SINGLE PARENTING

A single parent is a parent, not living with a spouse or partner, who has most of the day-to-day responsibilities in raising the child or children. A single parent is usually considered the primary caregiver, meaning the parent the children have residency with the majority of the time. If the parents are separated or divorced, children live with their custodial parent and have visitation or secondary residence with their noncustodial parent. In western society in general, following separation, a child will end up with the primary caregiver, usually the mother, and a secondary caregiver, usually the father.

Historically, death of a partner was a major cause of single parenting. Single parenting can result from separation, death, child abuse/neglect, or divorce of a couple with children. Custody battles, awarded by the court or rationalized in other terms, determine who the child will spend majority of their time with. This affects children in many ways, and counseling is suggested for them. A mother is typically the primary caregiver in a single parent family structure because of divorce or unplanned pregnancy.

Fathers have been the less common primary caregiver in the past, presumably due to the father working most of the day resulting in less bonding with the children, or possibly a young child needing to still nurse, or if childcare was necessary while the father works, the mother would be seen to be better suited while fathers works. This scenario has shifted in recent years, as many fathers are taking an active parental role as a stay-at-home dad as more mothers are in the workforce and being the sole provider to the family, resulting in fathers bonding and connecting more to their children.

Single parent adoption is sometimes an option for adults who want children but do not have a partner; another option could be to foster a child.

The demographics of single parenting show a general increase worldwide in children living in single parent homes. Single parenting has become an accepted norm in the United States and is an accepted trend found in multiple other countries. Debates concerning not only the single parents themselves, but also the children involved, support for the families in single parent households, and more have arisen. Although divorce is one of the main events that leads to single parenting, it may be that the majority of cases in the US are from pregnancy outside of wedlock

History

Single parenthood has been common historically due to high parental mortality rate (due to disease, wars and maternal mortality). Historical estimates indicate that in French, English, or Spanish villages in the 17th and 18th centuries at least one-third of children lost one of their parents during childhood; in 19th century Milan about half of all children lost at least one parent by age 20; in 19th century China almost one-third of boys had lost one parent or both by age 15. Divorce was generally rare historically (although this depends by culture and era), and divorce especially became very difficult to obtain after the fall of the Roman Empire, in Medieval Europe, due to strong involvement of ecclesiastical courts in family life (though annulment and other forms of separation were more common).

There is some debate among experts as to what the important component of the family structure is, centering around whether or not a complete family or the love and affection of the children's parents is more important. There are even some that argue that a single parent family is not even really a family. With respect to this, recent public policy debates have centered around whether or not government should give aid to single parent households, which some believe will reduce poverty and improve their situation, or instead focus on wider issues like protecting employment. Another issue is juvenile delinquency, specifically whether or not it is more prevalent in single parent households; if children do not live with the parent that is the same sex as them, they may not have anyone to model appropriate behavior. In addition, there is a debate on the behavioral effects of children with incarcerated parents, and how losing one or both parents to incarceration affects their academic performance and social well-being with others.

A variety of viewpoints exist and the debate is complicated by different interpretations of available research. The Institute for the Study of Civil Society reports that children of single parents, after controlling for other variables like family income, are more likely to have problems. The ONS reports that those children are twice more like to suffer from mental illness. Researchers show that children with no fathers are three times more likely to be unhappy, and are also more likely to engage in anti-social behavior, abuse substance and engage in juvenile delinquency

It is encouraged that each parent respect the other, at least in the child's presence, and provide child support for the primary caregiver, when parents are not married or separated. The civil behavior among separated parents has a direct effect on how child copes with their situation; this is especially seen in younger children who do not yet understand their familial separation, requiring both parents to establish a limited friendship to support the upbringing of their child

-SARAH JOSHUA AUDU

KUW/U14/SLG/2004