.
There are a lot of good dads in this country who can’t keep fighting and eventually just give up. I know there’s a lot of bad ones too but helping the good ones would be a start.
So in other words, sckumbag parents raise sckumbag kids
What happened to you then?
this article is so discouraging.. it’s blaming mothers and not society
1. I brought my sons father to court and the judge ASKED HIM what he would LIKE to pay…he said a pittance, the judge said can you do better than that, he added on another tenner and that is how my court case went…didn’t even look at my expenses, because society don’t give a….
2. My hours dropped in work a couple of years prior to me even falling pregnant, Dsp helped me out as a single person, when I had my child I was means tested and received €50 a week less as a mother than I did as a single person
3. My son receives €40 a week maintenance, as you know the increase for children who’s parents are on jobseekers is €29.80, due to the means testing of single mothers and their children, €12.50 a week is taken off because of maintenance, that’s €600 a year they literally take from my son…
It is not the women who are to blame.
Absolutely, its not mother’s that are to “blame” it’s feckless parenting. As you said the question should not be how much can you pay but how much is needed. You can’t put a price on the social poverty caused by fathers that put little or no investment into their children purely based on the fact their not in a relationship with the mother. The same people that claim to be pro-life supporters are the ones that will complain when the state needs in subsidize children. The issues raied are not a result of single parenting but inadequate, feckless and ind some cases,it has to be said, unplanned parenting
That IS very sad and discouraging. Might I suggest getting some legal aid and going back to court and getting more support from your baby daddy. I know I’m paying a lot more. While my ex was living in our jointly owned house I was paying €300 a week. €255 for the full mortgage payment along with €25 court orderd and another €20 on top because she told me she was struggling. Quite alot I’m sure many would agree. All while my access was being reduced. I was taken back to court for more which was not granted and now that the house is sold, against my wishes I might add, the amount has been reduced to €25 a week and half of everything: childcare, medical expenses, dental expenses, clothing etc. Which still adds up to €120 a week. Get a good solicitor and get him to pay his share.
@Cherie Tormey: Well said. Irish Society has a historical bias towards blaming and shaming mothers who struggle alone for years to raise a family. This article is a prime example of finger pointing at the most vulnerable. Where are the studies on ‘single fathers’? Are the psychologists jockeying for position and venturing into the pubs, bookies offices, gambling joints, sports clubs, to ‘study’ the behavioural patterns, and socio-economic activities of single fathers? Where are the studies on judges in the family Law Courts? What about a ‘study’ on social workers, and whether or not they actually do anything to help their ‘single mother’ clientele? Is James Williams, Research Professor at the ESRI afraid he will find out what is really going on in Ireland? Or is it just so much easier to fall back on the primate Irish position of pointing the finger at women who have children outside of ‘wedlock’, or have had failed relationships with selfish irresponsible men?
@Mark Dee: Hi mark I’m really very sorry that you seem to feel under attack by my comments. I know that relationship/marital breakdown is very difficult for all parties involved. However financial support of children and their primary carer is not something that should be seen as a punishment or a punitive measure forced on someone by a court. It is a moral obligation for all parents, weather that is financial or practical. I would also like to point out that the amounts of money you are throwing around seem a bit conservative as latest research shows that “Cost of raising a child from birth to college is €100,000” http://www.independent.ie/life/family/cost-of-raising-a-child-from-birth-to-college-is-100000-31383511.html. As for money off “baby daddy” personally I’ve relied on my own earned resources.
@ Patricia McCartney. Not all families break up because of “selfish irresponsible men”. You’re showing you bias there. Women can be equally or solely to blame also.
As everyone keeps pointing out, single parents=ofp+council housing because that is how society and the government deal with single parents. Just give them a house and €200 a week and they should be happy with this. Single parents DONT WANT ofp and they do not want a council house, they want to keep their jobs, provide for their children without state aid and they want a mortgage…the state does not support them in doing any of this..instead of pointing out the inequality we suffer and using it against us how about people rally for single mothers, demanding that children’s fathers pay 50% of the costs of raising children instead of sending them to dsp would be a start!
Patricia mccartney I agree with you. however I was addressing the nature of the article which appears to me to be focusing on mothers and ignoring the role of fathers
@Mark Dee: I agree with you. however the article appears to be focusing on mothers and ignoring the role of fathers: as I said the issues are caused by feckless parenting across the board.
@ Miriam Kane Hi Miriam my post was in reply to Cherie Tormey awful situation. Don’t think paying your fair share as a single dad could every be described as a punitive measure. As for the figures I’m “throwing around” they are a minimum payment weekly and rise when needs must. But since you mentioned it 120×52 weeks in a year is 6240×21 years ( collage leaving age) is €131040. So it would seem by your rational I’m providing the total amount to raise my son from “birth to College” yet only getting to spend a small fraction of his week together.
@Patricia McCarthy: http://www.feministcurrent.com/2016/10/04/this-is-how-they-broke-our-grandmothers/
Eventually, to be a woman in public alone was very nearly synonymous with being presumed a witch or prostituted woman. Violence against women was both normalized and sexualized. Women were increasingly driven into prostitution if no man supported them or if they were pushed outside of polite society through accusations of misbehavior, unsanctioned relationships, or sexual abuse. In the sex trade, upstanding men in their communities could torture these women at will, their victims the only party subject to legal sanction.
Long after they stopped burning us alive in public, women could still be removed from public life to asylums, or subjected to torture, for displeasing men or showing too much independence. They could be abused for being pregnant or an unmarried mother.
When domestic violence wasn’t a crime, that meant it was still legal for a man to torture his wife in the privacy of their home if she displeased him. Or for no reason at all. The state considered it a matter of public health and safety to prosecute assaults, except of a man against his wife, which was legal. Marital rape wasn’t a crime in all 50 U.S. states until 1993. And given that barely one per cent of rapists ever see a day in jail in even the most supposedly egalitarian countries, that form of male torture against women is still effectively legal, also.
Well said.. Sad indictment of Irish society
@Miriam Kane: Miriam, a lot of the men that the article would be pointing to, simply don’t have the cash. Report after report has shown that tens of thousands more men lost their jobs than did women, in the recession.
In a relationship people shared the costs, usually. Every day we are reading about struggling couples, whose joint income doesn’t appear to be enough to keep the lights on.
It’s also becoming more prevalent for women to earn more than men sometimes even with only part time jobs, when other allowances are taken into account.
If the man has little money of his own, in the middle of a rental crisis, there is no where he can turn. Women on the other hand have no end of financial and social supports such as one parent allowances, housing supports, tax credits etc…These avenues are closed to men.
But it’s gas to hear women always raving about the money. Most relationships that I know of, where people with kids separated, was due to arguments over money.
It seems to be the number one cause of breakups in the recession. And the women still want more money when he’s gone? Even though he will still have to pay his own rent, gas, elec, food etc..
If I left my partner tomorrow morning, the reality is, with today’s costs, I wouldn’t have a penny left at the end of the week for food, let alone child maintenance.
@Brent Weaver: Brent I am honestly not anti-men. I’m am fully aware that there are parents, men and women out there struggling. I also know that even what seems like a reasonable wage seems to go no where anymore. I’m not talking about the fathers/parents that are supporting or trying to support their children. I’m talking about the ones that either never had any intention of supporting their children, the one’s the it would never occur to them that anyone other than the state should support their kids. the one’s that seem to be fathering kids all over the place without a second though of whose going to pay monetarily, socially or emotionally. The issue I have with this article is that it focuses in on single mothers as a problem as if the children were brought about in some sort of immaculate conception. there a lot of talk about fathers rights but there seems to be a section of society that seem ignore the part about the parental responsibility that goes with it for all parents. there again this article focused on the mother with little mention of fathers.
So what are you going to do to help? Or is this just another text book study??? Naturally if a child is in a one parent family and the mother is struggling the child will notice this when he/she goes to school.. You see it every day kids having the best of gear or mammy drives a flash car ect ect and you have poor Johnny who has no name brand clothes and mammy has to bus it everywhere!!! “FOR GOD’S SAKE TEACH YOUR CHILDREN HOW TO RESPECT OTHERS” GIVE THEM A CHANCE, YOU NEVER KNOW YOU MIGHT GET TO KNOW AND LIKE THESE CHILDREN.
@Linda Hughes: How is it rich parents fault a poor persons child can’t be raised to respect himself enough to succeed in life rather than whimper in sorrow about having failed struggling parents?
Name brand clothing and cars are not mentioned, it’s to do with mothers who push fathers out of their kids lives, no connection with the father is seriously damaging for kids. Where did you get “name brand clothes”?
@Linda Hughes. You ask what we can do to help and then you go on to talk about the importance of designer clothes and big cars and how the children of single mothers don’t have these luxuries. Why do you think they’re so important? A functioning father is what these children need not nikes. The state (us) takes care of their basic needs like food and shelter and health. . Nobody is obliged to provide Nikes and Superdry. Your post makes no sense.
Couldn’t agree more Alan. Some dad’s do all they can to make family life work and even after the breakdown of a relationship try there upmost to be part there childrens lifes just for a childs mother to make things sooo difficult.
Well said Marge and Mark. The issue is broken connection to the father
63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes
85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes (Source: Center for Disease Control)
80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes (Source: Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26, 1978.)
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (Source: National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools.)
75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes (Source: Rainbows for all Gods Children.)
70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept 1988)
85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home (Source: Fulton Co. Georgia jail populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections 1992)
Poverty is not the problem, it connection with Dad, and then we are told if we just buy a single mother a luxury car and name brand clothing, everything will be ok
So Alan are you comments about luxury cars backed up by a ten year study? Where you getting that from?
@Lisa Saputo: if you were less selective in reading the posts above, you would know.
So heres the elephant in the room..how does this affect children raised in same sex homes by 2 mothers?
@Lisa – I provided sources, your bias is showing.
@Alan Moore:
“it’s to do with mothers who push fathers out of their kids lives”
Whilst I sympathise, I disagree. We need to rediscover our masculinity. No woman would ever push away a real man. If this woman is so bad, well then why did he breed with her?
As I said above, two years of courtship would straighten out any messing.
@Chris Martin:
Domestic Violence is highest in this category
@j scotus eriugena: agree completely. A real man will climb over he’ll or high water to see his children. “She won’t let me” sure wouldn’t cut it in our house.
You are all missing the point, what I’m saying is that single mothers struggle to keep things going,, some fathers don’t want to know and when they are brought to court they are made pay a reduclas amount of money, then you have fathers that have been violent and the woman has had to leave him. All this has a big impact on the children! Stop focusing on the name brand clothes and flash cars that’s only one example of what is happening BUT none of you mentioned Respect funny that!!! NO one knows what goes on behind closed doors there are father’s that are living in the family home treating their wife and kids like s@@t and are afraid to leave the family home or feel they can’t survive!! SO the bottom line is that the father’s should be there for their children and should support them properly!!! Don’t shoot me down I’m giving my opinion from friends I know their stories and how the kids are especially this time of year with Christmas around the corner. Yes I do think every child needs a dad in their life and sometimes that is not possible and that is so sad!
@Alan Moore: A sperm donor does not a Father make – my daughter asked me to write.
@Alan Moore
Jaysus I suppose I should just hand my child over to cps after seeing that…
@Catherine Mill a sperm donor is a father…wether or not they step up to the plate and be a good one is a different story.
@catherine, is that how you see men? As your sperm donors? We are real people with dreams and feelings. When you cut us we bleed red blood too. I hope you daughter can develop better view of men when she is older. My son asked me to write.
@cherie, I did not say that, I am sure you are a great parent. This is not personal and not every man or woman is perfect. The systematic destruction of the father child bond is something that we have got to acknowledge. Which a lot of commentators here are taking as a personal insult, which is not intended.
Alan as a mother I agree with everything that you are saying.
@alan
The statistics you put up are ridiculous because the report is titled ‘the effects of fatherlessness or motherlessness which is abandonment, and then each statistic says fatherless homes… 2 completely different things… your child/children are not fatherless because they live in a fatherless home…you have not abandoned them…one fascinating point to make from that report is that there are no statistics on motherlessness because it so rarely happens…
Meanwhile, back in Ireland…
Well who’d have thought it….
50% of fathers don’t pay any maintenance (and that’s only the ones that have gone through court!). I hate this stereotyping that goes on that the mothers are feckless because they are single parents. It’s the fathers that are not stepping up to the plate in the main. Yes some do and are shot down by the mother, but by and large the fathers are the ones that are not doing their duty as a parent.
Yes it’s harder to raise a child if you’re single. Yes there will be repercussions from some children. But instead of immediately blaming the mother we need to look at all that the mother goes through.
27% of single parents are single because of Domestic Abuse.
Has anyone ever heard of caustion v correlation????? It’s poverty and stigma that’s the factor in all the situations highlighted above by Alan Moore, not single parents.
Where did you get your figures?
@Andrea Galgey:
I agree with you 100%. If we are waiting for women to fix society then we have completely lost our manhood. Men need to take leadership. It is time to take back the traditional family. There is nothing that women love more than a real man. Unfortunately with all our talk of masculinity today we have confused Jesus Christ with Conor McGregor.
@Andrea Galgey: Well said. Irish Society has a historical bias towards blaming and shaming mothers who struggle alone for years to raise a family. This article is a prime example of finger pointing at the most vulnerable. Where are the studies on ‘single fathers’? Are the psychologists jockeying for position and venturing into the pubs, bookies offices, gambling joints, sports clubs, to ‘study’ the behavioural patterns, and socio-economic activities of single fathers? Where are the studies on judges in the family Law Courts? What about a ‘study’ on social workers, and whether or not they actually do anything to help their ‘single mother’ clientele? Is James Williams, Research Professor at the ESRI afraid he will find out what is really going on in Ireland? Or is it just so much easier to fall back on the primate Irish position of pointing the finger at women who have children outside of ‘wedlock’, or have had failed relationships with selfish irresponsible men?
Here we are blaming the mothers for pushing the fathers out, for the bad outcomes of their children, telling us that pregnant girls get council houses for free, give me a break. This is not true in general. There is a perception this is widespread. There are exceptions but many lone parents are homeless or in emergency accommodation not free houses. And many lone parents in fact the majority of them do work. And a majority are in the age group 30-45 not uneducated teenagers. So please go ahead and generalise, and do not use facts. A great basis for judging.
Saying this, there may be a link to bad outcomes based on poverty, poverty that is imposed on them, but often a mother tries to get maintenance and to go back to or stay in work but due to alack of affordable flexible childcare cannot sustain work and get her and her children out of poverty. Many fathers tun away and disappear. They are not pushed away in the main, though there are some mothers who ignore access and custody to the detriment of the children. Please use facts. Generalising or stigmatising single parent families wont help them. Affordable quality accessible childcare, for all types of families, would though. But that is only a dream. the new childcare scheme is for under 3s only.
I actually think my two kids have benefitted from having two homes. Their father would have been…not hands on during the course of our marriage but since he gets them alone without me there I can honestly say the bond with them is stronger and he’s more confident with them. Yes we have issues but I can’t understand what good
comes of using children or withholding maintenance does to a situation.
@Emma, you are right, but your children are lucky to have a mother who values their connection to their Dad. Women like you are rare these days.
@Alan, I’m no saint. He and I get into a bit of a tit for tat every so often and lose sight of what’s important. We will never 100% agree on stuff and sometimes I don’t even think he respects any of what I do but I know he doesn’t speak badly about me to our kids and vice versa and that’s so important
Broken families result in psychological disorders for children. If a mother is horrible to her son or father is horrible to his daughter they generally grow up with a phobia of the gender that was cruel to them.
Seriously the most fooked up people I know come from two parent families, there’s a lot of covering up, I am done sane considering i was born to a single parent, I have 2 people close to me that have parents who should have never been allowed to have kids, it’s horrible the emotional abuse they had to endure, coming from supposed good families, under the surface it was rotten.
Wynner there are always exceptions to the rule but for the most part children fare better when they have a good father in their lives.
No Chris, Wynner “knows somebody”, if that’s not scientific, I don’t know what is.
I’d have to agree with you there wynnner. My parents marriage is certainly nothing to try and emulate nor was my exs. And I have to admit that I have nothing to worry about when it comes to my sons education or economic well being. My ex is very educated and driven. But I do worry about his emotional well being. I pay my way and am VERY interested in playing a part in my son life. Any mother who pushes a father and son apart has a lot to answer for. In saying that I’d take her back in the morning.
I could name names but for their benefit I’d rather not, but if you wanna shoot me an email I’d explain in every way what they went through
I’d have absolutely no problem what so ever, naming them.
@ Wynner, no names please. What I am saying is that there are tall Chinese people, but that does not mean that all Chinese people are tall. There are fast Irish people, but in a race between Kenyans and Irish the Kenyans will win overall, Sonya O’Sullivan is an outlier. I have no doubt that you know bad families with 2 parents and bad dads, that does not mean that all dads should b kept from their kids.
I’m a single parent to a teenage daughter. She is top of her class. 9As & 3Bs in her last exams. She’s in athletics, rowing & drama. We come from & live in a economically deprived area. I have no education having been brought up in state care. I work full time, low paid job. My daughter has no contact with her father. He left when she was 6 weeks old. I think we are doing ok.
have your say