--- title: Kids of Single Parents Are Just as Happy as Kids With Both Parents description: New study of 7-year olds finds family structure doesn't affect happiness in kids canonical: https://time.com/77631/kids-with-one-parent-are-just-as-happy-as-kids-with-two/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-25T20:08:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:11.789Z og:title: Kids of Single Parents Are Just as Happy as Kids With Both Parents og:description: New study of 7-year olds finds family structure doesn't affect happiness in kids og:url: https://time.com/77631/kids-with-one-parent-are-just-as-happy-as-kids-with-two/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta087582a603f4041/69868ca5adae442c70542c7e/186756082.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Father and daughter holding hands og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kids of Single Parents Are Just as Happy as Kids With Both Parents twitter:description: New study of 7-year olds finds family structure doesn't affect happiness in kids twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta087582a603f4041/69868ca5adae442c70542c7e/186756082.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kids With One Parent Are Just as Happy as Kids With Two  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 25, 2014 8:08 PM UTC  Father and daughter holding hands Father and daughter holding handsGetty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 25, 2014 8:08 PM UTC When it comes to parents, quality is more important than quantity. Because new research out of the UK shows that kids who grow up with a single parent or step-parent think of themselves as no less happy than kids who grow up with their biological mom and dad. Researchers from [UK’s NatCen Social Research ](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2014-04/bsa-clw042414.php)analyzed data from almost 13,000 children and found that children’s stated happiness had no correlation to their family structure. 36% of 7-year olds said they were “happy all the time” and 64% said they were happy “sometimes or never,” regardless of whether they were raised by two biological parents or one. This result stayed the same even when researchers controlled for social class. Instead, relationships with family members and friendships at school were the main predictors of kids’ happiness or unhappiness, and factors such as fights or bullying had a much larger affect on kid’s stated happiness than how many parents they had. But other research has shown that kids in single-parent homes may be more likely to become [incarcerated](http://steveelliott.patriotactionnetwork.com/files/2012/12/father.pdf) or [drop out of school](http://apps.olin.wustl.edu/macarthur/working%20papers/wp-mclanahan2.htm), so maybe happiness isn’t everything. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/77631/kids-with-one-parent-are-just-as-happy-as-kids-with-two/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/77631/kids-with-one-parent-are-just-as-happy-as-kids-with-two/"},"headline":"Kids With One Parent Are Just as Happy as Kids With Two","datePublished":"2014-04-25T20:08:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:11.789Z","description":"New study of 7-year olds finds family structure doesn't affect happiness in kids","url":"https://time.com/77631/kids-with-one-parent-are-just-as-happy-as-kids-with-two/","keywords":["Living","Parenting","Family","kids","Happiness"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta087582a603f4041/69868ca5adae442c70542c7e/186756082.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta087582a603f4041/69868ca5adae442c70542c7e/186756082.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Father and daughter holding hands","caption":"Father and daughter holding hands","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/77631/kids-with-one-parent-are-just-as-happy-as-kids-with-two/","name":"Kids With One Parent Are Just as Happy as Kids With Two"}}]}] ```