Single Parenting
Uploaded by sammy69 on Oct 26, 2011
This paper briefly discusses aspects of single parent families. (5+ pages; 6 sources; APA citation style)
I Introduction
Single parent families are now fairly common in the United States, but debate continues about many aspects of this structure. This brief paper discusses various aspects of single parenting.
II Discussion
According to Zhan, “As compared with children from two-parent families, children raised in single-parent families have lower test scores, less frequent school attendance, fewer years of schooling, and higher high school dropout rates…” (2003, PG). In this paper, Zhan was concentrating on families headed by mothers, and found that there appears to be a connection between the mother’s assets (not income, but accumulated wealth) and the child’s performance. Women who had more than $3,000 in a savings account, and who stressed savings programs and investments in general had children who did better in school. Their performance seems to be related to the fact that their mothers had higher expectations for them, based upon the fact that they were more secure financially than single mothers living in poverty.
Although a savings account of $3,000 is well beyond most single mothers, the principles used in accumulating wealth are not, and that is Zhan’s point: women who teach their children to save (even if it’s only pennies) and who expect them to do their best, tend to raise children who function at high levels.
At the other end of the spectrum, we find a distressing article that states: “Welfare mothers experience more psychological distress and psychiatric disturbances than other groups … This is important because disruptions brought about by mental health disorders have been associated with lower rates of labor force participation and a drop in income…” (Rosen, 2003, PG). This would mean that these mothers would not be able to set a “high mark” for their children to meet as the higher-income women do. And although the article does not specifically discuss the impact of their mothers’ poverty and illness on the children in these families, it seems logical to assume that children of such mothers would do poorly in school, and in life generally.
I wanted to look at single fathers as well, and found an interesting article that suggests fathers who sought custody of their children, for whatever reason, did so for substantially different reasons than single women: “In the choice to parent, the availability of...