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SINGLE PARENT
A single parent is a parent with one or more children, who is not living with the child[ren]'s other parent. The definition of single parenthood may vary according to local laws of nations or provinces.
Single parenthood may occur as a result of loss (death of spouse, separation, divorce, abandonment by one parent), or by choice (single parent adoption, donor insemination, egg donor/surrogate motherhood, choosing to carry to term an unexpected pregnancy and raise the child on one's own).
More than 25% of children in the U.S. live with only one parent (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1997). Research about the welfare of children in single parent families varies. Many factors influence the outcome of how children fare: parent's age, education level, and occupation, family income, family's support network from friends and extended family members (including the absent parent if available). Further, outcomes in families where single-parenthood is chosen is frequently better, as the single parent is typically older, has established employment and social supports, and has considered the pros and cons of raising a child alone.
Single Parent Demographics
United States
Today in the United States, being raised by a single parent is not uncommon. About three in ten children live in a single parent home. The most common type of single parent home is one with only a mother. However, single father homes are the fastest growing type of family situation; the amount of single fathers has grown by 60% in the last ten years alone. This is mainly due to some sort of disaster that has happened to the mother. Loss of a partner may cause the single parent to be financially burdened due to the fact that one of the "breadwinners" is gone. If the the single parent is the breadwinner, he or she has less opportunity to work than before, when another parent was available, unless another person is available to care for the child or children.
Australia
In 2003, 14% of all Australian households were single parent families. Since 2001, 31% of babies born in Australia were born to unmarried mothers [1].
United Kingdom
In 2004, 28% of British families with children were single parent families. This is 3 times the percentage in 1972, when just one in 17 children lived in a single parent family. Over 40% of families with children in the suburbs of London are single parent families [2].
Single Parent Characteristics
- Single parenthood can be very challenging. Single parents may miss their partner or wish they had someone to share the burden and the pressures of parenting. [1]
- Single parents are very likely to include their children in the day-to-day running of the family. The children may have to share more responsibility of doing chores and looking after themselves than other children [2].
- Single parents often discuss things with their children that parents in two parent families often discuss with each other (e.g. the shopping list, what to do over school holidays) [3].
- Many parents and children have to adjust to children moving between the household of both parents [4].
- Children from single parent families who have considerable input in their family's affairs sometimes have issues at school because they expect to be treated in the same manner by teachers [5].
- Often single parent families have less income than two parent homes [6].
- Parenting a baby alone can be very stressful for any single parent. Babies need 24 hour care, and parents need rest, time off, help, support, and someone to talk to [7].
Growing Up In a Single Parent Home
Statistically, children in single parent homes fare worse than those with two parents. In the United States, family structure contributes to five characteristics of a child’s well being. These include lower birthrates and higher death rates among infants when there is just one parent. Also, the number of children ages 15-17 in school and in good health is much lower from single parent families than from two parent ones. The number of children from single parent families becoming pregnant at these ages is increasing.
There are also signs that children who have gone through a divorce have problems in school, depression, and emotional stress. Problems like this however may not be because of the parent who raised them, but can be linked to other things that are also related to single parenting. Being a single parent and struggling for money often coincide, the consensus of research now suggests that family structure itself is the more significant variable. Financial difficulties are behind many family problems. The effects of coming from a low-income family can include lower education levels, lower economic achievement, isolation, and loneliness.
Single parent homes are also associated with criminal activity in the U.S.A. Children from a single-parent household account for 72% of teenage murderers, 60% percent of people who commit rape crimes and are eleven times more likely to exhibit violent behavior. Reasons for this have to do with the fact that these children are generally less supervised, their actions are less monitored and there is usually less communication between the child and parent, and that most likely they come from poor families (although the effect remains strong even controlling for income).
Most researchers have found that children from single parent homes tend to do worse in school than children in two parent homes, and that concentrations of young people from one parent households produce unfavorable school environments. For example, Suet-ling Pong found that students from single parent homes showed lower scores on mathematics and reading achievement tests. She also found that high concentrations in schools of students from single parent families were associated with lower achievement results for all students. Similarly, Carl L. Bankston III and Stephen J. Caldas found that high percentages of pupils from one parent families were closely connected to poor academic achievement for all students. Bankston and Caldas also found that many of the academic disadvantages of schools with large percentages of African American students could be explained by the predominance of young people from one parent families in these schools[3]. However, researchers generally stress that family structure is only one of many influences on academic performance.
Single Motherhood
Single motherhood is by far the most common instance of single parenting; in the U.S.A single mothers outnumber single fathers nine to one. Single mothers may have a hard time providing for their families. Some studies conclude that women generally have lower paying jobs (though other studies have found that the wage gap, or Income disparity, is largely due to choice, not discrimination). Thus, single mothers must contend with both financial and child rearing burdens. If a parent makes less money, and thus has to work longer hours, she has less time for her child.
Single mothers usually have more extensive support system (e.g. friends, family) than single fathers do.
Single Fatherhood
In the U.S., fathers make up about 13% of single parents. The role of fathers, married or single, has been changing. Today, fathers are more likely to help children in a classroom setting and do household chores than in the past. Historicaly, fathers were not socialized to be primary caregivers, although many men did raise children on their own due to high rates of maternal death.
Single fathers act as positive role models to children and are less likely to raise undisciplined children than single mothers are [citation needed]. There are no factual studies that indicate that fathers are less capable of raising children than women are. Also, no factual studies show that children raised by men are more likely to use drugs or engage in sex at an earlier age.
Female children living in a single father home are more likely to reach menarche at an earlier age than those living in two parent homes. One reason for this may be that single- and two-parent families have different patterns of parental care resulting in differences in reproductive development. Also, social learning may account for developmental differences as father-absent girls model their mothers' sexual behavior and reproductive strategies.
References
- Bankston, Carl L. and Caldas, Stephen J., Family Structure, Schoolmates, and Racial Inequalities in School Achievement, Journal of Marriage and the Family 60:3 (1998), 715-723.
- Hilton, J., Desrochers, S.,Devall, E. Comparison of Role Demands, Relationships, and Child Functioning is Single-Mother, Single-Father, and Intact Families. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage ,35(?) 29-56.
- Mulkey, L.; Crain, R; Harrington, A.M. One-Parent Households and Achievement: Economic and Behavioral Explanations of a Small Effect. Sociology of Education, 1992, 65, 1, Jan, 48-65
- Pong, Suet-ling The School Compositional Effect of Single Parenthood on 10th Grade Achievement, Sociology of Education 71:1 (1998), 23-42.
- Quinlan, Robert J. Father absence, parental care, and female reproductive development. Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 24, Issue 6, November 2003, Pages 376-390
- Richards, Leslie N.; Schmiege, Cynthia J. Family Relations, Vol. 42, No. 3, Family Diversity. (Jul., 1993), pp. 277-285.
- Risman, Barbara J., and Park, Kyung. (1988). Just The Two of Us: Parent-Child Relationships in Single-Parent Homes. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 1988, 50, 4, Nov, 1049.
- Sacks, G. (September 4, 2005) “Boys without fathers is not a logical new idea.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas)
- States News Service. (2005 July 20). “America’s Children: Family Structure and Children’s Well-Being
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