Family structure and children's success: A comparison of widowed and divorced single-mother families

Compared with children raised in single-mother families created by the deat h of the father, children raised in divorced single-mother families have si gnificantly lower levels of education, occupational status, and happiness i n adulthood Yet divorced single mothers are not significantly different tha n their widowed counterparts in child rearing, gender role, and family valu es and in religiosity, health-related behaviors, and other dimensions of li festyle. However, relative to widowed single mothers, divorced single mothe rs hold lower occupational positions, are more financially stressed, and ha ve a higher rate of participation in the paid labor force. We speculate tha t the contrasting positions in the social structure of different types of s ingle-mother families may account for observed differences in child outcome s.