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effects of divorce on children's development
effects of divorce on children's development
effects of divorce on children's development
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Single-parent households can influence adolescents to become abusers of their spouses, children and themselves and are expected to experience domestic violence in their lives. Rather than having the balance of a two-parent home, single-parented adolescents are constantly exposed to stressors and ultimately become abusers themselves. This leads to a vicious and continuous cycle that could lead to the destruction of generations thereafter.
The trend of single-parent households are drastically increasing every year. The United States Census Bureau reported in 2013 that about 27.8 percent of children lived in a household with only a mother or only a father. In 2013, 23.7 percent of all children were living with their single mother and is the most common type of single-parent household (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2013). Common belief would lead people to believe that most children live with one parent as a result of divorce, but generally single parents were most likely never married at all due to the consequence of accidental, unplanned and teenage pregnancies, as well as adult women who put off marriage to get ahead in their career and education (Dornbusch et. Al., 1985).
One basic cause of single-parent households are divorce. Divorce can be caused by many factors, including adultery/infidelity, midlife crisis, addictions, work holism and the stresses associated with the spouse’s career, strains on the relationship and also abuse (Amato & Previti, 2003). Abuse is defined as harmful or injurious treatment of another human being (Fundukian & Wilson, 2008). The types of abuse are physical, sexual, psychological/emotional, intellectual, or spiritual maltreatment. Physical abuse is abuse intended to cause bodily harm or other phy...
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... Gross, R. T. (1985). Single Parents, Extended Households, and the Control of Adolescents. Child Development, 56, 326-341. doi:10.2307/1129723
Fundukian, L. J., & Wilson, J. (2008). The Gale encyclopedia of mental health. Detroit: Thomson Gale.
Gil, E. (1988). Outgrowing the pain: A book for and about adults abused as children. New York: Dell.
McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. D. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Davidson, T. (2006). Single Parent Families. In Gale Encyclopedia of Children’s Health: Infancy Through Adolescence.
Desbiens, N. (2007). Profiles in the development of behavior disorders among youths with family maltreatment histories. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties. doi:10.1080/13632750701489964
Walker, L. E. (1984). The battered woman syndrome. New York: Springer Pub. Co.
Single parent homes provide clear communication between the parent and the child. Communication is something that has to be developed between one person to the other person. It really helps, because it gets children use to being told no. Also it gets children to think of other ways to compromise using their mouths instead of resulting to violence. It allows for a clear understanding between two people. In Publisher Carl E. Pickhardt, PhD’s article “Why Single Parents Can Parent Adolescents Well” he writes, “With much t talk about and less time to talk, busyness causes single parents to speak directly and to the point, not hesitating to speak up when difficult issues need to be addressed, and treating conflict not as a challenge to their authority, but as a talking point.” (Pickhardt 6).
Walsh, Froma (2003). Normal Family Processes: Diversity and Complexity. New York, NY: Guilford Press http://family.jrank.org/pages/1577/Single-Parent-Families-Effects-on-Children.html retrieved August 24, 2008
“Children of divorce are more than twice as likely to have serious social, emotional, or psychological problems as children of intact families…” (Parke, Mary, “Are Married Parents Really Better for Children?” p. 4). Not receiving the support and nurturing that is needed from both parents during adolescents can affect the future decisions made by children at a later stage in their lives. The guidance that is needed for children to make their life long decisions such as continuing education, certain situation thinking processes and decisions. Divorced parents will face loss of income compared to a two parent income, depression, and self-acceptance. Separating mothers and fathers in a childbearing family will lead the mother or father to having to split the roles or replace the role of the other parent in the household while the child might only be allowed to live with one parent for a certain amount of time. Single parent childbearing families face dependency among government support programs while the single parent may or may not be receiving child support that alone is not enough to remove the financial burden that single parents incur. Children often find this difficult having to move back and forth from two homes rather than having one home. Single parents who may later decide to marry often times face large scale problems as a result of becoming blended. This includes methods of parenting
In today’s society, the amounts of single-parent households are increasing and this is another reason for the existence of childhood poverty. Statistics show that children living in single-parent homes are five times more likely to be poor. More people are getting divorced and are also having children outside of wedlock. It has also been said that women rather than men head about 90% of single-parent families. One of the
American child spends part of his or her childhood in a single-parent family. The increase
Abuse can destroy the child’s future, making it challenging for the child to succeed. In McCammon’s article on the effects of single parenting, she declares that “[c]hildren who live with single mothers have a higher risk of experiencing abuse than those who live with single fathers “ (2013, para. 2 ). While mothers are seen more nurturing, if the child has contact when the father they often become angered, which creates an abusive relationship. Further into the article, she goes on to explain how “[f]amily structure is one of the factors that contribute to social problems; therefore, two-parent families play a significant role in promoting the social well-being of the society” (McCammon, 2013, para. 5). Coming from an abusive home can cause violent behavior, which can affect the crime rate. These actions can cause the rate to increase, thus harming society
Osofsky, J. D. (2003). Prevalence of children's exposure to domestic violence and child maltreatment: Implications for prevention and intervention. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 6(3), 161-170.
Single Parent Struggle For many years, children growing up in a single parent family have been viewed as different. Being raised by only one parent seems impossible to many yet over the decades it has become more prevalent. In today’s society many children have grown up to become emotionally stable and successful whether they had one or two parents to show them the rocky path that life bestows upon all human beings. The problem lies in the difference of children raised by single parents versus children raised by both a mother and a father.
Worobey, A. R. and J.L. (1988) Single Motherhood and Children’s Health, Journal of Health and Social Behavior
The Family structure has changed significantly in the last fifty years. With higher percentages of marriage ending in divorce, and higher rates of childbearing out of wedlock, single parent families are increasing rapidly. “Seventy percent of all the children will spend all or part of their lives in a single-parent household.” (Dowd) Studies have shown that the children of these families are affected dramatically, both negatively and positively. Women head the majority of single- parent families and as a result, children experience many social problems from growing up without a father. Some of these problems include lack of financial support, and various emotional problems by not having a father around, which may contribute to problems later in life. At the same time, children of single-parent homes become more independent because they learn to take care of themselves, and rely on others to do things for them.
Throughout history a one-parent household has been deemed as a nontraditional family, but in today’s society it seems more and more common with every day. Although the reason and causes vary, each year the number of children raised by a single parent increases. Most people don’t seem to realize how much this can change a child’s future. The impact of childhood experiences simply set the disposition of adulthood and the rest of their lives. There is not one sole factor that affects child development, but one very important one is the role and relationship created with one’s parents. How a child is parented and raised leaves a lasting impression on them, commonly for a lifetime. You can see how this might alter a child, being that one parent is missing. Child development based off of living in a one-parent household is very circumstantial because each child and each parent are different individuals. But one thing is for sure; all areas of child development can be affected due to a missing parent, including social, cognitive emotional, and physical areas. I sat down with Dr. Carlos Antoline, a children’s school psychologist to see what the real impact of growing up in a one-parent household has on child development.
Single parenting issues differ from dual parenting issues irrespective of the cause. The absence of one parent in a child’s life has a direct impact on their physical and emotional growth. Lack of shared responsibilities in the family turns the children to partners rather than children denying them the opportunity to just be kids and enjoy the fun, innocence, an anxiety of just being themselves. Although, single parents acknowledge some positive impacts, they still have an emotional feeling of the gap left by their spouses.
It has been said, children from two-parent families are better off. The setting is also a factor to take into consideration. The increase in single- parent homes has had an extensive and negative effect on children’s development. 50% of marriages end in divorce. We have young people with young minds having children, they can hardly take care of themselves at the age of 21, yet they have decided to bring four children into this world to be raised by one parent. In some communities, majority of the children are being raised by a single parent. Statistics have shown that children raised in a healthy single parent home have more problems emotionally, psychologically, in school, and with the law than those raised in healthy two-parent homes. No matter how good a single parent is, that a single parent can NEVER do for the child how two present, committed, parent partners share and work together; communicate together and solve problems together as equals.
What could also be a cause is the hardships single-parenting brings to children. It is not to say that all children raised by single parents would always have more problems than children raised by both parents because some families where the two parents are not getting along at all, or when one of the parents has their own problems such as alcohol and drug use, the best solution would be to separate and have the child stick to the parent who is stable and healthy. But even if a child is raised healthily in a single parent environment, there are many people who believe that a family is still the healthiest when there are two parents. When there are two parents in a household, worrying about income, being so busy that one cannot tend to their children would not be problems because the other parent could do the watching. Therefore, people ...
The treatment of childhood maltreatment effects s still in its infancy, however. It is likely that the next decade will bring with it a burfeoning of treatment techniques and approaches relevant to child abuse sequale. As this field develops, so too grows the opportunity for clincians to provide increasingly more effective services to abuse survivors. To the extent that child abuse trauma underlies a significant proportion of modern mental health problems, these developments are likely to have substantial implications for mental health practice in the years to come. (P.163)