Chastity Britton
Ms. Carter
English 12
November 19, 2015
“The Effects of Single Parenting”
A number of everyday struggles and disadvantages are experienced by single parent families today. Problems such as families have to face can range from expensive day care, economic hardship, even trouble in balancing both home and work, another problem is the ability to spend limited quality time with children. (Ambert, 2006). Single parent families can be defined as families that only have one parent taking care of the household. They are either widowed, divorced, or their spouse has died. Children of single parents are less supervised, less disciplined, and they lack a relationship with their parents.
Single parenting are mostly generally categorized by the sex of the parent, mothers only families includes divorced, separated women, widows, and never married women. There are many cases of divorces that have children involved, when there is a case of divorce women are given the custody in the United States and in other developed countries. When a married gets a divorced that have children involved it breakdown a family, that leaves the mother or father which ever does not have custody that leave them to try and fight for visitation to see their child(ren). Single parenting has a big toll on children, one of the attributed sections are the lower socioeconomic status of the single parent, when parents get divorce that is a short term consequence over time. A problem that has been found
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
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,
You might not often think of being a single parent family as a bonus for your kids. There have been many sacrifices along the way, and plenty of times when you wished things were different. However, there are some positive effects of single parenting that you should bear in mind as you raise your children:
Many children in today’s society have grown to become successful and mentally stable whether they had two parents, or one parent raise them. With everything in life it is never about quantity, but quality. This could apply to single parenting as well. As long as a parent create a stable and nurturing home their child will grow up to be a mature, hard working, independent, and loving adult. Family structure should not be the main focus when it comes to raising children, the focus should be on the values and life lessons that are taught to the child as they mature in life. Family structure in the last decade have change drastically. Children are being raised by same sex parents, grandparents, extended family, a single father, or a single
Failure in relationships compels some parents to leave a two-parent household and settle on becoming a sole parent (De Vaus & Qu, 2011). There are those who were simply left behind by their partners, while some become single parents by choice or due to the death of a partner. Parenting issues on limited resources, child care, unemployment, lack of support system, psychological trauma, stress and child rearing difficulties interplay with the well being of the parent and the children (AIHW, 2015). Single mothers are often marginalized leading to relatively lower control over their lives, access to resources and at times even stigmatized. Dependency, poverty, vulnerability and feelings of social exclusion are typical experiences of single parents in social marginalization and economic dislocation (Qu & Weston, 2010). The scarcity of resources and negative impact of the burdens in single parenthood on health can inadvertently result to higher health risks and shorter life span (Talbot & Verrinder,
Families who have dealt with being a single parent typically see themselves being judged by other parents. For example, Jamie Rush a teen mom said "If he acts up, or if he falls over and bumps his head, I always think people are looking at me as if to say "It's because you're a teenager." (Rush 3). This shows that teen moms are trying their best and love their kids too. Schools are helping teenage single parents. Take the case of Jamie, after she gave birth to her son, she went to an alternative school with a built in daycare (Rush 1). This tells you that there is help for teens out there, but it's not always available to everyone. Socially speaking, one of the primary causes of single parents is because of one of the parent's death. Through research, we have found that the primary cause of single-parent households was because of parental death (Chamie 1). This proves that not all single-parent homes is because of teen pregnancies. As a result, there are many single parents struggling with being judged, or because of significant other's death. But there are schools, helping
This journal explains that researchers, such as Amato, have several theories that explain why and how children growing up with single parents have an elevated risk of experiencing problems. Some of these problems include cognitive thinking, social interaction and the emotional well-being of the child. Most of the theories discuss economic and parental resources available to children. They also talk about the stressful events and circumstances to which these children must adapt.
Today, many households are headed by single women raising children, some with the presence or involvement of the father and others without. According to Vargas et al. (2016), parenting by a single mother is defined as a home sustained by a maternal caregiver for many reasons to include absence, neglect, divorce, or death of the other parent. According to Anderson (2002), half of American children at some point in their childhood will live in a household that’s being reared by a single parent, who is primarily the mother. Lowry (2005) uses the term “social disaster” when describing the epidemic of absenteeism of father from the household.
Past and present, children all over the world raised in a single parent household have been seen as “different”. Although it may seem hard to raise a kid all by yourself, in today’s society it has become a lot more common. In today’s world, kids grow up a lot more emotionally stable commonly, no matter having one or two parents to show them how to grow up and live a responsible, successful life. The situation that arises in most cases, presents a clear difference between children raised by two parents and those who are raised by a single parent. Do kids even need two parents in their life? Does the government give aid when the focus comes down to kids who need it, when they are raised by only one parent? When step-parents come into the picture,
Children of single parent households may find that they do not feel as close to the parent that they live with. This can be because the children are a different gender than the parent or because the parent has increased the children’s responsibilities. Children that are a different gender than the parent that they live with may find that they are unable to confide in or ask questions of that parent due to the gender difference. An example of this could be that a daughter raised by her father may miss out on advice that only a mother can give. Children of single parent households may also find an increase in their responsibilities as the single parent is no longer able to perform all the household duties that they were able to prior to becoming a single parent household. A single parent will spend more time outside of the home and may be unavailable to make sure that the children are fed at night and do their
However, by rising to these challenges, custodial single parents develop significant strengths. The positive benefits of being a single parent are that the child receives a lesson in independence. The child sees how strong the one parent is at providing them with everything they need without having to depend on someone else. The parents are showing their children that it is possible to live on their own, have an enjoyable life and take care of others while doing so. The children will know that they are a priority to the parent. When there is a second parent around the house, it can be easy to put responsibility off on them, but when the children see how hard the parent is working for them, they will understand how important they are to their parent. (Dowd, 1997)
Single- parent families are characterized in several different ways. These include single- parenthood due to the following: divorce, as a result of death, individual choice (unwed pregnancy, adoption), or types of temporary work-related situations, such as military deployment (Gladding, 2015). Regardless of what leads to the family being restructured, the hardships and stressors that the family faces during this time are quite similar. Every aspect of the family system tends to change, which includes but is not limited to income, housing, parenting styles and relationships with family
Parenting styles have had many controversial issues over the decades. The way people raised their children back in the 50’s and 60’s are completely different from today society. Back then they believe in the nuclear family, which is a family with a mom, dad, and children. They believe staying together at all cost. If something was breaking or broken you fixed it. At times you wonder if they stayed for love, money, or just for the sake of the children. Now and days it is not the same. Families are broken up for many reasons. Rather it be by death, the other parent wanting out (such as divorce). But in the end there is always a single parent left to take care of the kids in most situations. When something like this happens a negative connotation is brought to the single parent. This paper would show the effects of being raised by a single parent. Just like everything in life there is a good and bad side to everything. So in this paper you should learn the negative and positive effect of being raised by a single parent. The problem of the matter is that society tends to write off the child of single parents. Stating that they are lead down this road of destruction and grouping the entire single parent raised children without seeing the other side. Not saying that being raised by a single parent does not come with it hardships, but the fact is that there is still hope for those children and they can do very well. By always stating the negative it leaves the
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
Some of the negative effects on a child being raised in a single parent home can be seen in the early years of their development. The child can start to feel infer to other children around them who have both parents present. These feelings of inferiority can stay with a child all the way to adulthood later in life. This negative impact can harm their ability to gain confidence leading to poor work in school and work later in life. The child will also feel neglected which can make it hard for them understand forming relationships with other people. This affects their understanding of how to act with other on a social basis during a critical time in their development. Also due to a parent needing to work longer hours to make up for the missing half of the house the child will not see them often. Missing parental presence can lead to very poor care of that child to the point that their health also goes into decline.