Single-Parenting
The subject-matter involving single parenting and its repercussions on infancy development has been receiving much attention across the world due to numerous reasons. Single-parent families have drastically increased in the past decade, unlike before. A Family of underage children headed by a widowed or divorced parent who is not married is called a single-parent family. Also, a family of underage children whose parent has never married or in other words born with a single mother falls into the classification of a single-parent family. Unlike before, contemporary society has seen a massive increase in the number of single families. Researchers acknowledge that this rise in the United States attributes to the all-round social changes, which, have contributed significantly to an increase in divorce rates. Death is also another reason leading to the high numbers of single-parented families. Researchers demonstrate that the number of children born outside marriages has seen an increase over the years contributing to the alarming number of single-parent families (McKendry&Fine,1993))
The roles of parents regarding child development
The development of a child is a process associated with several changes like social interactions, emotions, speech, physical skills, and mental awareness. In regards to growth, children need both their parents to fully grow psychologically, physically, and mentally. When both parents are around in most cases, children receive all the love and attention, and they get satisfied. Most children who grew up from single parenthood, when grown, usually wish that things would have been different so that they made memories with both parents. On the other hand, social interactions refer to the ability of the child to get involved and interact well with fellow children in her environment and master the art of self-control. Researchers, regarding recent research, acknowledge that as children grow, they gain increasing levels of decision making and self- rule not forgetting self-determination (Chester et al., 2007).
The aspect of speech in the development process of a child is involved with having the mastery of language used by the people around him/her, using it effectively, hence facilitating communication. The element is also associated with the ability to read, especially during school-going ages. Children are identified to have grown well if they meet the minimum standards in the stages of development stated earlier. Researchers provide that all the stages of development in children have an overall impact on the children and the adults they will become in the future. These explain the importance of both parents, family and guardians in the overall development of the baby. (Mudau et al.,2018).
Adverse effects of single-parenting on a child
Although not the case in some of the children, coming from a single parented family can hurt the child’s academic development. In newly formed single-parent families, an example from a recent divorce or passing away of one parent it is inevitable that the child will be confusing and the thought of where the other parent could be can cause lack of concentration resulting to low grades
The effects of poverty on single-parented children
Researchers agree that poverty cases are higher in single-parent families than both parent families [Mudau, Ncube, and Mukansi (2018)]. Poverty harms the growth and development process in affected children. The levels are higher in single-parent families due to the inadequacies they face in resources. The economy is changing and has resulted in increased prices of goods and services. Therefore, providing basic needs is difficult; hence, pushing families to extreme levels of poverty.
Majority of single-parent families have reduced income because of the employment issues across the world. Most of the single-parent families across the world are women. Since the 19th century, women have faced multiple employment injustices like discrimination at their workplaces and receive fewer salaries than their male counterparts. Top leadership positions within a majority of the organizations worldwide are for the men; this denies the women from benefitting from the incentives associated. Moreover, women at the workplace face other issues which demotivate them from seeking or continuing with their employment (Anton et al.,2015). Married mothers are considered ‘standard’ in society, while single mothers are not. With such developments, it is difficult for single parents to earn adequately, making their life situation worse.
Lastly, some of the available policies contribute to increasing poverty levels against
single-parent families. For example, some of the available governmental regulations,
such as expensive childcare, unpaid parental and maternal leaves at the organizations, and poor economic policies, have failed to protect single-parent families from poverty. Consequently, they lead to increased poverty in the community, and among the affected are low-income single parents (Blake,2018).
Because of poverty, some children coming from low -income families experience lower self-esteem and develop anti-social behaviours since their parents can not offer them their basic needs. With them being always quiet in school and having low self-esteem issues, they are more susceptible to be ridicule and get bullied since they go to school in torn or old clothes, or eat the same kind of food for lunch daily (Anton, Jones &Youngstrom,2015)
REFERENCES
- Mudau, T. J., Ncube, D., & Mukansi, L. E. (2018). The effects of single parenting on raising teenagers: a case study of the Hasani Dakari village Vhembe district in Limpopo province, South Africa. Gender and Behaviour, 16(2), 11728-11739
- Chester, C., Jones, D. J., Zalot, A., & Sterrett, E. (2007). The psychosocial adjustment of African American youth from single mother homes: The relative contribution of parents and peers. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36(3), 356-366.
- Anton, M. T., Jones, D. J., & Youngstrom, E. A. (2015). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and externalizing problems in African American single-mother homes: A person-oriented approach. Journal of Family Psychology, 29(3), 405.
- Blake Berryhill, M. (2018). Single mothers’ home-based school involvement: a longitudinal analysis. Journal of Family Studies, 24(2), 187-202.