Having A Single Parent Home In Canada

Watching parents take a home from a traditional family lifestyle to a "broken" home by getting a divorce is very devastating to a child's mental well-being. As Judith Seltzer notes, "Recent reviews summarize evidence that children are emotionally

Children and single parenting begins with the divorce of a couple who have children. The majority of children live with their mother. Non custodial fathers usually have less contact with their children, and involvement usually declines as time goes by. Since most single-parent households are mother-headed their income is usually below that of a man, this causes economic distress and fewer opportunities for educational and extracurricular experiences for the child. Economic constraints may limit growth enhancing experiences. Even children whose fathers pay substantial child support are faced with limiting experiences. Children hate divorce because having two of the most important people in your life living apart hurts. For children,

In Canada, 1,527,840 families have a single parent home. In the world, 320 million children live in a single parent home. Having two parents doubles the effectiveness of role modeling for kids, and helps not only the child, but the parent as well because it cuts down on responsibilities and availability for the child. Having one parent does influence a child’s life greatly. In Spoiled Molly Dix grew up with only a mother, and Brooke Berlin grew up having her celebrity father who was unavailable most of the time, while her mother had left her father and herself at a very young age. The novel proved how important it was having a healthy parent relationship with their child, even with only one parent, and how it affected both girls lives. Having

The essay “In Defense of Single Motherhood” by journalist Katie Roiphe is best summed up by the title. The writer is a single mother of two children and is fighting back against the stereotype that say children from a single parent household will not have as fulfilling a life as they would with two parents. She goes on to explain how she believes the studies on single mother-led households are flawed.

Lack of parental relationships is another cause of negative effects of divorce. When parents’ divorce, they end up living with one parent or the other, and the other has limited visitation rights, if any at all. If the child is moving from house to house this change can leave them feeling displaced and unstable. When children are estranged from one parent they have to cope with losing a parent on top of coping with divorce. This is because parents tend to alienate their children in some situations that come along with divorce, and that crush a young adult’s confidence in other relationships and cause confusion (Block & Spiegel, 2017). Eleanor had to deal with being estranged from her father because he did not want to be in her life (Rowell, 2013). These young adults loose the model of healthy relationships that teach them to create healthy relationships as well (Bowels, n.d). Rowell writes Eleanor as always thinking relationships are going to end and even cut off her relationship with Park (2013). Both parents need to allow

In the last few decades, families in Canada have been experiencing conspicuous changes in family structure and style. Further flexible agreements have been observed with a raise in the number of couples that live in common-law relationships including stepfamilies in a larger circumstance of high divorce rates. The highest compelling family tendency in Canada is that of the growing number of single parent families. According to Statistics Canada (2007), while in 1966, single parents represented only 8.2% of the number of headcount families, this representation increased to 15.9% in 2006. In other words, in forty years the rate of single parent families approximately doubled. Even though many educational gains have been made by single parents

Summary: Singles mother hurt themselves and children by trying to show society that they are strong and that they can survive by their own. This source show us how kids can be affected in a bad way because of their mother status. When those women decide to bring to the family a new integrant, kids get hurt with their emotional and in their academy life as shown in this quote “ The more “transitions” experienced by a child — the arrival of a stepparent, a parental boyfriend or girlfriend, or a step- or half sibling — the more children are likely to have either emotional or academic problems, or both.” (Hymowitz, 2014)

Children of divorce are far more likely to experience psychological difficulties, and these difficulties are likely to carry into adulthood. These children are faced with high rates of depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, and less satisfaction within their daily lives. In the novel “For Better Or for Worse”, expert of family dynamics Mavis Hetherington, reveals that “[t]wenty-five percent of youths from divorced families in comparison to 10 percent from non-divorced families did have serious social, emotional, or psychological problems.” They will also require more frequent use of mental health services than those with intact families. In the American Journal of Family Law, Doctor Sandford Portnoy investigates the psychological effects divorce has on offspring. “Girls from divorced families have, in some cases, been found to be significantly more depressed than girls from intact families, while boys are more hopeless and discouraged as the level of family distress increases.” These psychological difficulties will then accompany them into their adult relationships, where they will struggle with marital instability, satisfaction, conflict, and

There is so much emotional distress that these children endure due to their parents being in a divorce that one can only imagine the fragile state of mind that they are in. An example of such is being with one parent for a few days that may differ from the other, religiously, economically and socially from the other parent. This causes tension and confusion amongst the children that affects their everyday life and well-being. Another example would be, if one parent tells the child that school is important and they should strive for better by getting good grades and going to college, and the then on the other days the other parent is telling the child that going to college gets you nowhere, it causes disparagement and confusion within the child making them feel displaced.

These problems can include mental well-being issues and economic attainment issues due to the standard of life decreasing in early life. A professor of Interpersonal Health Communication named Tamara Afifi did research on adolescence and young-adults that came from broken families. She explains how these children are more likely to get a divorce themselves, become less satisfied with romantic relationships as well as their relations with their parents which have previously been said due to trust or commitment issues. A student of Afifi’s that suffered a family breakdown told her, “Every relationship I go into I constantly remind myself that in a month or a year, I will lose them.” The ordeal of their childhood has been etched into their minds like stone. In addition to emotional impacts, divorce can cause economic issues that decreases their standard of life. Custodial mothers suffer a 25-50 percent loss of their income pre-divorce. Furthermore, only 50 percent of these mothers obtain child support. This can have many impacts on a child including lower academic achievements which can drastically affect a child’s future income throughout adulthood. If mothers were more aware and receive more help from child services then the child would have a better chance throughout the future. All of these problems are likely to affect future generations,

The single parent also showed lower ego functioning and in turn were less playful with the children, less empathetic, less tolerant of negative behavior from the children, and more likely to display non-age appropriate behavior (Walker & Hennig, 1997). Single mothers are more likely to make negative statements about and to their children, therefore resulting in a low self esteem in the child. Walker and Hennig (1997) also discovered an up side to single parenting, the relationship between parent and child was more nurturing. This could come from the loss of intimacy in the single parent's life.

Children need intact families to flourish. It is hard to imagine that if the family is torn apart, a child can simply adjust to a new situation, home, step-parent, siblings, and entire change of life as they know it without suffering significant effects upon their mental health and development lacks. Despite voices that serve to minimize the effects of divorce on children, this paper will show that the negative effects upon their mental health and development are such that the best solution is to avoid divorce all together. According to Stinson and Jones, “well-being on the road to adulthood for both children and teens hinges on family relationships.”

Pauline expresses that there is a lot of arguing with her Dad & Stepmother. This provides risk for her as serious conflict between caregivers and children can put them at the risk of the problem behaviours (Channing Bete Company 2004). The separation of a child’s parents can put him/her at risk especially if there are a lot of changes or that the child does not have a good relationship with at least one parent (Burt 2002). It has been indicated in a study that girls in two parent families are less likely to act out risky behaviours than those in single parent families. (M.D. Resnick et al 1993). Children or adolescents who are well reasonably well adjusted after divorce nearly always come from an environment where there is a firm, responsive, nurturing, supportive adult (Henderson 2002). Pauline’s recent history is shows this sort of environment has not been there for her. A factor that protects an adolescent is having an adult in her life she can trust and with whom she can confide. The presence of an adult Mentor in an adolescents life helps reduce the participation in risk taking behaviours. (Beier et al 2000). Pauline reports having a close relationship with her Aunty Sarah who lives down the road with her Nan. She is able to confide with Aunty Sarah and feels close to her. This is a significant protective factor for Pauline.

These include academic deterioration, antisocial and delinquent behaviors, anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression. Early promiscuity, relationship difficulties, and illicit drug use are also noted. Other studies correlate resiliency in adulthood as one product of living in a conflictual family system”(Rich et al., 2007 p.164). The effects of divorce vary depending on the situation and the child. “Hess and Camara found that many children of divorce suffer severe emotional consequences such as depression, anger, anxiety, and withdrawal, any of which, if prolonged, can have a negative impact on the child’s overall emotional development. It is also reported adjustment problems in the area of cognitive, emotional, and social development among children of divorce as well. In addition, parental separation has been found to be particularly stressful for adolescents”(Bornstein and Walters, 1988 p.248).

This paper tackles the various effects of divorce on a child not just on a short term basis but as well as the long term ones such as depression, anxiety, drug addiction, and alcoholism.