Attitudes toward child well-being in diverse families across Europe
BACKGROUNDEuropean families have diversified, with more children raised in single-parent, stepparent, and same-sex parent families.Whereas child outcomes in these families are wellstudied, societal attitudes toward family diversity remain underexplored. OBJECTIVEThis study examines (1) perceptions of child well-being in nontraditional families compared to traditional ones, (2) their variation by family types in terms of structure and composition, and (3) sociodemographic and international differences in these attitudes across Europe. METHODSWe used the "Attitudes toward family diversity" module from the European Social Survey CRONOS-2 online panel study (2022) across 11 countries.We analysed responses on perceptions of child well-being in six family types relatively to traditional families: single mother, single father, stepmother, stepfather, gay male parents, and lesbian parents.Distributions were explored by country, gender, age, education, and income quintiles. RESULTSGenerally, nontraditional families were perceived as less favourable to children's wellbeing than traditional ones.However, whereas over two-thirds view child well-being growing up in stepfamilies and same-sex families as comparable to child well-being in
Anne Solaz, Anne-Right Poortman, Dimitri Mortelmans et al.