The Adjustment of Australian Children Growing up in Single-Parent Families as Measured by Their Competence and Self-Esteem

Abstract

This article describes a study that examined the competence and self-esteem of 136 Australian single-parent primary school-aged children growing up in different single-parent residency arrangements. It compared these children with a matched sample of two-parent children. Child competence was assessed across a range of domains (academic, physical, social, behavioural and everyday life skills). The analysis revealed that overall, the single-parent children were not significantly different from the two-parent children in competence levels and self-esteem. There were, however, subtle differences in performance on the measures between and within each parent residency group linked to the gender of the child and the gender of the residential parent.