Abdou studied 4,633 socio-economically disadvantaged women, gauging their "familism" or, more specifically, their beliefs about familial roles and responsibilities, using a questionnaire, according to an USC statement.
Familism was determined by responses to statements such as, "single moms can do just as well as married parents," or "it is
better for children if their parents are married."
Abdou then tracked the health of their children and found that for every one point increase in familism, there was a 71 gram increase in birth weight independent of a whole host of other factors-including the gender of the infant or whether the mother was married.
