There have been more recent studies (and sorry I wish I could link) but they have shown that the most significant indicator of negative outcomes is POVERTY.
So I do think that the family is of course a more successful financial unit and that if you're not married, you often leave with children but with fewer assets. So more responsibility but less money. It also seems to me that married fathers are ordered to pay more maintenance. I keep hearing of fathers who weren't married to the mother and they get off scot free, ordered to pay about a tenner a week. It beggars belief.
I can tell you that it made me a LOT more sympathetic to the obstacles to employment and social mobility, issues relating to poverty and how a lot of problems can be solved with money. It made me think more about how women bare the brunt of the responsibility of parenthood which is something that probably affects a mother less when she's in a family unit.
My whole view point has changed so substantially that I wouldn't send my children to private schools even if I had the money now but whereas I grew up, it wasn't just that, I had music lessons, ballet lessons, a lot of stuff I haven't bothered with / couldn't afford for my own children. I suppose I could have afford it but I was channeling every cent in to bricks and mortar to try and counter the fact that I wasn't raising the children in a successful economic unit, ie, family!
I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm glad now. DC are fine, better than they'd be if were all still trying to pretend to be a family just to be conventional. I feel very independent now and exempt from 'class' somehow and far less classest than I was on a subconscious level as the whole experience has taught me what it's like to have people prejudge.
My DC1 has a terrible accent now and I'm less bothered about that than I would have been once so I think my 'status' has slipped too! Mine more than theirs imo. I do still feel like my DC1 has every opportunity if she works hard but she will have to.