Effects of single parenting
...n State University, on The Low Income Single Parent. Out of the six major problems found to be leading, four of them were financial related. Money is obviously greatly needed to support a child. Today, businesses and corporations are more in demand for college diplomas, than to high school diplomas. So whether due to lack of experience, no transportation, relying on government assistance, or any other underlying factor, single mothers are not providing adequate financial needs for their children. Pawel quizzes her readers in her article ESP with the true or false statement: Children in single-parent families are from "broken homes" and usually have deficits, do poorly in school and suffer emotionally and behaviorally. The answer was false. Pawel states that “some” children may do less, just as “some” overweight people suffer heart attacks; not all. I, myself, was raised by my grandmother since the age of five. I am a graduating senior with no children, and I have never been in trouble with the law. However, statistics from a book entitled “Fathers, Marriage, and Welfare Reform” by Wade Horn and Andrew Bush, show that among long-term prison inmates, 70 percent grew up without fathers, as did 60 percent of rapists and 75 percent of adolescents charged with murder; and also that fatherless children are three times more likely to fail school, require psychiatric treatment and commit suicide as adolescents. Perhaps the cause of this is the fact that they are also up to 40 times more likely to experience child abuse compared with children growing up in two-parent families (Horn & Bush). Two economists at the University of California in Santa Barbara concluded thru a study that children reared in fatherless homes are twice as likely to become male adolescent delinquents or teen mothers (Phillips and Comanor). Even though Pawel states the fact that all children from broken homes are not necessarily do poorly in school and are always delinquents, she does state the fact that the “overwhelming ‘root cause’ of crime is ‘fatherless ness’”. A Detroit study found that 70% of juvenile homicide perpetrators did not live with both parents. Nationally, 70% of youths incarcerated in state reform institutions come from single-parent or no-parent homes. Emotional stress is a large risk to the children in single parent homes. Some believe that the absence of a father figure or even the absence of a parent due to divorce is the cause of teenagers turning to promiscuous sex, drug abuse, and alcoholism. A study done by Physiologist Sid Kirchheimer showed that children raised in single parent homes are more that twice likely to commit suicide than children raised in homes with two parents. This conclusion came after first identifying some 65,000 children of single-parent homes and 920,000 living with both parents beginning in the mid-1980s, and examining their death rates and hospital admissions throughout the 1990s. Studies by Researcher Gunilla Ringback Weitoft, MD show that children raised in single parent homes were twice as likely to have psychiatric disease. Divorce is a common cause of children being raised in single parent homes. An article entitled Single Parenting: Cultural Relativism notes that there are some positive, as well as negative effects to divorce. The article states that the child may welcome the absence of any tension or animosity that was present. The article also states that if the reaction from peers/community is supportive, that this too can minimize any additional stress. So, is a single parent home necessarily the doom for most children futures? An article on WebMD Medical news written by psychologist Jennifer Warren states that it’s not necessarily the fact of being a single headed household, but instead, the education and ability level of the parent. The study also showed that “yes” single parent moms may face greater financial hardships; however they still are capable of providing the same supportive atmosphere as a married couple could. So perhaps it’s the background of the children’s parents that matter; after all that will be the determining factor on how the children are raised. In the same article when interviewed, Researcher Henry Ricciuti states that, “Over all, we find little or no evidence of systematic negative effects of single parenthood on children; regardless of how long they have lived with a single parent during the previous six years”. Many believe that this problem is due to the astounding rate of sex out of wedlock. Today, the average age for a female to lose her virginity is thirteen years old. Every 64 seconds, a baby is born to a teenage mother, and every five minutes a baby is born to a teenager who already has a child. More than two thirds of these births are to teen girls who are not married. So, to state the obvious, the outcome is “kids raising kids”, or parents/grandparents raising the children that are born. Young adolescent females are increasingly having sex with older men, and ironically, these young girls come from single parent, fatherless homes. Do they turn to these older men for the attention, perhaps, that they missed from a father figure? Regardless of the reason, the men tend to disappear, from fear of being arrested or simply not wanting to accept the responsibility; leaving the mother alone bearing the burden. Although the information may seem overwhelmingly negative, there are several who believe in several tactics to mastering single parenting. Dr. Kirchheimer basically promotes “openness while maintaining discipline”. He states that single parents should beware of non-verbal acti...