Parenting In The 1960's

During the 1930s and the Great Depression parenting was not focused on, but today it is a nationwide discussion. The laws developed for children's rights in the 1930s have changed parenting today since every child has a home, parents ensure a solid education, and children are no longer abused and neglected. The law regarding every child having a home states, "for every child's home and that love and security which a home provides" (Children's Charter)." During the 1930s many families were struggling economically, but they still had to ensure their child had a loving home. Today having a home is less of a problem than having a supporting home. Some parents today have begun "helicoptering" their children when it comes to education

Throughout the years parenting has changed in many ways. Some of these changes are positive and some have been negative and have been corrected. Parenting continues to change even today from the methods in the past based on new studies and known information about development. Different styles occur over time that separate that era from another. The 1960’s and 1970’s are no exception. Parenting continued to change in the 60’s and 70’s as similar to how they have always and will continue to change. Parenting in the 60’s and 70’s was unique due to little research, lack of physical restrictions, social trends, and views of kids’ capabilities.

Many experts on divorce and the effects on children agree that the actual separation of parents may not be the leading factor in depression. Robert Aseltine explains, "Divorce is seen as setting off a chain of negative events and transitions that are causally related to youths' psychological distress and may be more potent stressors than the physical separation of parents" (134). My personal experience has shown that money does not last as long when only one income supports the same number of children as two incomes previously supported. Aseltine concurs by stating, "Economic hardship is…thought to play a prominent role in explaining children's distress…Disrupted families generally experience dramatic declines in standard of living…" (134). When any person goes from one standard of living to a substantially lesser standard of living in a short amount of time they will have emotional stresses that will be difficult to deal with. This will cause great stresses in their lives creating barriers toward success. Financial situations are not always the main stress factor in depression among children of divorced parents.

The divorce rates nationally are just getting higher and higher year by year. The national average is that 50% of marriages end in divorce (mariage and divorce, 2015). Children who have divorced parents or parents who are going through divorce have more hard times. Some of the reasons of this are because, of the loss of the parent that they are not living

There were approximately 45.3 million people in poverty in 2013. This number went up 37.3 million since 2007. (DeNavas-Walt 2014, p. 12). The number of poor individuals is the largest it has been in the 52 years. In Ruth Sidel essay “Women and Children Last: The Plight of Poor Women in Affluent America”, she talks about the public misunderstandings about America's poor society. Women should be helped equally, but Sidel does not focus enough on women helping themselves. Sidel assumes that being poor just unexpectedly happens to the female population. In the reading she uses real life stories of women. One reoccurring theme is that the men in their life left them or fail to help them out with the children. Poverty includes more than single women with children. People that are elderly and can’t work is included, disabled and handicapped veterans or people in the army are included. Women make up some of the poverty population, but men makes up the other part. In 2013, there were 14,704,900 poor women and 10,990,100 poor men according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty isn’t just surrounded around women; men and children are included.

The statistics for divorce in the 1990's suggest that nearly sixty percent of marriages end in divorce. Given this startling figure, the assumption can be made that many children will experience some effects caused by the life-changing event called divorce. What is it exactly about divorce that causes negative consequences for these children? In what ways will these children be effected? Will these effects show outwardly? I will attempt to uncover some of the complexities surrounding these psychological questions in the following text. The unsettling fact is: young children of divorced parents face great psychological challenges due to the environmental conditions and changes associated with divorce (Wolchik and Karoly 45).

Divorce is a very common word in today's society. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, "divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage or a complete or radical severance of closely connected things"(Pickett, 2000). This dissolution of marriage has increased very rapidly in the past fifty years. In 1950 the ratio of divorce to marriage was one in every four; in 1977 that statistic became one in two. Currently one in every two first marriages results in divorce. In second marriages that figure is considerably higher, with a 67% average (National Vital Statistics Report, 2001). One critical aspect of divorce is often not taken into consideration: How it affects children. Every year 1.1 million children are affected by divorce

The American dream is summed up into the life of having a big house, with a picket fence, happy marriage, and having 2 children. Well that used to be what the stereotype was, but nothing is ever really that simple or perfect. The days when that would have been a reality is back somewhere in the 1950's, when women took care of the domestic duties and the men took care of the financial duties. Not everyone subscribes to that idea anymore, which makes childbearing a choice of sorts. Society has changed since the 1950's quite a bit, and so has the ideas behind becoming a parent; it's not longer as big a deal to not become a parent. The decision to not have children isn't always based on their wants, there are those who are unable to become parents based on lifestyles types. Another major reason young adults choose to not have children is based on educational and financial statuses.

When you compare divorce rates in the 1960s and 1970s with rates in the 1950s, it looks as if the family is falling apart. When you look further back in history, however, a somewhat different picture emerges. Divorce rates have been climbing more or less steadily since the late nineteenth century. The 1950s were an exception to this trend. Perhaps in reaction to the instability of the Great Depression and World War II, Americans placed an unusually high value on family life in this decade.

With the divorces being so high, the children are usually left in the custody of the mothers. The mother would then have to work full time in the work force, and as a parent. A lot of couples don’t realize how strong the value of family has on the children. The children pay attention to what happens with their parents and that’s what some children grow up being like at times. With parents divorcing more these days the family bond continues to decrease. Without family bonds, it leads to a broken family.

Poverty has increasingly become a noticeable issue worldwide over the past couple of decades. With the middle class steadily decreasing, considerable amounts of people are becoming part of the lower class, and even more of our world’s population are beginning to live in poverty. It is important to understand there are different definitions of poverty, and that is largely determined by what each country’s government determines as the cut off of poverty, otherwise known as the ‘poverty line’. Although some people could live above the poverty line, and still be struggling financially, it goes unrecognized by most research collection. However, what was initially noticed around the 1970’s is that there was a significant rise in women’s poverty statistics. More female-headed households were living in poverty, and a majority of those women belonged to a minority. This recognizable trend has been deemed the ‘feminization of poverty’, which according research is not only a growing problem in North America, but several other countries around the world. Information gathered about this issue in the United States shows that female-headed households is by far the fastest growing type of family structure, and due to the fact there is a growing poverty level amongst this group, it now means that approximately half of the all the poor in the United States live in a women-headed family and household. (Gimenez, 1999, p. 336) The biggest question when is comes to this particular topic is why?

Each and every day a child somewhere in the world is experiencing major changes within their family. One of those major changes is divorce or separation of parents. Divorce is “the action or an instance of legally dissolving a marriage”(Webster, 2011 p1). Today’s reality shows that couples only have one in two odds of remaining together. “ The U.S. Census bureau – involved in research about counseling children of divorce- estimating that approximately 50% of all American children born in 1982 lived in a single-parent homes sometime during their first 18 years. Mostly are due to divorce”(Children of Divorce, 2008 p.1). The rapid increase in divorce rates is a factor that has contributed to the large decline of the typical family. “Over 1

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,

Harvey and Fine say, in their book on the effects of divorce on children, that divorce has increased at a “contagious rate since 1980.” They argue that divorce in America is a “cultural burden of vast proportions,” and insist that the “pain extends beyond the persons who dissolve their relationships to children, parents, and dear friends.” Harvey and Fine

Divorce is a plague that is destroying numerous families across the United States of America. Sadly, when husbands and wives divorce, the children are often caught directly in the middle. Throughout the years divorce has been becoming more and more common. In the 1920's it was a rare find to know a person whom had been divorced, today it is a rarity not to know of one who has been, or will be divorced. Divorce has numerous effects on the structures of families, and many devastating effects on the children that must experience it, although sometimes necessary, divorce radically changes the lives of adolescents and adults alike.