婚姻基金會昨天公布的研究結果表明，父母已婚的孩子自尊心更強。婚姻基金會是以減少離婚率為目標的一個智囊團。其早先的研究表明，孩子學習成績不佳以及抑郁癥和焦慮等心理健康問題與家庭破裂有關。

Teenagers of married couples were more confident than those in single-parent families or youngsters whose parents lived together in a stable long-term relationship, it found.

研究發現，已婚夫婦家庭的青少年比單親家庭或父母長期穩定地生活在一起的青少年更自信。

Overall, boys with married parents had the highest self-esteem, while girls with co-habiting parents had the lowest.

總的說來，父母已婚的男孩子自尊心最強，而父母未婚同居的女孩子最缺乏自尊心。

A number of studies have shown that self-esteem is closely related to how secure people feel in their relationships.

大量的研究表明，自尊心與人們對他們所處關系的安全感密切相關。

It appears that children of married parents are responding to something they see in their parents’ relationships that reflects greater security. Their self-esteem benefits accordingly.

父母已婚的關系會為孩子帶來更大的安全感，生活在這樣的家庭中的孩子似乎響應了這一點。所以，他們的自尊心也從中受益。

Former High Court judge Sir Paul Coleridge, said the Government should place more importance on marriage as it sought to tackle ‘a meteoric rise in family breakdown’. He said: ‘Marriage matters because it is the most important predictor of a child’s future life chances.’

前高級法院法官保羅·柯勒律治先生指出，政府應更加關注婚姻，力求處理“急速增長的家庭破裂”問題。他說：“婚姻很重要，因為它是一個孩子未來生存機會最重要的預測器。”