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

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. Show more