Factors of Single Parent Families

Single-parent families can be defined as families where a parent lives with dependent children, either alone or in a larger household, without a spouse or partner. Single-parent is a parent who cares for one or more children without physical assistance of another parent in home. “Single parenthood” may vary according to the local laws of different nations or regions. Single-parent families which are families with children under age 18 headed by a parent who is divorced, widowed, adoption, artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood or not married. But mostly single-parent families came about because of the death of spouse. Besides that, most of the single-parent families face common problem and special challenge, the most common problem is their children. Children who live with single father or mother, they have to take care themselves and get less care from parent because of busy working. According to social scientists, children who growing up in single-parent families are disadvantages in other ways when compared to a two-biological-parent families. Many of these problems are directly related to the poor economic condition of single-parent families, not just to parenting style.

Factors of Single-Parent Families

The effect on children

In single-parent families, children tend to experience short-and long-term economic and psychological disadvantages, higher absentee rates at school, lower levels of education, and higher dropout rates (with boys more negatively affected than girls). Besides that, they will more delinquent activity, including alcohol and drug addiction. Teenagers, on the other hand, are more negatively affected by parental discord prior to divorce than by living in single-parent families and actually gain in responsibility as a result of altered family routines. In addition, children in single-parent families more likely to suffer emotional problem, due to mother and father split up or any other reason. Children in single-mother homes are also more likely to experience health-related problems as a result of the decline in their living standard, including the lack of health insurance. In future, children who from single-parent families become adults, they are more likely to marry early, have children early, and divorce. Girls are at greater risk of becoming single mothers as a result of noncapital childbearing or divorce.

Economics of single-parent families

The main problem of single-parent families is economic, in single-father families, there will be no any problem, because father have particular job, have no worry. But in single-mother families, there might have problem, for example, when single-mother divorced or widowed, she have no any job or any income to maintain the families. Single-mother has to face economic problem, such as lack of money paid for children studies.

Lower level of educational achievement

Children or teenagers who live under single-parent families will face lower level of education problem, this is because the families facing finance problem, having poor economic condition, so the parent have no enough money send the children to tuition, or any learning centre to have extra learning, children just only go to the government school study. Besides that, parent who have finance problem, he or she don’t have enough money to buy the reference books for their child, they just study the text book, can’t get extra learning material or knowledge.

Children / Teenagers having conflict with their parent

Children or teenagers who lives in single-parent families will have conflict with the parent, this is because the parent are busy working outside and spend less time with their children, or even can’t have a good communicate with them, lack communication between parent and their children, then the conflict occur. Parent who busy working outside, they can’t spend more time on them, that’s why the parent don’t even know what their child need or wants. Besides that, children or teenagers with argue with their parent because the parent can’t understand them, can’t have a good communicate with them.

Less supervised by parent

In a single-parent families, single father or mother are busy working at outside, they don’t have much more time supervised their children. This will cause the children turn to bad side, because the parent can’t spend time on supervise them. When parent busy working not at home, or parent don’t have much time with the children, so when the children will feel alone or boring, they will hanging out with friends, truancy with friends, smoking with friends, or taking drugs. In this situation, the parent doesn’t know at all, they don’t know what their children doing outside, making good or bad friends.

No discipline

Children who lives in single-parent families, most of them don’t have discipline, this is because single father or mother didn’t spend time on family education, they just busy with their job. Family education is important for children, for example, children who don’t have discipline, he or she is just a rude boy or girl, they don’t know what is respect and how to respect other people. Besides that, when the children study in school without discipline, he or she don’t know how to respect the teacher and not following the instruction, for example, when teacher teaching the lesson, he or she playing with other friends and disturbing other students, he or she will be punish by the teacher or headmaster due to don’t have any discipline.

Divorce parent/single parent finds new partner who treats the children of the previous partner badly

When a divorce parent or single parent live single for few years, he or she might find a new partner for accompany his or her. But here is the problem, if the parent find the new partner is bad, the new partner will treats the children of the precious partner badly. For example, if the new partner of the parent doesn’t like the children, he or she will keep making trouble on them, such as beating them, threaten the children, and any other worst things on them.