Children in the United States grow up in an array of family structures. Single-parent families and two-parent families are produced and reproduced through marriage, remarriage, divorce, and cohabitations aside of marriage. Forty percent of all children are born to unmarried mothers (Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 2016, para. 7). In fact, single-parent families are the fastest growing family structure. In 2016, 28% of children were living in single-parent families and this number has slowly continued to increase over the past centuries (U.S. Census, 2016, para. 8). The greater number of single-parent families are the result of divorce. Half of all marriages end in divorce, although 78% of men and 69% of women who divorce eventually
