DadTalk

Nearly half of all children see parents divorce by 16.

Nearly half of all children will go through the trauma of seeing their parents divorce before they are 16, according to a new report.

Nearly half of all children will go through the trauma of seeing their parents divorce before they are 16, according to a new report.

Some 48 per cent will have experienced the break-up of their family by the time they reach the milestone – an increase from 40 per cent a decade ago.

Meanwhile extramarital births are at an all-time high and nine in ten couples lives together before getting married, compared with fewer than one in 30 before the Second World War.

The figures disclosed by the Centre for Social Justice think tank lays bare the speed at which traditional family life is crumbling in modern Britain.

Forty-six per cent of children are now born to unmarried mothers – a situation that was once regarded as a social taboo.

A child in a single-parent family is 75 per cent more likely to struggle at school, 70 per cent more likely to become addicted to drugs, 50 per cent more likely to develop a drinking problem and 35 per cent more likely to be unemployed in adulthood, the think tank said.

Gavin Poole, executive director, said an increase in cohabitation was a major factor in the breakdown of traditional family life.

The last Labour government was frequently accused of overseeing the collapse of marriage as an institution, and Britain is one of the few EU countries which does not reward marriage in the tax system.

David Cameron has promised to give married couples a tax incentive for married couples before the end of the current parliament.

Read more about this story at the Telegraph website.