Essay On Single Parent Families
The number of children being born into single parent households has been on the rise over these past years. Amongst all of the races, African American children happen to be the most common being born to single parents. It is currently over 70% of African American babies who are born to single parents. These numbers have been on the rise since the 1940’s and the question today is why are the numbers so high now than before? To answer that question, there are three main reasons why according to Mclanahan (n.d.) which include: growing economic independence of women, the decline in men's earning power relative to women's, and a shift in social norms and values during the 1960s that reduced the stigma associated with divorce and nonmarital childbearing
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I feel that the partnerships and romantic relationships a parent is in have some sort of effect on the child, whether male or female. These particular relationships may include: marriage, remarriage, dating, break-ups and divorces. I know children watch the kind of partnerships their parents are in closely and grow up looking for similar relationships based on the examples given by their parents. According to Mclanahan (n.d.), African American children being born to unmarried parents is more harmful than experiencing parents' divorce and those of divorced parents do better if their mother remarries. What matters for children is not whether their parents are married when they are born, but whether their parents live together while the children are growing up (Mclanahan, n.d.). When parents live apart, children see their fathers a lot less. About 29 percent do not see them at all. Another 35 percent see them only on a weekly basis (Mclanahan, n.d.). Loss of economic resources accounts for about 50 percent of the disadvantages associated with single parenthood. Too little parental supervision and involvement and greater residential mobility account for most of the rest (Mclanahan, n.d.). Lack of a father in the household definitely changes the lives of
I feel that the partnerships and romantic relationships a parent is in have some sort of effect on the child, whether male or female. These particular relationships may include: marriage, remarriage, dating, break-ups and divorces. I know children watch the kind of partnerships their parents are in closely and grow up looking for similar relationships based on the examples given by their parents. According to Mclanahan (n.d.), African American children being born to unmarried parents is more harmful than experiencing parents' divorce and those of divorced parents do better if their mother remarries. What matters for children is not whether their parents are married when they are born, but whether their parents live together while the children are growing up (Mclanahan, n.d.). When parents live apart, children see their fathers a lot less. About 29 percent do not see them at all. Another 35 percent see them only on a weekly basis (Mclanahan, n.d.). Loss of economic resources accounts for about 50 percent of the disadvantages associated with single parenthood. Too little parental supervision and involvement and greater residential mobility account for most of the rest (Mclanahan, n.d.). Lack of a father in the household definitely changes the lives of