Can You Have Your Chikd Moved to a Differerent Clasd Duebto a Family Fued Between Parents

Single-parent families

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Definition

Single-parent families are families with children under historic period eighteen headed past a parent who is widowed or divorced and non remarried, or by a parent who has never married.

Clarification

One out of every 2 children in the United States will live in a single-parent family unit at some time before they reach age eighteen. According the United States Census Bureau, in 2002 about 20 million children lived in a household with only their female parent or their father. This is more than one-fourth of all children in the United States.

Since 1950, the number of 1-parent families has increased substantially. In 1970, most 11 per centum of children lived in single-parent families. During the 1970s, divorce became much more common, and the number of families headed by one parent increased rapidly. The number peaked in the 1980s and and then declined slightly in the 1990s. Past 1996, 31 percentage of children lived in single-parent families. In 2002, the number was 28 pct. Many other children take lived in single-parent families for a time before their biological parent remarried, when they moved into a two-parent family with one biological parent and one pace parent.

The reasons for single-parent families accept too changed. In the mid-twentieth century, well-nigh single-parent families came well-nigh because of the death of a spouse. In the 1970s and 1980s, most single-parent families were the result of divorce. In the early on 2000s, more than and more single parents accept never married. Many of these single parents live with an adult partner, sometimes even the single father of their child. These families are counted by the Census Agency as single-parent families, although two adults are nowadays. Still other families are counted as single-parent families if the parents are married, but ane is abroad for an extended catamenia, for case, on armed forces deployment.

The about common type of single-parent family unit is one that consists of a female parent and her biological children. In 2002, sixteen.5 one thousand thousand or 23 percentage of all children were living with their single mother. This group included 48 percent of all African-American children, sixteen percent of all non-Hispanic white children, 13 per centum of Asian/Pacific Islander children, and 25 percent of children of Hispanic origin. However, these numbers practise not give a truthful picture of household arrangement, because 11 percent of all children were really living in homes where their mother was sharing a habitation with an developed to whom she was not married. This group includes 14 percent of white children, 6 pct of African-American children, xi percent of Asian/Pacific Islander, and 12 percent of Hispanic children.

Households headed by a single father increased substantially subsequently the early 1980s, reflecting society's irresolute attitudes about the role of fathers in child rearing. In 1970, only i percent of children lived with a single father. In 2002, about 5 percent of children under age 18 lived with their unmarried fathers. Single fathers, however, are much more likely to be divorced than never married and much more probable than single mothers to be sharing a home with an adult to whom they are not married. For example, 33 per centum of Caucasian children lived with fathers who were unmarried but cohabiting with some other developed. The rate was 29 percent for African-American children, xxx percent for Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 46 percent for children of Hispanic origin. It is clear that not all single-parent families are the aforementioned and that within different ethnic and racial groups, the number and type of single-parent families varies considerably.

Adoption by single individuals has besides soared. In 1970 but 0.5 to 4 percent of adoptive parents were single. In the 1980s this rate increased from viii to 34 percent. According the United States Department of Health and

Single parent and her children spending time together.

(© Rick Gomez/Corbis.)

Man Services, 33 pct of children adopted from foster care are adopted past unmarried parents.

Common bug

Single-parent families face special challenges. One of these is economic. In 2002, twice equally many single-parent families earned less than $30,000 per twelvemonth compared to families with two parents present. At the opposite stop of the spectrum, 39 percentage of two-parent families earned more than $75,000 compared to six percent of single-mother families and 11 per centum of single-father families. Single-parent families are challenged in other ways. Children living with single fathers were the least probable of all children to have health insurance coverage.

Social scientists accept found that children growing up in unmarried-parent families are disadvantaged 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. These children are at chance for the post-obit:

• lower levels of educational achievement
• twice as likely to drib out of school
• more than likely to become teen parents
• more than disharmonize with their parent(due south)
• less supervised by adults
• more likely to become truants
• more oftentimes abuse drugs and alcohol
• more high-risk sexual behavior
• more probable to join a gang
• twice equally likely to go to jail
• four times as probable to need help for emotional and behavioral problems
• more likely to participate in violent crime
• more likely to commit suicide
• twice as likely to get divorced in adulthood

Studies have likewise found that children who live in a two-parent family where one parent is abusive or has a high level of antisocial behavior do not exercise as well as children whose parents divorce if the child so lives in a unmarried-parent family with the nonabusive parent.

Information technology is important to remember that every single-parent family unit is dissimilar. Children who are living with a widowed mother volition have a habitation life that is different from children with divorced parents or those whose parents were never married. Children of divorced parents volition accept a wide range of relationships with their parents and parents' partners depending on custody arrangements and the commitment of the non-custodial parent to maintaining a relationship with the child. Despite the fact that children from single-parent families often face a tougher time economically and emotionally than children from two-biological-parent families, children from unmarried-parent families can grow upwards doing well in school and maintaining healthy behaviors and relationships.

Parental concerns

Being a unmarried parent tin be hard and lonely. At that place is often no other adult with whom to share controlling, discipline , and financial responsibilities. The total burden of finding responsible childcare, earning a living, and parenting falls on ane private. However, the lack of a second parent often has a less negative bear on on children than family unit instability, lack of structure, and inconsistent enforcement of parental standards. Single parents may desire to follow these steps in order to create positive experiences for their children:

• Find stable, safe child care.
• Establish a home routine and stick to it.
• Utilize rules and subject field conspicuously and consistently.
• Allow the child to be a child and not enquire him or her to solve adult problems.
• Go to know the important people (teachers, coaches, friends) in the child's life.
• Answer questions almost the other parent calmly and honestly.
• Avoid beliefs that causes the child to experience pressed to cull between divorced parents.
• Explicate financial limitations honestly.

When to become aid

If parents experience their child is out of control and is not responding to their parenting, they need to get help from the kid's schoolhouse, social service agencies, and mental health professionals. If they feel their ain life is spiraling downward and falling apart, they tin seek assistance from many organizations that provide social, emotional, financial, and legal back up for single-parent families.

Resources

BOOKS

Karst, Patricia. The Single Mother'southward Survival Guide. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 2000.

PERIODICALS

Fields, Jason. "Children's Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2002." Current Population Reports. United States Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration, June, 2003.

Jaffee, Sara R., et al. "Life with (or without) Begetter: The Benefits of Living with 2 Biological Parents Depend on the Male parent'due south Antisocial Behavior." Child Development 74 (January-February 2003): 109–27.

ORGANIZATIONS

Parents without Partners. 1650 South Dixie Highway, Suite 510, Boca Raton, Florida 33431 Web site: http://www.parentswithoutpartners.org.

Single and Custodial Fathers Network Inc. Web site: http://scfn.org .

WEB SITES

Single Parent Central. Bachelor online at http://www.singleparentcentral.com (accessed Nov 14, 2004.).

Tish Davidson, A.M.

mcintoshmiless.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.healthofchildren.com/S/Single-Parent-Families.html

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