Perspectives on single-parent families in America today

¶ … Opportunities to Assist Single-Parent Families

Although every single-parent family is unique, they all share the same challenges that are associated with life in the 21st century, as well as many that are more acutely manifested by virtue of their single-parent status. The traditional two-parent family has been increasingly replaced with single-parent families in recent years, and in some inner-city communities, they are the norm rather than the exception. Single-parent families exist everywhere though, of course, and while the reasons for this condition include death and divorce, they also include abandonment and temporary but lengthy absences of one of the parents. Despite a growing body of research concerning the effects of single-parent status on family members, there remains a relatively paucity of research from the perspective of the family members, as well as how American society views this issue. To gain some new insights in this area, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature concerning single-parents families and how parents and children in these families view their status and a discussion concerning how the larger American society views this issue. A summary of the research and important findings from this review are provided in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

How Parents and Children View the Issue

Because every family is different, it is not surprising, perhaps, that the research to date concerning how parents and children in single-parent families view their status has been mixed. In some cases, the family dynamic may have been created by the death of a parent, but other reasons may make the single-parent alternative superior to the situation that caused a divorce or separation. In some cases, the custodial parent and children became closer as a result of their shared experiences. For example, Walker and Henning (1997) report that, "Both children and parents in single-parent families [are] somewhat ambivalent in their relationships, with both greater intimacy and heightened conflict than evidenced in two-parent families, as well as less adequate ego functioning when dealing with conflicts" (p. 37).

Depending of their individual economic circumstances, members of single-parent families may view their condition as disadvantaged compared to their two-parent family counterparts. For example, besides having fewer economic resources available compared to the national average, single parents also have increased demands on their time compared to married parents and single mothers tend to feel more socially isolated compared to married mothers (Ziol-Guest & DeLeire, 2008). Likewise, children in single-parent families may also view themselves as economically as well as academically disadvantaged compared to their counterparts in traditional two-parent families (Zeiders, Roosa, Tein & Jenn-Yunn, 2009).

Conclusion

As noted above, current perspectives of single-parent families typically exist somewhere along a continuum of these two views, and it is even possible to consider the issue in both of these terms. For instance, Usdansky emphasizes that, "These two views are not necessarily incompatible, and some scholars explicitly recognize change in norms and continuity in values" (2008, p. 19). Clearly, the influence of these social problems on individuals and society depends on their unique circumstances, but the research was consistent in showing that as more Americans experienced single-parent family situations for themselves, their friends or other family members, individual and societal views have also changed. While it is reasonable to conclude that real-word examples of the Ozzie-and-Harriet or Leave-it-to-Beaver model were few, it is also reasonable to conclude there are even fewer of these traditional two-parent families around today, making the need for continuing research concerning how these family dynamics are viewed by their members an important and timely enterprise.