Writing this month in Prospect magazine, she says that the type of home in which a child is raised has comparatively little impact on how they will grow up. "Whether the home is headed by one parent or two, whether the parents are happily married or constantly rowing, whether they believe in pushing their children to succeed or leaving them to find their own way in life, whether the home is filled with books or sports equipment, whether it is orderly or messy, a city flat or a farmhouse - the research shows, counter intuitively, that none of these things makes much difference," she says. "The child who grows up in the orderly, well-run home is, on average, no more conscientious as an adult than the one who grows up in the messy one."