Strengthening the social environment for Australian children: A reply to Parkinson

Jan M. Nicholson*, Nina Lucas, Bircan Erbas

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    We thank Professor Parkinson for his response (Parkinson, 2013) to our paper published in the Journal of Family Studies (Lucas, Nicholson, & Erbas, 2013) and the opportunity to expand upon the position presented in our discussion. Parkinson argues that it was inappropriate for us to cite his report For Kids' Sake: Repairing the social environment for Australian children and young people (FKS) (Parkinson, 2011) as supporting claims that two biological parent households are superior environments for children to grow up in, and takes exception to our view that such a position is a 'simplistic view of the relationship between family structure and child outcomes' (Lucas et al., 2013). We acknowledge that the FKS report reviewed a considerable amount of contemporary family research that covered an array of viewpoints regarding the effects of living in a non-two-biological parent family on children. We also support the majority of recommendations made in the report.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)272-275
    Number of pages4
    JournalJournal of Family Studies
    Volume19
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2013

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