You may have seen the headline a few weeks ago: "Single-parent kids face troubles."

The story was about a new study that shows children growing up in single-parent families are more likely than their peers to develop serious psychiatric illnesses and addictions later in life.

Researchers tracked about 1 million Swedish kids for a decade and found that those with single parents were twice as likely to develop severe depression or schizophrenia, to kill themselves or attempt suicide, and to develop an alcohol-related disease. Girls were three times more likely to become drug addicts if they lived with a single parent, and boys were four times more likely.

I have a problem with this study.

I don't dispute its results, but I do question its usefulness.

What does a headline like that accomplish, other than demoralize the many single parents out there who are getting it right? They already know they are fighting tough odds; they don't need another reminder. As for the rest, well, I doubt a study telling them they're destined to fail will help.

Instead of focusing on the negative, why not study something positive? It's true: There are bad parents. But I believe the reason has less to do with their marital status and more to do with their parenting skills than the study results show.

How about a study on the health and well-being of kids whose parent(s) spent at least an hour a day of quality time with them, whether it was reading together or kicking a soccer ball around the yard?

What impact could the single-parent study have? Will it encourage troubled couples to work harder at their marriages because of the possible ramifications of splitting up? In a society where most people seem to put more time and money into getting married than staying married, I doubt it.

Will it prompt divorcing or divorced couples to put their kids' needs first by remaining partners in parenting, if not in life, despite their personal differences? Maybe, but that, too, sounds too good to be true.

Perhaps we'd be better served by studying the causes of divorce. After all, with fewer divorces, there would be a great many fewer single parents, and, presumably, fewer kids with problems.

But if television is any reflection of society, I'd say we're still not ready to take marriage seriously. Millions of Americans are already using "reality TV" to escape from the real "Real World," where divorce rates are climbing — along with the number of problems kids are bringing to school.

Now there's a new reality series with the slogan, "You match, you vote, they marry ... for better or for worse." It's called "Married By America," and it's based on the premise that a successful marriage is a crapshoot, anyway, so why not get hitched on TV at the whim of strangers?

According to the 2000 Census, Otsego County had 279 more single mothers than 10 years before, and Delaware County had 58 more single moms in 2000 than in 1990.

Single parents are here to stay, and instead of pointing fingers, we must find ways to help them, and all parents, succeed.

The Oneonta Job Corps Academy's Solo Parent Program offers single parents the chance to live in an apartment-type setting with their children while learning a trade and improving their parenting skills.

The Family Service Association, LEAF Council on Alcoholism and Addictions, First United Methodist Church in Oneonta and Leatherstocking's Promise — The Alliance for Youth are collaborating on the Strengthening Families Program, a free series of parenting workshops for adults and their adolescent children.

These are positive steps, but we need to do more.

There are far too many bad parents, single and otherwise, in the world. Most of them are not bad people — they just lack the skills they need for the job.

It's time for society to help them develop those skills. It's time to stop pigeonholing the bad situations and start studying the good ones.

Most of all, it's time to start seeing parenting as a privilege and a priority, not an obligation or a matter of course.

Lisa Miller is The Daily Star's community editor. She can be reached at (607) 441-7216 or lmiller@thedailystar.com.