I was particularly interested in the middle section of this infographic which compares the life chances of children of dual-parent households with those of children from single parent households – while controlling for household income. It suggests that there is a rather strong correlation between single-parent households and an increased likelihood of their children falling into low income jobs in the future…

For the top income bracket, for example, children whose parents are in the top third of income earners are almost twice as likely as children from dual-parent households in the same parental income bracket to end up in lower-tier income jobs themselves.

As with many infographs, this doesn’t seek to explain these statistics….

One thing to think about is the difference between day to day life in those two types of upper income household – Many of those upper income tier households would be able to afford to have one parent stay at home at least part-time, but for the single parent earning nearly 80k a year, which must mean a long-hours professional career in most cases and I can imagine the the child won’t be getting that much quality parenting in such cases.

Secondly, this might not be measuring the effects of single parents but the effects on a child of relationship breakdown (obviously the two tend to go hand in hand).

Finally, I’m uncomfortably aware of the patriarchal norms lurking behind these data – if having one stay at home parent is what’s behind the relative success of dual parent households, let’s face it, we all know it’s going to be the woman staying at home in 90% of cases, and in those single person households it will be the woman being the single parent in those cases and no doubt these stats will be uncritically wheeled out by the new right to support traditional ideas on the family