The Effects of Single Parenting on Children
Effects of Single Parenting on Children
For as long as human families have existed, the core family group of a father, mother, and the children has been the ideal composition in what could be considered a balanced and fulfilling functional family. There had been many studies of the effects of having certain members of these groups on the family household present and absent. While there are many hypothesis of the effects of the children in the family in household with a missing parent, most of them are indeed negative and there had been studies that these can vary in many different aspects of a child’s upbringing. These effects will be discussed and functionality of the household family itself will be discussed to look at the issues mostly in the mother and child side. This is because typically in a single parent family it is usually the mother that the children will be left with after a divorce or separation takes place. It is true that in many circumstances that a single parent father may be left responsible for the children but this does not seem to occur nearly as likely as many times unwed pregnancies leave the mother responsible for raising the child. The fact is however that these occurrences of single parent families especially for single parent mothers are prevalent enough to be an issue. This is even more so as studies have indicated that unwed births, which increase the amount of single parent families, have been increasing as well. Trends have been found that in from the year 1960 and 1995 an increase of 26.9% of unwed births has been seen while an increase of 4.4% between the years 1995 to 2005. Studies in 2004 suggest that the percentage of women of ages 20-24 who have given birth to children are unmarried 55% of the time while women of ages 25-29 are unmarried 29% of the time when bearing children (5).
The importance of this issue is well known and has been addressed for a long time since single mother circumstances has always been
For as long as human families have existed, the core family group of a father, mother, and the children has been the ideal composition in what could be considered a balanced and fulfilling functional family. There had been many studies of the effects of having certain members of these groups on the family household present and absent. While there are many hypothesis of the effects of the children in the family in household with a missing parent, most of them are indeed negative and there had been studies that these can vary in many different aspects of a child’s upbringing. These effects will be discussed and functionality of the household family itself will be discussed to look at the issues mostly in the mother and child side. This is because typically in a single parent family it is usually the mother that the children will be left with after a divorce or separation takes place. It is true that in many circumstances that a single parent father may be left responsible for the children but this does not seem to occur nearly as likely as many times unwed pregnancies leave the mother responsible for raising the child. The fact is however that these occurrences of single parent families especially for single parent mothers are prevalent enough to be an issue. This is even more so as studies have indicated that unwed births, which increase the amount of single parent families, have been increasing as well. Trends have been found that in from the year 1960 and 1995 an increase of 26.9% of unwed births has been seen while an increase of 4.4% between the years 1995 to 2005. Studies in 2004 suggest that the percentage of women of ages 20-24 who have given birth to children are unmarried 55% of the time while women of ages 25-29 are unmarried 29% of the time when bearing children (5).
The importance of this issue is well known and has been addressed for a long time since single mother circumstances has always been
References: Djerkji, Erdes-Kavecan, Milka Oljaca, Svetlana Kostovic, and Maja Kovacevic. “Relationship between psychosocial and physical health of a child with the dimensions of the functioning of single-parent families.” HealthMed 6.1 (2012): 301-308. Print. K, Plutzer and M. Keirse. “Incidence and prevention of early childhood caries in one- and two-parent families.” Child: Care, Health & Development 37.1 (2011): 5-10. Print Ayhan, Bilgic, Runa Uslum and Oya O. Kartal. “Comparison of Toddlers with Pervasive Developmental Disorders and Developmental Delay Based on Diagnosis Classification: 0-3 Revised.” Archives of Neuropsychiatry 48.3 (2011): 188-194. Print. Baharudin, Rozumah, Steven E Krauss, Siti N. Yacoob, and Tan J. Pei. “Family Processes as Predictors of Antisocial Behaviors among Adolescents from Urban, Single-Mother Malay Families in Malaysia.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies 42.4 (2011): 509-522. Print. Percentage of Births to Unmarried Women. childtrendsdatabank.org Child Trends DataBank. 2007. http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/pdf/75_PDF.pdf How Do Fathers Fit In? CiviTas. The Institute for the Study of Civil Society. http://www.civitas.org.uk/hwu/fathers.php