Australian research shows children are safer with their biological parents

May 7 2008

An Australian psychologist who has conducted research into the deaths of children from violence or accidents, says children are safer with their biological parents.

Dr. Greg Tooley who is the Associate Head of the School of Psychology and the Director of Teaching and Learning at Deakin University in Melbourne, conducted a study on hundreds of coronial inquiries into child deaths from violence or accidents.

Dr. Tooley says his research supports the 'Cinderella theory' and children with a step-parent or no biological parent are significantly more at risk than those with a single parent or both biological parents.

Dr. Tooley says sensitive though the issue may be, his findings should not be ignored and need to be considered by child-welfare agencies when they are assessing at-risk children.

Dr. Tooley's research has revealed that children with a step-parent were more than 17 times likely to die from intentional violence or accident and he believes a raised awareness of this issue could lead to improved intervention strategies.

If a child had no biological parents present the risk was even higher and these children were at least 22 times more affected - with children under five most at risk.

Dr. Tooley also found that children with a single biological mother were no more at risk than children with both biological parents but were three times more at risk of drowning.

The implication is that parents are biologically programmed to be more protective of their own children than step-parents, but Dr. Tooley says the intention is not intended to be an attack on step-parents, but rather about identifying risk factors and the majority of step-parents are excellent.

Dr. Tooley's research is primarily focused on the relationship between family structure, child abuse and neglect, and gender differences in parenting and sexual behaviour.