The Effects of Single Parenting on the Family

The Effects of Single Parenting on the Family Single parenting has been a part of me throughout my entire life. Being raised in a single parent home, my mother struggled to support her four children. Today, I also am a single parent experiencing many of the same stressors my mother had to endure. While observing my mother juggle the time she spent working, mentoring her children, and participating in church activities, I had no idea of the complexity of her daily struggles. Now that I am experiencing the same situation, I recognize that much research has been completed on the issue of single parenting and its effects on the family. Many researchers, based on statistical data, believe that children born in two-parent homes have less health, behavioral, and educational problems than children of single-parent households (Amato 4). My personal concern of this topic has left me with several questions. Does family structure predict the future outcome of children's health, educational accomplishments, social behavior, economic class, or chances of also becoming a single parent? Or is the effectiveness of quality parenting and developing strong parent-child relationships most important? Two sociologists, McLanahan and Sandefur, have come to the conclusion that this particular family structure limits children and results in lower achievements in academics and other areas of life (McLanahan). In this paper, I will give an overall view of the life of a single parent including problems they face and the effects it has on the family. Single-parent families are on the rise and they are becoming as common as the nuclear family, which consist of a father, mother, and children. "Ninety percent of single-parent families are headed by females" (Kirby). This drastic increase is causing a paradigm shift in how "the family" is viewed. A few decades ago, the typical American family was a nuclear family with the father as the "breadwinner". Although traditions

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