Anti-Social Behavior of Children Living with a Single Parent

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Having both parents in a child’s life is essential. Furthermore, one could say the effects of being a child/children with only one parent, or neither parents, can cause psychological/heath problem, decrease cognitive/academic abilities, and lastly cause children to suffer from antisocial behavior. In other words, it is better to have both parents together and involved in your life. At the age of 8 I lost my mother. At first things seemed to be okay, but as the time dragged on, I realized that living with only my father was not only hard on me, but hard on him as well. At first, I became very anti-social, then I began acting out, and things would only get worse from there. My father, on the other hand had the harder job. He had to slap on a smile in the morning for me to think life was still A-OK. The day that I began to see through that fake smile was the day that I realized living with a single-parent and being a single-parent had taken its toll on my father and me. We began to argue till the point that there was police involvement. It didn’t take much time before I was out. I am currently a child with no parent involvement, so I believe that I know first-hand some of the effects that it can cause.
I’m not the only one, Recent studies show that “23% lived with only their mothers, 5% lived with only their fathers, and 4% lived with neither of their parents” (Family Structure and Children’s Living Arrangements, Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics). With that we can say that about 32% of teenagers do not live with both parents. What impact does this have on the children? This can have psychological and health problems. Some examples of those are; sleep disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and sometim...

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...ta, 1988). These numbers are disgraceful! What can be done to help these kids?
Looking at all these statistics and seeing what these children have to go through is unfair! I believe that the children would not want to be born, if they had the chance to see their life before they were able to live it. I also believe that if two people take the time to have a baby, both people need to stick around and take care of the child. The consequences that follow when leaving these kids behind is ridiculous and needs to stop. Watching kids preform under, and end up in either a dead end, minimum wage job, or in prison is not the American Dream. Above all children just need both parents in their life. “As it takes two people to bring a child into the world, it takes two to bring a child up. Mothers and Fathers are equally important at various stages of life”. (Denise)

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