The therapist needs to be a source of information. They need to be prepared with financial assistance information, with psychological skills for talking to both the parent and the children, and they also need to be aware of the community that the single parent is living in (Weltner, 2004)
However, when working with single-parent families, that role gets multiplied. When working with single parents, therapists need to be aware of all of the resources available to the parent and to the children (Kazdin, Whitley, & Marciano, 2006)
Standard of living of some men also decline after divorce. (Amato, & Beattle, 2010)
Comparatively, divorced individuals exhibit health symptoms such as anxiety, depression, more substance use, more health problems and a greater risk of mortality compared to non-divorced married couple. (Liu, & Umberson, 2008)
Generally, children of divorce parents score lower in behavioral, emotional, health, social, and academic outcomes compared to children of non-divorced parents. (Paul, 2010)
Generally, children of divorce parents score lower in behavioral, emotional, health, social, and academic outcomes compared to children of non-divorced parents. (Paul, 2010). (Waite, Luo, Y
, 2005). Single parent families have also been associated with an increased risk of substance abuse in children (Kuntsche & Silbereisen, 2004)
S. is on the rise, or whether it has stabilized (O'Hare, n
In particular, there are a number of mental health issues which have been associated with increased risk in those children from single parent families. In particular, a higher risk of schizophrenia and psychosis are both associated with these children (Wicks et al
"Since many of the ideas now so rapidly and totally admitted to full normality are tied to behaviors, we must live with the behavioral consequences [of single parent homes]. There are now millions of children being brought up without fathers partly because society had no adequate prejudicial defenses against the one-parent family," (Anderson, 50)
Also associated with divorce are depression, frequent illness, abdominal pain, difficulties in school and in interpersonal relationships, eating and sleeping problems; "single parents are frequently invisible because of the ways they dealt with parenting without their spouse. Without detailed longitudinal data, it is impossible not to lose sight of all men and women who - in the absence of a spouse - attempted to raise children but subsequently failed and had to give them up for adoption, surrender them to relatives or orphanages, or abandon them altogether (Bradbury, 211)
Approximately two-thirds of the children of African-American and Latin American families live with a single mother below the poverty level. So, given this rather staggering number, one must ask as to what the motivation is for our nation to pay so little attention to the support needs for single parents? Perhaps it is because "some people do not want to hear about this problem because it will require them to change their lives, to adopt habits of responsibility (including sexual responsibility), and to commit to life as a parent, which is something that our current social order does not require of men in particular, (Carlin, 35)
"It is true that single-parent households do less well than two-parent households in raising children. The children of these families are less likely to do well in school and are more likely to deviate from social norms," (Dornbusch, 33)
Often the single parent turns to family members (and in particular their parents) to assist with child-care. "Any parent who can prove that they have brought up their children to adulthood and that said children a) have completed their education, learning something in the process, b) have not died in an accident or through neglect, c) are basically healthy, d) have no criminal record, e) have obtained and maintained employment for a period of one year, should be recompensed with a house, a pension, an OBE and should be ceremonially worshipped (French, 22)
"What we need is a "parents' contract" that would link child care and work firmly together. All parents (including married ones) should be invited to sign on for training or work when their children reach nursery school age at three (Phillips, 24)
Who is responsible for the upbringing, healthcare, education, etc. Of all of the children of the nation? How do we provides support for children who do not have a parent in the home for at least eight hours a day? "Americans have still not come to terms with the gap between the way we think our families ought to be and the complex, often messy realities of our lives," (Skolnick, 87)
With these children coming from single parent homes it's starting to affect them academically. Because they are the primary and frequently sole source of financial support for the family, single parents have less time to help children with homework, are less likely to use consistent discipline, and have less parental control, and all of these conditions may lead to lower academic achievement (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Mulkey et al
Significance of the Problem Many of the studies which focus on child outcomes as a result of growing up in single-parent or divorced home compared to "intact" households are primarily based on a "deficit model" that is directed by two generally held assumptions: First, this model assumes that a two-parent environment is necessary for the successful socialization of the child and second, it is assumed that separation/divorce is always traumatic to the child and that this leads to severe and enduring harmful effects on the child's adjustment ( Brubeck & Beer, 1992; Chase-Lansdale, Cherlin, & Kiernan, 1995). It is a long-held belief that an optimal child-rearing environment occurs within the context of a two-parent structure; however, there have been researchers that propose that well-adjusted and competent children can and do develop in a variety family contexts (Bornstein, 1995)
(1992), among children in single-parent families, those from mother-absent households earn lower science grades than children from father-absent homes; and no matter which parent is missing, children from single-parent families generally find it more difficult to connect with school. Students who regard their parents as warm, firm, and involved in their education earn better grades than their classmates with uninvolved parents (Deslandes, Royer & Turcottle, 1997)
It is also necessary for us to find a way to provide children and parents from this type of home the help they need. So their children can reach their academic goals without a constant struggle Research on the impact of single parenting to children has followed one of two models: the Family Deficit Model or the Risk and Protective Factor Model (Donahoo, 2003)