SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES

Single Parent Families

Single Parent Families

Introduction

Single-parent families in today's society have their share of daily struggles and long-term disadvantages. The issues of expensive day care, shortage of quality time with children, balance of work and home duties, and economic struggle are among the seemingly endless problems these families must solve (McQueen, 2000).

As many single-parent households are female-headed, their economic burden is much greater than that of a single-father family. This issue results from the fact that single women typically do not earn the same income as a single man; thus, there is a consequent economic struggle not experienced in the single-father household. Single parenthood may occur for a variety of reasons. It could be opted for by the parent (as in divorce, adoption, artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood, or extramarital pregnancy), or be the result of an unforeseeable occurrence (such as death or abandonment by one parent).

Discussion

An offshoot of this economic struggle is the balance of work and family duties. Single mothers often must work overtime shifts to compensate for the low salaries, thus taking time away from their children and other domestic chores. This results in a child that is home alone, without adult supervision, or placed in a daycare service for up to 8-10 hours per day. Government subsidized daycare is not yet a realized dream, and many single mothers pay large fees for this service. The parental adjustment perspective suggests that children in single parent families suffer because their parents have difficulty adjusting and functioning (Rickard, 2001). The living and parenting arrangements of single parents are diverse. When parents separate, one party usually parents for the majority of the time but most continue to share parenting to some extent with the other parent (Rickard, 2001). Single parent families are at a higher risk of poverty than couple families, and on average single mothers have poorer health than couple mothers. Globally, one-quarter to one-third of all families are headed by single mothers, calling into question the normative ness of couple headed families. Developed countries, in particular, are experiencing an increase in single-parent families as divorce becomes more common. The United States has the highest percentage of single-parent families (34% in 1998) (Rickard, 2001).

There was a dramatic increase in single-parent families in the United States in the last three decades of the twentieth century. Single-parent families can be defined as families where a parent lives with dependent children, either alone or in a larger household, without a spouse or partner. There was a rapid and drastic increase in the number of single-parent families in the latter half of the twentieth century (Callister, 2006). This change has been used by some to argue that we are witnessing the breakdown of the family (defined as a married couple residing with their dependent offspring) with negative effects for children, families, and society. Others suggest that single-parent families have been present in all societies over time and should not be viewed as deviant or problematic, but rather as an alternative family ...