Lone Parenthood Sociology

Child poverty is becoming more of a big issue now more than ever in the U.K, with so many people unemployed and living on benefits. Children across the country are being deprived of basic living standards. The price of living is going up and it’s no wonder people are struggling to make ends meet. In my essay, I will talk about all aspects of how child poverty impacts greatly on children’s lives. I will talk about the effects poverty has on a child’s health, housing, education and social exclusion. I will also talk about how child poverty can be tackled, and the causes of child poverty with in the United Kingdom.

This essay will attempt to analyse child poverty in Britain together with the causes and effects of child poverty. To be able to eradicate poverty, the definition of poverty is fundamental because they set the standards to determine the fairness and adequacy of the income and standard of living of the poorest in the society. (PSE, 2016)

You can see most fathers that are incarcerated and you find many lone- mothers are raising the child. That’s where you can find the boy or girl alone and that’s where you can get your high level of poverty and behavioral problems. Rebecca O’Neill said, 70% of young offenders identified by Youth Teams come from lone-parent families. American studies have shown boys from one-parent were twice as likely to be incarcerated by the age of 30 years old (Page 10). Rebecca O’Neill said, Children ages from 11 to 16 years were 25% more likely to have offend in the last year if they lived with lone-parents and it’s because lack of supervision from the father.

In the essay “In Defense of a Single Motherhood” by Katie Roiphe, she explains how diverse families are becoming. She speaks on single mothers can be both back a good their child’s development. And how couples can also be good and bad to a child’s development. By giving different kinds of scenarios and research she gives her view on what the problem actually is. Ultimately, Roiphe’s essay “In Defense of a Single Motherhood” works as an Informative essay because of its adept use of ethos, pathos, and logos.

This report will focus on contemporary poverty in the UK although poverty is different globally, it will look at childhood in general and show the effect that poverty has on the experiences of childhood. The report will define poverty and use statistics and government policy on poverty. Three sources will be analysed, for the academic my main source is on the book of Ridge (2002) which is Childhood Poverty and Social Exclusion from a Childs perspective, next for media source it is a documentary called Poor Kids and my case study is on a lone parent family. Townsend who was a sociologist in (1979) defined poverty he said

Lone-parent families struggle to get social assistance from the government because of the welfare policies. Single parents lack affordable childcare with long waiting list, no available space, but if available, it is likely to be costly for single parents to afford. High quality regulated child care is inaccessible to single parent families, and it is not contested; in addition, Canada’s public funding for childcare is very low, consequently, the quality is not as high as it should be. Furthermore, they lack drug and dental benefits and of full time well paid employment, have made it difficult if not impossible for many single parents, as they struggle to balance the competing demands of caring for and providing support for their children.

Stephanie Gonzalez is a 16 year old teenager who grew up and was raised in Chicago by only her mother and older brother. Stephanie has had to persevere through several challenges and obstacles in her life due to the fact that her father left her when she was only an infant. Stephanie was willing to speak out about how her culture needs to relook at the way they view single-parent households in society and how she was deeply affected by the way she grew up (Gonzalez). The percentage of children living with single parents increased substantially in the United States during the second half of the 20th century. Only nine percent of children lived with single parents in the 1960s, while this statistic increased dramatically to 28 percent in 2012. Growing

Up until recently, there was an assumption that this was not a choice for women whether to have a family, it was an understanding that we would. For those of us who chose not to, we faced unfair judgment from family, friends, and other women because we violated gender-specific expectations. Even if our reasons were solely economic based on having enough income before having children, the expectations remained unmovable. Despite these unwritten rules, my defiance prevailed as I relied on logic and common sense to decide only to have children when I had the resources to support this investment in a human life. Motherhood was a serious, life-changing, and long-term decision. When women see friends and our own mothers struggling to make ends meet because of the loss of the primary earner through death,

There are evidently various perspectives pertaining to single mothers and low-income households that shape the mentality and perception of society as a whole, for instance, the government, media, advocacy groups, etc. The government possesses a very neoliberal view regarding this subject because of the current capitalist economic system that emphasizes the ideology of the individual and their personal responsibility and freedom. This is what constitutes the idea that welfare and all types of social assistance is bad, as it creates lazy people that are stripped of their personal freedom to participate in the workforce. Power proposes in his article,

Child poverty is not just something that poorer countries have to deal with, it is a world-wide issue involving even the richest countries, where the disparity between rich and poor can be worse than in developing countries. This essay will examine some of the key causes of child poverty as well as the impacts on society. The reality of child poverty in the UK is that some families living on a low income and have only about £13 per day per person. (Barnardo’s online 2015). With this in mind, many people may well have met, or know, families that are below the UK poverty line.

There is much debate on what constitutes as a family today. However, Ball (2002) states, “The concept of the traditional family…is not an immutable one. It is a social construct that varies from culture to culture and, over time, the definition changes within a culture” (pp. 68). There is a growing diversity of families today including the commonality of sole-parenting. In order to explore aspects of sole-parenthood objectively, I need to reflect and put aside my personal experience of growing up in sole-parent household. Furthermore, this essay will explore the historical origins, cultural aspects discussing the influences and implications of gender identity, and social structures of sole-parent families, as well as consider the

Whereas there are some programs for single parents, churches need to take on effective ministries with/for single parents given that advocates are needed.

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.

The journal article is talking about the difficulties which the single-parent families facing, such as emotional problems, housing stress and financial stress. It generated different viewpoints from different literature, and suggested an approach to meet the needs of single-parents.

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.