As Tom DeLay once said, “A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure, to provide stability. Not that I'm saying a woman can't provide stability, I'm not saying that...It does take a father though.” In just a few sentences, DeLay simply states the all importance of both a woman’s and a man’s presence in each and every family. The American family has changed drastically over the last 60 years. The traditional nuclear family, composed of a married heterosexual couple, living with their biological children, has become a fad of the past. Adoption, divorce, and remarriage shape and influence the structure of families in today’s 21st century lifestyle. It has been stated that “One out of every four children under eighteen in America is living or will live in a family that has gone through a divorce” (Wagonseller 9). This raises up the question of whether or not a child need both parents. Does a young boy need a father figure around him as he is growing up, or vise versa? What, if any, role do step-parents and step-siblings play in a child’s life? One must understand that properly raising a child relies on the structure of one’s family, as well as on the morals and values that are taught to their child as they learn to mature. Children within a traditional nuclear family are more likely to progress with their emotional, behavioral, and social skills than those who reside in any other family structure. It has been argued that the only way for children to advance in life is to be raised by both a mother and a father. This statement can hold to be true for a number of reasons. For instance, children raised in the custody of a single parent are more likely to have behavioral issues because they tend to lack econo... ... middle of paper ... ...ecause of their assistance, I see myself as a prepared individual for the future and ready to face the world of adulthood. I know that I will have struggles and difficulties come my way, but because of my parents and their influences on my life, I know that I am better equipped and set to face any challenge or obstacle that may appear before me throughout time. Although the incidence of single parent, divorced and multi-generational households is rising, the nuclear family is still a preferred way of many to raise children. All children need guidance and will only become a product of what they are taught from a young age. These children are deeply affected emotionally by the amount of love and compassion that is put into raising them. A traditional nuclear family structure that is one of respect and strong moral values is the most effective for a child’s self growth.
...istics, 1999). McBride, Brent A., Sara K., Sullivan, and Ho-Ho (2005) reported about the achievement levels in a adolescent who grows up with a father, “A study of 1330 children from the PSID showed that fathers who are involved on a personal level with their child schooling increases the likelihood of their child's achievement. When fathers assume a positive role in their child's education, students feel a positive impact.” (p. 201-216). Children who do not grow up in a two parent homes, are more likely to fail and repeat a grade in school. It is also important to note that children who grow up in single parent families are less likely to have parents involved with the school, 62% of children with two parent homes have parents that are involved in school, while children from single parent homes have half of them involved in school (Nord, Winquist, West, 2001).
Over the past decades, the patterns of family structure have changed dramatically in the United States. The typical nuclear family, two married parents with children living together in one household, is no longer the structure of the majority of the families today. The percentage of single-parent families, step-families and adopted families has increased significantly over the years. The nuclear family is a thing of the past. Family situations have tremendous influence upon a child’s academic achievement, behavior and social growth.
Parents and their parenting style play an important role in the development of their child. In fact, many child experts suggest that parenting style can affect a child’s social, cognitive, and psychological development which influence not just their childhood years, but it will also extend throughout their adult life. This is because a child’s development takes place through a number of stimuli, interaction, and exchanges that surround him or her. And since parents are generally a fixed presence in a child’s life, they will likely have a significant part on the child’s positive or negative development (Gur 25).
The changing of American families has left many families broken and struggling. Pauline Irit Erera, an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, wrote the article “What is a Family?”. Erera has written extensively about family diversity, focusing on step-families, foster families, lesbian families, and noncustodial fathers. Rebecca M. Blank, a professor of economics at Northwestern University, where she has directed the Joint Center for Poverty Research, wrote the article “Absent Fathers: Why Don't We Ever Talk About the Unmarried Men?”. She served on the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton administration. Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University wrote the article “The Origins of the Ambivalent Acceptance of Divorce”. She is also the author of several other books on the changing profiles of American family life. These three texts each talk about the relationship between the parent and the child of a single-parent household. They each discuss divorce, money/income they receive, and the worries that come with raising a child in a single-parent household.
Families are becoming more diverse and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people consider families to be strictly biological, while others consider people they love to be their family. Although two-parent families, also known as a nuclear family are the majority, one-parent families are becoming more common in today’s society. A sole-parent is considered to be a parent without a partner or spouse who is the primary care giver of one or more children in a household (Ministry of Social Development, 2010). From the age of 14 onward I was raised by m...
Does a child need both parents? Does a young boy need a father figure around? Does the government provide help for single parents? What role do step-parents and step-siblings play? With much speculation, this topic has become a very intriguing argument.
It is an undenialble biological fact of life that to exist one must have a biological mother and a biological father, however after the point of conception nothing is certain about how that child will be raised. Some children are raised by foster parents – people who have absolutely no biological relationship to the child – some children have two mothers, some have two fathers… Frequently children are raised in some combination of stepparents, half-sisters, cousins, grandmothers, and whatever other family members are available to rear the child. It is long past the time where a mother and a father would raise a child except for the rare exception. This untraditional makeup of families has a great impact on the child’s successes and failures, as do traditional families which may be traditional in makeup but deal with several confounding factors from differing communication styles to poverty, to more severe abuse and neglect. Oftentimes there is an almost direct connection to an intact family versus a broken family and the type of juvenile delinquency that the children raised in these environments perpetrate. Recognizing the common patterns of family dynamics which
In 1990, seventy-one percent of sixty-four million American children lived in a two parent household. Fifty-eight percent lived with their biological parents. Since the 1970s, there has been a huge increase in the amount of children living with single or divorced mothers. This only is right considering the increase in single women having children, although not all of those women don’t have a significant other. Currently 7.3 percent of children live with an unmarried parent, 9.1 percent live with a divorced parent and 7.4 percent live with a separated or widowed parent. Every year since the 1970s, over one million children have been affected by divorce (Shino and Quinn). Nowadays every where you look, someone has divorced parents. It could be your own parents, your best friend’s parents, your classmate’s parents or even your teacher. In 1988, fifteen percent of children lived with a separated or divorced parent, while 7.3 million more children lived with a stepparent. It is estimated that almost half of the babies born today will spend a portion of their life living in a one-parent family (Shino and
A child needs both of their parents’ love and affection while growing up. A child that grows up with both has a higher chance of being a more stable person. However, not all children have this luxury; some children are born into dysfunctional families that consist of only one parent like the children in the Wingfield family. “A study of 1,977 children age 3 and older living with a residential father or father figure found that children living with married biological parents had significantly fewer externalizing behavioral problems than children living with at least one non-biological parent” (Consequences of Fatherlessness). The absent parent in the Wingfield family affected everyone in the family, not only the children. The absent father,
In the year 1962, a child would have had an 86% chance of having both parents present and living in the home. Many children in today’s generation do not have that privilege. One of the largest shifts in the family structure is the percentage (34%) of children and adolescents living with an unmarried parent. What exactly defines a single-parent household? “A single parent household can be defined as families where a parent lives with dependent children, either alone or in a larger household, without a spouse or partner.” This is an issue that continues to rise progressively each and every year, which in result has become a major concern to social scientists, child psychologists, and public officials across the nation. The effects of adolescents growing up in single-parent homes could be detrimental to their future if it is not handled properly or in a Biblical manner.
The family discussed in this paper is a traditional nuclear family. The family composition of this nuclear family unit consists of a mother (MD) age 28 and father (KD) age 26 in a monogamous marriage with four children (DD, MD, ED, and BD), whose ages are 7, 6, 5 and 18 months respectively, two dogs and a cat. The father and the mother are the children’s biological parents. Both father and mother act as the family’s head and decision makers.
The slightest dysfunction in a family structure can be detrimental to a child’s development. Children often act out and take part in delinquent activities. In order to increase a child’s chance to succeed in life, they must be raised in a stable environment involving two parents. This helps them to feel included in the family and will help build their confidence and independence later in life.
There are many types of family that exists in today’s society, each important to the upbringing of any children of which may be apart of it.
A major problem in our society today is the absence of fathers in the home and in the lives of their children. I believe that growing up in a two parent household gives a child the best chance to be successful. My theory is that the absence of a father greatly affects the outcome of the child’s life and limits their opportunity for success. For the sake of this argument success will be measured by education level, mental state and crime. I will explore what effects, if any, the absence of a father has on these factors of success.
Our parents work hard to get us where we are today. Due to the fact that my parents had lack of education and there English wasn 't that good they wasn’t able to get a job that was more relaxing. Though they work in company only they were able to earn enough to raise all of us. Through nurture, now that I’m older I don’t exactly see all the struggles that my parent had gone through to raise me, but I do see and understand more about the struggles. Their love for us, nothing can compare to it. Seeing what my parents had gone through and how hard they have work inspired me to work hard, go to school get a good job so in the future they can depend on me and just rest.