
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 5, 1994                   TAG: 9409070044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

1 GOOD PARENT BEATS 2 BAD ONES, STUDY SAYS

People who argue that American families are falling apart tend to focus on whether there are two parents present. But this may be less important than how a family copes with a range of challenges, from economic stress to peer pressures on children, according to a new study.

``I don't think the family's disintegrating. I think there are many families out there that are working hard and want to do well by their children,'' said Nicholas Zill, a psychologist and co-author of ``Running in Place: How American Families Are Faring in a Changing Economy and an Individualistic Society.'' It was released Sunday by Child Trends Inc., a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

The report examined three challenges that families face as they attempt to fulfill their assigned roles in society: making ends meet in a changing economy; combating negative peer influences on children; and maintaining parental control as children grow older.

While family structure may affect the degree of risk that a family faces overall, how a family functions is a more important indicator of its health and well-being, Zill said.

Zill said he was surprised to discover that nearly half of all U.S. high school students have parents who don't attend PTA meetings or open school nights, don't go to class plays or science fairs or varsity football games. Yet most parents expect their children to finish high school, and a large percentage hope they'll finish college as well.

Meanwhile, the social environment in schools tends to run counter to the messages children get at home - namely, to study hard and behave in class.

Only 38 percent of U.S. students in grades 6-12 said their friends thought it was very important to put in the effort needed to achieve high marks. And only 30 percent of youngsters in this age group said their friends thought it very important to behave in class.

Despite the authors' contention that the presence of two parents alone does not automatically mean a family is healthier, two-parent families tend to do better economically. If a child was in a two-parent family, median income was $43,578 in 1992. If a child was in a mother-only family, the median income was $12,073.

Contrary to stereotype, however, working mothers are not less involved in their children's lives, the report found.

``Indeed, what the survey data suggest is that there is more reason for concern about the participation of parents and the development of children in families in which education and income levels are low, fathers are absent and the mother is NOT in the labor force,'' the researchers wrote.

And while it is true that more unmarried women are having children, ``today's inner-city mother is much more likely to be a high school graduate,'' Zill said. ``And the average family, even a low-income family, is considerably smaller than it was in the past. The sort of stereotype of a welfare family that has child after child simply isn't the case anymore.''

by CNB