The Wellbeing of Children in One Parent Families - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages There is not a doubt that there is an impact, as far as whether a child grows up with one parent or two. The question is, why? Biblarz & Gottainer (2000) state that one of the reasons for this has to do with the presence of authority figures. They argue that, with two-parent families, there is an authority figure in the home, usually the father. Because of this, the children learn how to respect authority, and how to interact with authority figures. With single-parent homes, however, Biblarz & Gottainer (2000) state that the single parent becomes more like a peer to the child than an authority figure. Because of this, the child does not learn how to deal with “power holders,” which means, in turn, that the child has a difficult time with achieving “market activity.” Moreover, in single-parent homes, the child is more likely to be neglected, or under parent authoritarianism, and the parent is less likely to be actively involved in her child’s life and supervision is also lacking in this family structure (Biblarz & Gottainer, 2000).
Another theory is advanced by Turner & Smith (1983). They state that children from single-parent homes must make adjustments, as must the families themselves. These adjustments include physical adjustments, such as time management, employment, financial adjustment, changes in living arrangements, relocation of the family, and the challenges of finding adequate daycare. Emotional adjustments include coping with stress and guilt, anger, loneliness, fear, loss of friends, the thought of being single again, low self-image, and sexual adjustments (Turner & Smith, 1983).
Educational Achievement
One of the impacts that single-parenthood has on children is that they tend to have lower educational achievement. For instance, Nock (1988) has studied single-parent households and he found that there was a “cumulative deficit in the number of years of schooling they complete” (Nock, 1988, p. 958). Further, Nock found that the longer the child lives in a single-parent household, the greater the educational deficits. He also cited a study that found that males born during the first half of the century, to single-parents, completed one year less of schooling than those raised in two-parent households, controlling for socioeconomic status and race. ...Download file to see next pages Read More