Poverty : A Single Parent Family

Poverty, the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor (Webster Dictionary). Poverty is a constant issue for not only the America, but all over the world. This theme runs the course of the books narrative, and is clearly shown in the

Poverty is “about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter”(what is poverty, 2009). Everybody might know this meaning and the problem.

Did you know that more than one fourth of all children in the United States live with only one parent? Single parenting has become more common today than in the 1800s, when it was sometimes frowned upon. As the years have gone by, it has become easier and easier for women to become single parents. In the 1800’s if husbands died or abandoned their families, women had no choice but to work for extremely low and unfair wages. Today, most men and women are treated equal and receive equal wages making it easier for women to be single parents. This concept is shown in Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer through Aunt Polly in the 19th century, single parenting is also common today.

Poverty is a hard concept for people to put into words. Ruby Payne states a working definition of poverty in her book A Framework for Understanding Poverty in which she says, “The extent to which an individual does without resources” (7). For a better look, the dictionary defines poverty as “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions”

Poverty is a situation in which income is inadequate to provide for basic needs such as food, shelter, medical care, and clothing. Poverty has been a problem for societies since the beginning of time.

In 2002, number of children living with their single parent was 16.5 million (Davidson). The most important thing is that each single-parent family is different from the other. Children who live with a widowed mother will definitely be living a different home life from children with divorced parents or the one whose parents were never married. Children of the parents who were divorced will always have some kind of relationship with parents and parents’ partners. But it is obvious that children from single-parent families face tougher times economically as well as

Poverty is not having enough money to have the basic necessities in life. It is an issue within the United States and the world. There are many children that grow up in poverty and the effects can last throughout the life. When growing up in poverty there can be high- risk of teen pregnancy, poor heath, crime, Drug use and a lack of education. (Boyden)

What is poverty? According to the Dictionary, “Poverty is said to exist when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs.” Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not

Poverty is the state or condition of having little to no money or goods. In America, poverty started being a major issue in the late 1950s when it reached 22.4 percent of the American population.

Poverty is a state of deprivation lacking the usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. (Poverty) Poverty in the United States is a well know issue just like in other countries. Even though the United States is a powerful country it stills has problems and poverty is a major problem in the United States. According to the United States Bureau, the poverty rate in 2016 was 12.7 percent, which is down 0.8 from the previous rate in 2015.

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing are now epidemic in American society. Both forms of disrupted families are harmful to children and to society. The children of single parents are more likely to do poorly in school, commit crimes, and become single parents themselves. In addition, the increase in single-parent families contributes to such social problems as poverty, crime, and a decline in the quality of public education.

For most people, the home life can affect how you act everyday, this is no different for children and school. The stress from home is shown to affect a child's school life. Research has shown that children that live with a single parent score less than children with two parents, on average, with measurements of educational achievements. The reason why children usually do worse than kids with both parents, is because the single parent must work. Therefore is not home to help with homework. Parents also provide the child with emotional support, encouragement and everyday assistance. So, if there is only one parent, then the child is only receiving half of the previously stated things compared to children with two parents. These things can affect a person at any school level. Over 57 percent of children who live with both parents enter college. Compared to the 32.5 percent of children who have single parents that enter college. This is just one way that single parenting can affect a child's life.\

Single parent families, especially those headed by a female, differ greatly from married couple families in their characteristics. Single parent families are more likely to be poor, receive welfare, and contain young children. In 1990 female-headed households had a poverty rate of 33.4 percent while poverty rates for married couple and male-headed households were 5.7 and 12.0, respectively. (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1991a). As reflected by their higher poverty rate, the earnings power of women heading households is far less than that of married couples or male only

According to a recent study from CBS, the United States has the highest divorce rate of any country at 45%. Due to this high rate of divorce, many families find that there is an imbalance of family roles in these newly created single parent households. Being a single parent has its own set of challenges for the individual and creates challenges for the family such as, spending smaller amounts of time with your children, having an excessive work load and disrupting the wellbeing of the children.

Married couples make up 68% of all families with children under 18, compared to 93% in 1950 (US 2015 Census). This demonstrates that more and more children are living in households with single parents. Single parents have to deal with jobs and other sources of stress making it difficult to give their children the attention they need. Additionally, single parents are the only ones that are providing for the family so they have a lot on their plate. This can provide stress on the child because they can feel unloved or even hated. As the rate of single parents go up, so does the amount of children that are not receiving enough