Children whose parents are married have significantly higher self-esteem, according to research unveiled by the Marriage Foundation yesterday. The Marriage Foundation is a think-tank which aims to reduce divorce rates. Its previous research has linked family breakdown to poor academic performance in children and mental health issues including depression and anxiety.

婚姻基金会昨天公布的研究结果表明，父母已婚的孩子自尊心更强。婚姻基金会是以减少离婚率为目标的一个智囊团。其早先的研究表明，孩子学习成绩不佳以及抑郁症和焦虑等心理健康问题与家庭破裂有关。

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.

研究发现，已婚夫妇家庭的青少年比单亲家庭或父母未婚而长期同居的青少年更自信。

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

总的说来，父母已婚的男孩子自尊心最强，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，自尊心与人们对他们所处关系的安全感密切相关。

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.

父母已婚的关系会为孩子带来更大的安全感，生活在这样的家庭中的孩子似乎响应了这一点。所以，他们的自尊心也从中受益。

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.’

前高级法院法官保罗·柯勒律治先生指出，政府应更加关注婚姻，力求处理“急速增长的家庭破裂”问题。他说：“婚姻很重要，因为它是一个孩子未来生存机会最重要的预测器。”