Single Parent Household Research Paper

The Problem with single parent households and the effects it can have on children Many people growing up considered having two parents a mother and a father to be the “norm”. It would have been considered a broken home an illegitimate child in the past. However in more recent times the norm is now having just one parent at home because now people simply wish to be alone. However, living in a single-parent household can be one of life 's biggest challenges not only for the Adult but also the child or children involved. Seemingly overnight, people find themselves having to take responsibility for raising their child or children on their own. Although it goes without saying many people can care for their children on their own just as well as …show more content…
Currently, our marriage rate for the U.S is for every one thousand people 6.8 get married. Our divorce rate is for every one thousand people 3.6 get divorced (cdc.gov “marriage and divorce”). Essentially almost half of marriages end in divorce. This leaves many children living in a single family household. In the first few years after a divorce, the children have higher rates of antisocial behavior, aggression, anxiety, and school problems than children in two-parent families. However, some of these problems may be attributed to a decrease in available resources and adult supervision. Early studies have shown that adolescence that experience divorces are prone to academic, emotional, and behavioral problems. In a recent article I read, In 1971, a study was done on 60 divorced families over a five-year period to see how their children adjusted. At the end of this study, they concluded that one-third of the kids adjusted well and had good relationships with both their parent. However the remainder of the children remained extremely depressed, had problems keeping friends and continually wished their parents would reconcile.( “Research on the effects of family structure on children” Para.2) Divorce is an all-around bad thing for anyone involved, so it came to no surprise that the majority of kids involved suffered in the long …show more content…
Children living with single parents are exposed to more stressful experiences and circumstances than are children living with married parents. What is stress? Stress is when external demands exceed people 's coping resources. This results in feelings of emotional distress, a reduced capacity to function in school, work, and family roles (“ Why do single parent families put children at risk” para.6). Living in poverty is stressful and accompanied with that comes many emotional effects for the children. Some symptoms include low self-esteem and anger. Not only that but just by growing up in a single-parent household many kids find themselves to feel abandoned, sad, lonely and they have difficulty socializing and making relationship with others. Some children even grow to resent their parent. This can be very stressful for any parent to see their child go through. However, these effects vary from one child to the next, and more so the individual parenting style of the single parent is a big factor in how the child developments. A common explanation for the issues found among the children of single parents has been the absence of the male role In the family (Gongla 1982). Many a times the relationship between the child and father can be strained and difficult. It 's common to find that fathers start to become disinterested in their children and detached