Parental Responsibilities Both Parents Should Assume Equal

Parental Responsibilities

Both Parents Should Assume Equal Responsibility in Raising Children

One of the unintended consequences of civil rights reforms in the last fifty years has been the gradual weakening of traditional family structures. Divorce rates today are far greater than they were in the past and new forms of family structures such as domestic partnerships have dramatically increased. As a consequence, many children grow up with single parents -- mostly with single mothers. Research shows that growing up with a single parent greatly increases the risk of emotional and psychological problems for children. For this reason, both parents should assume equal responsibility in raising children to make sure that material and emotional needs of children are properly met.

Children need the material and emotional support of both parents. When one of the parents pays less attention to children, they start developing symptoms of various problems such as inferiority complex and alienation. For example, in a study conducted in Scotland, researchers found children growing up in broken families were five times at greater risk of developing emotional problems than those growing up with both parents. Separation of parents also increased the risk of aggressive and bad behavior three times, the study found. Moreover, moving to "reconstituted" families and living with step-children or step-parents further increased the risk of developing behavioral problems (Beckford, 2008). These problems clearly stem from the lack of responsibility on the part of one or both parents.

Parents should take equal responsibility because the number of divorces has reached disturbing levels. According to government records, one out of three American children is born outside marriage. It is also estimated that by the age of 15, 54% of children will spend time living separately from one of their parents. These children are several times more likely to develop various psychiatric problems and addictions. A study published by medical journal Lancet found that 2.5% of girls and 1.5% of boys end up in hospitals because of severe depression or paranoid schizophrenia and the percentage of children becoming addicted to alcohol and drugs is even higher ("Single-Parent Kids More at Risk," 2009). These are direct consequences of parents who do not assume proper responsibility in raising their children.

Some people downplay the extent of the problem by saying that some children living with both parents also develop psychiatric and emotional problems -- for examples, in families where domestic abuse is rampant. But these problems again stem from lack of responsibility by parents. Responsible parents should know that children need the love and affection of both parents equally. Abusive parents, even if they live together, cannot provide such needs of children. More importantly, the existence of problems in traditional two-parent families should not distract us from the problem in single-parent families. Empirical evidence shows that the number of children suffering in broken families is much higher.