A large body of international literature has documented a
correlation between non-traditional family structure and poorer child outcomes,
yet researchers continue to disagree as to whether the association represents a
true causal effect. This article extends the literature by employing propensity
score matching using the first wave of data from the Growing up in Ireland child cohort study. The Irish case is of
particular interest given the highly selective nature of non-marital families. Living
in a lone parent family or cohabiting family has modest but significant
negative effects on children’s educational outcomes but the effects are smaller
in relation to health outcomes and psychological wellbeing. Selection effects
account for a non-trivial proportion of the differences in child outcomes
across families but hidden bias remains an important issue.