District officials and the school board have come to realize that encouraging more parent centers on school campuses leads to more community engagement, higher attendance and
eventually better test scores and higher graduation rates.
As we discuss below, one recent study found that family stability trumps family structure as it pertains to early cognitive development even after controlling for economic and parental resources.26 It has been shown that children living in stable single - parent families (that is, families that were headed by a single parent throughout childhood) do
better than those living in unstable two - parent families (that is, families that had two parents present initially but then experienced a change in family structure).27 Another study finds that children living in stable cohabiting homes (that is, families where two parents cohabit throughout the child's life) do just as
well as children living with cohabiting parents who
eventually marry.28 But other research challenges the conclusion that it is family stability that is crucial for child wellbeing One study, for instance, found that children who experience two or more family transitions do not have worse behavioral problems or cognitive
test scores than children who experience only one or no family transitions.