HW3: Single-Parent Families - How Do They Affect Children?

Single parent families are those families that may have been the products of divorce or some other separation or widowhood. No matter how these families come to be formed will eventually affect an individual parent’s financial circumstances, involvement with his/her child/children and his/her competencies as a parent. Single-parent families are all around us today where cases of teenage pregnancy and early marriage and marital dissolution have been increasing.

Single-parenthood can be one of the biggest challenges in one’s life. Apparently, Women and men may find themselves taking the full responsibilities of the upbringing of their children alone. Although single-parenthood, in some ways, can be as satisfying as sharing parenting with a husband or a wife, there are problems which are common or unique w/ being a single parent.

In the succeeding paragraphs, I will provide information which, hopefully, will help you to have a better understanding of what encompasses a single-parent household and the effects of such household on children, with some focus on the difference between single-mother and single-father households. Single-parent families face many challenges, both for the parent and the child, but the children in these families can succeed in our society.

As I was researching, I came across with an article which shows the general effects of single-parent families to the children. This article is entitled as The Effects of a Single-Parent Home on Children by Roger Perez of LiveStrong. The article provides us the following effects and I had them summarized.

Economic Stress
Based on the article, children from single-parent families are believed to be facing more difficulties compared to those children with intact two-parent families probably because one parent earns less than two parents who earn two times larger than a single parent.


School Work Suffers
Since single-parent families may experience financial difficulties, some children may tend to give up studying and work at young ages just to sustain the physiological and other needs of the family. Although some children are still being sent to school, they are more likely to be poor in measures of reading, math and critical thinking skills because their moms/dads were not able to monitor their studies and were not able to provide resources for schooling.

Emotional Problems
Research has shown that children in single-parent families are more likely to develop and suffer from emotional problems such as anxiety, depression or aggression almost five times than those children living with both parents. Young people whose mother and father split up are also three times as likely to become aggressive or badly behaved. Children who endured three stressful events such as seeing one's parents' divorce or appear in court, or suffering a serious disease or being badly injured, were three times as likely to develop emotional problems.

Single parent families, whether headed by fathers or mothers, are more likely to deal with more difficulties compared with two-parent families. These parents are more stressed because they have to attend alone on the needs of their families, particularly the needs of the children, without their spouses. If not monitored, there are high possibilities that these children will be delinquent or will be adversely affected emotionally, physically and intellectually.

In this kind of situations, I think that there are some things that single parents can do to lessen or reduce the risks on their families and children. These parents have to make strong support networks, personal friendships, and new social networks as well as enhance their self-esteem if needed. The single parent's sense of self-respect and fulfillment can give an excellent anchor for children. Many single parents have learned or have been accustomed living on reduced incomes, and have redefined their relationships with their children.

Apparently, single-parent families will continue to exist in our society. However, being a member of such families does not always mean or result to unhappy homes because if armed with the right tools and knowledge then such families can succeed.