American Academy of Pediatrics: Children are better off with married parents

By Rebecca Oas, Ph.D. | March 21, 2013

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a statement praising the benefits to children of being raised by parents who are married.

“Civil marriage is the legal and social institution in modern society that serves as the basic building block for family structure and child-rearing. Marriage is generally considered the optimal relationship between 2 adults who share responsibility for children.”

The AAP statement goes on to stress that the best situation for children is a two-parent household in which the parents are married and not cohabiting outside of marriage.

“A report from the AAP Task Force on the Family noted that married couples have more financial and social resources to nurture and raise children. Additionally, ‘married men and women are physically and emotionally healthier and are less likely to engage in health risk behaviors…than are unmarried adults.’”

At any other time, such a pronouncement would probably be viewed as discriminatory and stigmatizing to single and cohabiting parents­.  Today, it’s probably the least controversial part of the statement.  Go figure…

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