No. The research is pretty definitive. Children who live with step fathers or unrelated "mama's new man" are at significantly higher risk for abuse than kids who live with their natural parents or with only a single mom. Here is an example:
Father Figures vs. Biological Fathers in the Home
Results of the 2009 study showed that families living with a man who was not the biological father of all the children in the home, and families living without a man in the home, were significantly more likely to be contacted by CPS compared to families in which the biological father of all the children lived with the mother.
The following year, a report on the National Incidence Study of Abuse and Neglect, which examines not only CPS cases but all reported incidences of abuse and neglect to community professionals, also found that maltreatment rates differed according to family structure.[2] Children living with their married biological parents had the lowest rate of abuse and neglect, whereas those living with a single parent who had a partner living in the household had the highest rate. Compared to children living with married biological parents, those whose single parent had a live-in partner were at least 8 times more likely to be maltreated in one way or another. They were 10 mores more likely to experience abuse and 8 times more likely to experience neglect.
A 2001 study by Aruna Radhakrishna and colleagues at the University of North Carolina followed 644 North Carolina newborns for eight years. These babies were mostly from families considered at high risk of abuse or neglect based on the characteristics of the mother and infant at birth. Researchers found that maltreatment was lowest among children who lived with two biological parents.[3] Maltreatment was most common in homes with a stepfather or boyfriend, with 80% of the maltreatment occurring between birth and age 4, 20% between ages 4-6, and 27% between ages 6-8. Unlike the 2009 study, however, this one found no significant difference in maltreatment rates between kids living with both parents and kids living with only their biological mother.
Child Abuse and Father Figures: Which Kind of Families Are Safest to Grow Up In? | National Center for Health Research
This case fits the pattern. I know that feels offensive to some people but I'm not making up the facts.
Children's happiness isn't dependent on their parents' ability to find love. Instead, their well being is often compromised by parents trying hard to meet their own needs at the expense of their childrens' needs to be safe and protected. IMO.
