Boys Do Better When Raised by a Traditional Family

Source: Graeme Paton, "Boys raised by traditional families ‘do better at school’," The Telegraph, 3 January 2012

Source: Marianne Bertrand and Jessica Pan, "The Trouble with Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior," National Bureau of Economic Research, No.17541, October 2011

A study has found that how a boy's family is structured has a significant impact on the boy's education and behavior.

"It found that boys were much more likely to misbehave, be excluded from school and go on to achieve low grades after rebelling against “emotionally distant” parents."

"Boys raised in traditional families are more likely to perform well at school and avoid suspension than those brought up by single mothers ..."

The explanation given is that single moms are less invested in sons than in daughters. The study also found that family structure had less impact on girls in their early years.

"Researchers in the United States tested various theories to explain bad behaviour and low standards among boys and concluded that “home-based” influences played a much bigger part than biological differences, the style of early education, teacher gender or peer pressure.

"“Boys’ likelihood to ‘act out’ is sharply reduced when faced with larger and better parental inputs,” said the study.

"“As these parental inputs are typically higher and of better quality in intact families, this largely contributes to why boys with single mothers are so much more disruptive and eventually face school suspension.”"

...

"The study found that indiscipline reduced among boys brought up by two parents and increased sharply among those raised by single-mothers.

Researchers said a “higher levels of parental investment may prevent more of these at-risk boys from developing [behaviour] problems”, adding that this was much more likely to occur in traditional families."

This conclusion is not surprising. Two thousand years ago, God said, "And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). Fathers play a critical role in the raising of children.