Families With Young Children

The most distinctive trait of American family life, then the trait that differentiates it from family life in other western countries, is sheer movement: frequent transitions, shorter relationships. Americans step on and off the carousel of intimate partnerships (marriages and cohabiting relationships) more often. Whether an American parent is married or cohabiting or raising children without a partner, she or he is more likely to change living arrangements in the near future than are parents in the rest of the western world. It is consequential and we should be concerned about it, both as parents and as a nation, because it may increase children’s behavioral and emotional problems. Simply pu, some children seem to have difficulty adjusting to a series of parents and parents’ partners moving in and out of their home. It is not just parental divorces and breakups that are hard for children. Even transitions that bring a new partner or stepparent into the home can be difficult to cope with. Children whose parents have remarried do not have higher levels of well-being than children in lone-parent (a parent who is neither married nor living with a partner) families, despite the addition of a second parent. One reason is that new

On the other hand, this research emphasizes how one’s family background and the surrounding neighborhood as specific contexts that impact individuals psychologically. In my opinion, higher SES families may live in wealthier communities that have better educational resources and environment. At this point, human development tend to be context specific instead of universal. As what we learned in class, poverty brings negative impacts to children, which is the biggest risk for parenting as well. More specifically, parents/caregivers bring direct influences to their children, and the neighborhood is one of the vital factors that impact children simultaneously. (Cole’s lecture, April & May 2017).

Socially and Emotionally the family is a big influence in a child’s development. Parents have a big role by providing care and guidance for their development. Unfortunately some families cannot promote the development of a child because of the conflict among the parents. A single parent can have difficulties in boosting a better development in children and young people, sometimes a child is separated from its siblings and this can affect them too.

The United States is the richest nation, yet millions of Americans live below the poverty line and millions more struggle every month. The children in society today living in poverty is increasing daily. The majority of these children are from single-parent homes where sometimes parents are not working or have become disabled and therefore cannot work. Children who are raised in foster care and leave as adults do not have strong relationship ties most of the time and are at an increased risk for experiencing poverty, early parenthood and homelessness (American School Board Journal, 2007). The reason for most of the poverty in the United States is due to low family incomes.

This is especially true in women of childbearing age (Lee King, Duan, & Amaro, 2015). The dyad of mother and baby presents a special vulnerable population within the Appalachian region. Women, who experience physical, psychological or sexual abuse during childhood, are at an increased risk to have post-partum depression, especially if SUD co-exists (Ross & Dennis, 2009). This dyad of mother and child in an impoverished setting with limited resources to health care, despite access to insurance, results in a perpetual disparity that results in preventable mortality from a variety of disease processes (Lane et al.,

It is argued that the more the institutions that work on bringing parents together are the ones who have the biggest payoff or reward to the individual because with more interaction the closer they will become and form meaningful beneficial relationships with one another (Small 2009). These organizations are viewed as a means of expression for individuals or a conduit allowing them to touch and connect with those who share similar views no matter what the organization is. The main point of the book that individuals are shaped by their social interactions and organizations that they participate in is backed up by statistics throughout the book. The appendix provides many of the sources of data and statistics he used throughout the book. The author states that while most scholars understand the importance and major role these social networks play however-- when it comes to developing people very few of them understand how these networks exactly form or what sort of role these institutions play in helping make these connections happen and how they provide an environment that cultivates these beneficial relationships. The author even argues that participation and engagement in the childcare centers creates what he calls “compartmentalized intimates” which is where mothers or fathers form close trusting relationships with other parents who are also in similar situations (Small

One psychosocial factor is the family’s socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic statuses have been researched to be one of the most influential factors in rather or not a family will succeed or face challenges, it can be a determinant in the development of mental health, physical health, and emotional health. A parent’s educational level, their occupation, and income could place the family in either a beneficial or hindering situation, in return, affecting the way a parent could establish attachment with their child. For example, a single parent raising their child and having to manage two jobs, could result in limited attachment to their parent or primary caregiver. Parental stress and their possible experiences of adverse childhood

Family is of great importance to having a functional or dysfunctional development; it will help or impede the child to have a support system in place.

In addition, this means family support has improved due to knowledgeable studies conducted on new mothers and the realization that fathers are also suffering from postpartum depression and family support groups. Where as in the past mother’s where the only ones treated. For instance in an health article “Studies have shown that most US adults, including parents, have limited health literacy [3]; that is, large proportions performed poorly on health-related literacy tasks such as filling out an insurance form.”(Smith) By these researcher conducting these studies have now led the thought of

Depression is a serious situation in people’s lives. Especially adolescent mothers. In this report by Diana Mahoney, we are shown that teen pregnancy can lead to critical depression. Data taken from two consecutive longitudinal risk reduction interventions, Dr. Beth Bartnet and few of her colleagues discovered several depressive symptoms were linked with a 44% increased risk of following pregnancy, there are about 269 predominantly African American and low income teens. This information will be used throughout my essay to inform people that not only does a low income teen mother suffer, but so does the child. There is a pattern. Media affects body image, which leads to depression, which can lead to a teen wanting a companionship, then things

For as long as human families have existed, the core family group of a father, mother, and the children has been the ideal composition in what could be considered a balanced and fulfilling functional family. There had been many studies of the effects of having certain members of these groups on the family household present and absent. While there are many hypothesis of the effects of the children in the family in household with a missing parent, most of them are indeed negative and there had been studies that these can vary in many different aspects of a child’s upbringing. These effects will be discussed and functionality of the household family itself will be discussed to look at the issues

In the community I work within we have many suprasystems that affect the community however single parent homes, and lately single father households are impacted by our community’s lack of services, cultural awareness, and low-incomes. According to Thyer & Dulmus when there is only one parent, the family is often less well off financially and this is the main reason for so many family problems. Furthermore, reports show that the effects of coming from a low-income family can include things like lower education levels, lower economic achievement and can result in leaving the child feeling isolated and lonely. These parents are having trouble obtaining services for mental health services. The health system in place is rigid and inflexible,

During the years, single parent families have become a more common thing. This is starting to become a problem, because family dynamics can really influence a child’s life. According to studies it affects not only the child but the parents too.

1. Hymowitz, , Kay S. (2014, February 8). How single motherhood hurts kids. The New York Times. Retrired from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/.

Especially in today’s society, it’s disturbingly common for a child to have to grow up in a single parent household, letting the consequences of this scenario internally destroy the child like a virus. The effects are usually the same, but the frequency of the effects shouldn’t deter the severity. Another misconstrued ideal about single parent households, is whether or not the “statistics” and the “studies” taken on these families is enough to summarize the general population. They aren’t. The same goes for the causes, but on a much more significant scale. The causes and effects of single parent households implied by the studies and statistics are all true, but there’s a much bigger story that can’t be accurately measured or recorded. What the numbers show, are what represent the average. The non-hispanic White race represents the average race, low class to poverty level, and women to gender. But, as can be seconded by most struggling families in this situation, “average” doesn’t describe “real.” There are some things that can’t be taken into account, and those are the things that affect the child the most.