The Australian Bureau Of Statistics ( Abs ) Website

The changing position of women in today’s society is in part responsible for the increase in family diversity. Women are now mens equals and can become very senior in their chosen professions through hard work and dedication. Because of this, women are less likely to want to have children early on in their careers and prevent themselves from getting pregnant until they have established themselves with a distinguished career. This trend is giving rise to smaller families of dual earners and thus increasing the family diversity in today’s society. Also, some of these women focus so heavily on their careers they never actually find a partner. And so, when they feel ready to have children they either go through the IVF process or adopt a child, again widening the diverse family types in Britain’s society today.

In 1901 just 4.0% of the Australian population were older people and after two decades this has increased to 6.4%. In 2011 the aged population continued to increase and reached 14%. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (Abs.gov.au, 2012) indicates that since the baby boomers are now becoming old, there has been a decrease in fertility rates and an increase in life expectancy. The population of people over 65 years has continued to increase and it is predicted that it will continue to increase for the next 50 years. As people become older they are more susceptible to becoming sick and in need of government benefits. Since there is a major

Abs.gov.au, (2014). 3101.0 - Australian Demographic Statistics, Mar 2014. [Online] Available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2014].

2. Andrews, G. & Slade, T. (2001) ‘Interpreting scores on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol 25(6), 494-7.3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2011) The health of Australia’s prisoners 2010, Cat. No. PHE 149, Canberra.4. Beck, A.T. & Steer, R.A. (1987) Beck Hopelessness Scale Manual. The Psychological Corporation, San Antonio.5. Beck, A. T. & Steer, R. A. (1990) Beck Anxiety Inventory Manual, San Antonio: Psychological Corporation.6. Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A. & Brown, G.K. (1996) Beck Depression Inventory II Manual, The Psychological Corporation, San Antonio.7. Berwick, D., Murphy, J., Goldman, P., Ware, J., Barsky, A. and Weinstein, M., Performance of a five-item mental health screening test, Medical Care 1991, 29:169-176.8. Beyond Blue n.d., ‘Checklists to Identify Depression and Anxiety’, viewed 16 January 2012, 9. Commonwealth of Australia (2009) Fourth National Mental Health Plan, An agenda for collaborative government action in mental health 2009–2014, Attorney-General’s Department, Barton, Australian Capital Territory. 10. Commonwealth of Australia (2009) National Mental Health Policy 2008, Attorney-General’s Department, Barton, Australian Capital Territory.11. Coombs, T. (2005) ‘Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network; Kessler -10 Training Manual’, NSW Institute of Psychiatry.

Single parent action network – Give advice and support forums on issues regarding single parents

The information gathered has been quite consistent with the expectations had before having begun this research report. The ageing population has been a topic that has discussed on the radio, in newspapers and on the news and so there was a fundamental understanding of the changing demographic facing the Australian population, though there wasn't much of understanding of why this was happening. This issue is something that many countries around the world are facing so this also makes it well publicised. In the future, more time could have been used to explore past Australian census which could provide more vital information on Australia's past and present populations

Research has shown that the Australian population is fast becoming an aging society. A huge proportion of older people accounting for this aging society were born overseas. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2011, 36% of

In 2017, an estimated 3.8 million Australians (15% of the population) are aged 65 and over compared with 2.2 million (13%) in 2007. An ageing population leads to:-

In the main body of the text, the author makes clear that in recent years, there has been a lot of social stigma emerging around young, single mothers who are on benefits.

The population profile of Australia has created impacting changes to how health care in Australia is to be delivered in the near future (Charlesworth, 2015). High rates of obesity, diabetes, heart diseases and poor life style choices such as smoking, alcohol and substance abuse, add to an existing crisis that imposes more pressure on an overworked healthcare system (Willcox, 2014).

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.

Historically, one of the most economically vulnerable groups in New Zealand and other Western countries are sole-parent families (Family Commissions, 2010). When examining historical influences in New Zealand on sole-parenting, one must consider the influential changes the Second World War era had on families and family structures. Sole-parenthood was not particularly common during the this period, as most women married young and went on to have children while the men worked to provide for their families or went off to war. (Families Commission, 2008, June). Unmarried women who fell pregnant were scrutinized as being unfit mothers and shamed for getting pregnant outside of marriage. These women were heavily encouraged to give their babies up for adoption to allow their children to live a “normal” life and were seen as selfish if they chose to keep the baby (Else, A., 2012).

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.

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

Problem behaviors in single parent homes could be the result of low income within the household. It was reported that 80% of single mother households had incomes of $15,000 of below (Peden, 2004). Loss of economic security can cause many problems in a single parent household. Economic problems may cause a loss of attachment between the parent and the child (Hollist &McBroom, 2006). Poverty has shown to cause poor mental health in single mothers and therefore having a bad influence on children. Poor mental health also had an effect on the mother's ability to perform at work or simply left them unemployed.