Opportunities to Assist Single-Parent Families Although Every

¶ … 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).

How American Society Views the Issue

Although there is far less stigma associated with being a single parent or member of a single-parent family, there are still some social views that are founded on the well documented adverse effects caused by this family structure but there remains a dearth of relevant and timely studies in this area. In this regard, Usdansky (2008) emphasizes that, "The growth of single-parent families constitutes one of the most dramatic and most studied social changes of the 20th century. Evolving attitudes toward these families have received less attention" (p. 19). What is known for certain, though, is that the "the decades since 1960 are often depicted as the era when single-parent families and controversy over them rose" but "neither single-parent families nor controversy about them is new" (Usdansky, 2008, p. 19). These issues were being debated in American society throughout the 20th century, but this controversy became especially pronounced as more and more Americans were personally affected by divorce and separation, as well as an increasing number of single teenage mothers (Udansky, 2008). By and large, the American public's views about single-parent families can be categorized as existing along a continuum between two ways of thinking:

1. View No. 1: Single-parent family formation is viewed "through the lens of weakening family norms [as] captured in such concepts as the deinstitutionalization of marriage, the post-familial family, and the second demographic transition" (Usdansky, 2008, p. 19). This view also "emphasizes change in family life and the acceptance of once stigmatized family forms, such as single parenting" (Usdansky, 2008, p. 19).

2. View No. 2: Single-parent family a viewed as failures to achieve the social norm and expectations for parents' commitment to the process, reflecting a weakening in core traditional family values and "the American way of life" (Usdansky, 2008).