Here is an interesting story from the BBC

Here is the link if you want to read it all:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2008/09/births_outside_marriage_a_real.html

I found the article interesting as it put forward the case that in the the next few years half the babies born in the Uk will live in a single parent family. With this in mind the stats then show that 'A baby born to married parents, on average, spends 1.6 years of their first 16 years with a lone parent. A child born to cohabiting parents spends 4.7 years with just one parents and an infant born into a single mother household spends 7.8 years.' 

They have also linked this to suggest that ' The experiences of the babies in the British Household Panel survey indicates that being brought up by a lone mum or dad, particularly before they start school, translates into lower grades, worse job prospects and poorer health.'

It appears that this will be something that we will have to look at and address but do you think it is true. 

Are young people from a single parent back ground seriously worse off and if so what if anything can we do about it?