Effects of Single Parenting on Children

For as long as human families have existed, the core family group of a father, mother, and the children has been the ideal composition in what could be considered a balanced and fulfilling functional family. There had been many studies of the effects of having certain members of these groups on the family household present and absent. While there are many hypothesis of the effects of the children in the family in household with a missing parent, most of them are indeed negative and there had been studies that these can vary in many different aspects of a child’s upbringing. These effects will be discussed and functionality of the household family itself will be discussed to look at the issues …show more content…

From the start of the child’s life it is evident that the role of both parents is important for the development in healthy children. Aside from the individual roles which are provided by the two parents separately, the problems of having just one parent in the household to take responsibility of the child by him or herself can be hampering for the child’s development as well. There have been correlations that single parent family households may not provide the best living environment for a child. These negative aspects can originate from the actions of the single parent and from the child due to the differences in the environment of a single parent household. These can be because of economic issues as a single parent mother will have more responsibilities for herself to support the family without the assistance of a spouse. These responsibilities can also be trickled down to the child as well and both aspects can be stressful to the mother and to the child. Both of these factors can separately be detrimental to the physical and mental health to the child specifically (1). Studies show that adolescents that are raised by single parents tend to score lower in psychological tests which indicate lower levels of self-esteem, mental health, the ability to concentrate and