...paper reviews the interrelationship among family structure, patterns of single parent decision making and deviant behavior among adolescents. It reviews family income and non custodial parent involvement. Patterns of family decision making and family structure both have a significant effect on adolescent deviance behavior. Data on the child’s behavior, the child’s life at home, and parental relation with the child are collected through self reports. Understanding the family structure can have an important role in the intervention and prevention of deviant behavior in the child. More parental monitoring was associated with less delinquency in a single parent household. We examine family structure including two parent families, single mother families, single father families, and stepfamilies. This paper addresses the implications of different theories and findings designed to reduce deviance. Single Parent Home Effect on Adolescence Deviant behavior among youth has increased in the United States (Steinberg, 1987). According to the Nature and Meaning of Deviance (2008), Deviant behavior is described as actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms including enacted rules and social norms. This paper will examine the social factors associated with deviant behavior among juveniles. It will explore the correlation, if any, between single parent homes and the rise in deviant behavior in juveniles. The two disciplines, Psychology...
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...Both parents should assume equal responsibility in raising a child. “Single-parent families are families with children under the age of 18 headed by a parent who is widowed or divorced and not remarried, or by a parent who has never married. (answers.com/single parent families). Both parents should be held responsible in raising and caring for their child. Each year there are 4,130,665 children born in the United States. (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/births.html) Of these children, one in four will be products of single parent homes whether it is being raised by the mother or the father. According to the U.S. Census Bureau as of November, 2009, there are approximately 13.7 million single parents in the United States, and those parents are responsible for raising 21.8 million children. That was years ago so the numbers have increased since then. These results do show however that these people that have found themselves as single parents did start out in committed relationships and had no intentions of raising their child or children alone. (Single Parent Statistics By Jennifer Wolf). The position that I take regarding this topic is that both parents should be held responsible for taking care of their child. Once paternity has been established then it is the lifelong job of each parent to provide for their child not only financially but as a support of some sort. The parent’s actions should be in the best interest of the child or children whether they decide...
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...three is the single teen parent, the J. Riley household. Within the household, there is Jennifer Riley age 19, mother of 2 children, a 17 month old son and 6 week old daughter, she works in food service. She has never been married and lives with her boyfriend Casey Holmes age 24. Casey is a night warehouse stocker and father to the second child. He is abusive, drinks, smokes and vandalizes cars for money and eventually ends up in jail for armed robbery and vehicular murder. Prior to his incarceration she left him and sought refuge at a shelter after being abused. A single parent usually refers to a parent who has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, which would categorize them as the dominant caregiver. The dominant caregiver is the parent in which the children have residency with the majority of the time (Wikipedia). The single parent family first became recognized in 1931 (Bradbury 2000). Being a single parent has always been an issue. The only difference is that 70 years ago, a pregnant teen was a disgrace to the family and often times were shipped away to a halfway home to have the baby. Then, the baby was put up for adoption and the teen came home to never speak about it again. Today it is quite different. Today, many teenagers who become pregnant are not able to care for themselves let alone for a child not only financially but emotionally and physically as well. There are exceptions and there are teen parents who raise their...
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...not receiving passionate love and care from their parents. Those not receiving love from their parents or their guardian as a child will probably act out for attention or start creating bad behavioral habits. I know every family is not a perfect and not every child is fortunate to have their parents in their lives. In this paper there are four objectives that I will talk about the lack of stable family structure can be a cause to a child’s delinquency. First objective, will talk about the single parents homes. Second objective, will handle about the role models and how they can have a major effect on child’s life. Third objective, will inform about the family conflicts in the homes. The last objective will touch on the lack of parenting skills. The first objective is the single parent homes in the lack of family structure. In single parent homes children tend to have less disciplinary or behavior problems. While there is a single parent at home there is not enough authority to give the child discipline. The child won’t feel or give that much respect to that single parent as they would in a double parent home. The lack of supervision of their child can also cause a problem for single parent homes. The single parents being busy at work on a double shift at their job are barely at home. Not being home with their child they can get into any type of deviance while unsupervised. Neglecting can be a major problem in single parent homes, because not having relationship with their child...
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...Single parenting Single parenting is where a parent lives alone and takes most of the day to day the responsibilities in taking care of a child or children without a spouse or partner, in other words single parent involves a single person plus a dependent child (more likely to be a female parent) and is sometimes referred to as the broken nuclear family (where mom and dad and kids live under the same roof but parents decide to spilt-up). In Trinidad and Tobago there are 18 percent single parent and 9 percent single parent extended families (extended single parents is where the parent is living with their family such as mom, dad, siblings etc). How does one emerge as a single parent? There many reasons people in society become a single parent. Some reasons are:- Divorce -this is where a couple who have been married and have taken legal action of ending the marriage contract. In Trinidad and Tobago within the period of 2011 to 2013 there are 7,123 couples who applied for divorce. The rate of divorce in Trinidad and Tobago is 26.6 percent. Families are rapidly declining in our country and family foundations are weakening which brings a lot of negative side effects. In the U.S. the divorce rate is 40 to 50 percent of married couples divorce. Divorce can stem from misunderstandings between couples, the relationship grows apart, financial problems, intimacy disappears, not having a shared vision of success and also getting into the marriage for the wrong reasons. Unwanted...
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...Challenges Single Moms Face Liberty University Abstract The purpose of this paper is to inform our society of the significant challenges single mom face. Raising children in this era is a very difficult task for couples and it brings greater challenges when is done by a single parent. This paper explores the emotional, psychological and financial aspect of raising children as a single mom as well as the main reasons why. It will review the causes and consequences in which it affects children, parents and entire families. There is data that has been collected where it indicates the reasons why there has been an increase and the impact that it has on children and adolescents. There are ways single moms overcome challenges. II. Introduction to Challenges Single Mom Face According to DeBell( 2008), about half of American children will spend part of their childhood in a single- parent family. DeBell stated that the absence of a father in a child’s home, the most consequential trend of our time, leads to social disaster(Pg. 427). Goldenberg (2008), states that a dysfunctional family, by definition, has failed to fulfill its purpose of nurturing the growth of its members. Single-parent families are more common in today’s society and are...
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...marriage is the basis of the family. The devaluation of the conventional family, and more specifically, the destruction of traditional marriage by divorce, can have no other outcome but the destruction of our society. There are many reasons to evaluate why we have arrived at this state in our society: the growth of consumerism and commercialism, influence of Hollywood over our lives, the decline of religiosity in the United States, the decline of the social order and neighborhood relationships. All of these reasons are legitimate causes for the decay of our society. However, only one cause has wielded its destructive effects over all others. This leads us to our thesis: The proliferation of divorce in our culture will cause the eventual destruction of America by: increasing the potential of child abuse, growing the number of single-parent homes, and destroying parent-child relationships. Introduction to the...
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...LaVonica Newell Ms. Robinson English 105-20 14 April 2014 Annotated Bibliography Bouma, Donald H. “Children Who Grew Up in Fatherless Households Complete Fewer Years of Schooling Than Others.” Family Planning Prospective 20.3 (1988): 148-149. JStor. Web. 12 April 2014. Children who grow up in a fatherless home have a tendency to lose education. It surveys four groups: white men, white women, black men, and black women. White men lose education and then black men however white women lose more education than black women. Indicating the cause of this is because of the lack of financial resources. Being in a single parent home the parent will have to work hard to take care of the more important things. Some will not be the only child so it makes it harder for the parent. The child will have to use resources that are available that sometimes is not enough. Breivik, Kyree.; Olweus, Dan.; Endressen, Inger. “Does the Quality of Parent-Child Relationships Mediate the Increased Risk for Antisocial Behavior and Substance Use Among Adolescents in Single-Mother and Single-Father Families?” Journal of Divorce & Remarriage. 50.6 (2009): 400-426. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 April 2014. Children in a single parent are at a risk of antisocial behavior. There are several perspectives that have been launched including, economic, parental absence, stress, family process, selection, and parental adjustment. A child will be anti-social because they do not want to express their emotions...
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...”Marriage is the agreement to let a family happen.” (Wylie) 2012.A home is where a family lives. It may be alternated to the word ‘house’ but a house is more appropriately referring to the material structure, whereas ‘home’ refers to the intangible things that bind together the family members. It is the immeasurable love and care that keeps together the mother, father and their offspring, or the family. A home where good values and virtues are commonly taught by the family. Aside from providing an environment conducive to physical growth and health, the family must also create an atmosphere that would influence the cognitive and psychological growth of its member. If the needs of the individual family members are met, the other members are able to reach out to others in the family, the community, and society as a whole. However, no matter how happy a family in the terms of their relationship, there are still hardships and misunderstandings that will come along the way. It is just part of any relationship anyway. But, the sad part is when one of the family members gave up and the others have no choice but to accept and let go. Thus, the family starts to be broken, varies from numerous reasons why it had to be that way. But usually, misunderstanding starts from simple domestic quarrel that grows impertinently damaging the long-forged relationship between the family members. When a couple split up, it is the children that are greatly affected scarring them physically, emotionally...
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...as a result, acquires initial education and socialization from parents and other significant members of the family. Agulana (1999) stated that the family lays the psychological, moral and spiritual foundation in the overall development of the child. There is no such thing as the perfect family. Every family is unique with its own combination of strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes families get overwhelmed by what seems like an endless list of challenges when it comes to juggling work, school and individual family members' needs. Over the past 20 years single-parent families have become even more common than the so-called "nuclear family" consisting of a mother, father and children. Today we see all sorts of single parent families: headed by mothers, headed by fathers, headed by grandparents raising their grandchildren. Life in a single parent household - though common - can be quite demanding and stressful for the adult and the children. Structurally, family/homes is either broken or intact. A broken home in this context, is one that is not structurally intact, it could be as a result of divorce, separation, death of one parent, economic status and illegitimacy. According to Frazer (2001), psychological home conditions arise mainly from illegitimacy of children, the label of adopted child, broken home, divorce and parental deprivation. Such abnormal conditions of the home are likely to have a detrimental effect on the student performance in the school. However, the child also...
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...One of the most striking changes in family structure over the last twenty years has been the increase in single-parent families. In 1970, the number of single-parent families with children under the age of 18 was 3.8 million. By 1990, the number had more than doubled to 9.7 million. For the first time in history, children are more likely to reside in a single-parent family for reasons other than the death of a parent. One in four children are born to an unmarried mother, many of whom are teenagers. Another 40 percent of children under 18 will experience parental breakup. Ninety percent of single-parent families are headed by females. Not surprisingly, single mothers with dependent children have the highest rate of poverty across all demographic groups (Olson & Banyard, 1993). Approximately 60 percent of U.S. children living in mother-only families are impoverished, compared with only 11 percent of two-parent families. The rate of poverty is even higher in African-American single-parent families, in which two out of every three children are poor. Effects on Children Past research has indicated that children from single-parent families are more likely to experience less healthy lives, on the average, than children from intact families. For instance, children growing up with only one parent are more likely to drop out of school, bear children out of wedlock, and have trouble keeping jobs as young adults. Other consequences include risks to psychological development, social...
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...Children without Parents Being from a single parent household, I can personally tell you that it really has its disadvantages. The absence of a father figure has drastic effects in a child’s life. Compared to living with both parents, living in a single-parent household doubles the risk that a child will suffer physical, emotional, or educational neglect. A study of 109 juvenile offenders indicated that family structure significantly predicts delinquency. Particularly boys of single parent were at higher risk of status, property and person delinquencies. A study of 13,986 women in prison showed that more than half grew up without their father. Adolescent girls raised in a two parent home with involved fathers were less likely to be sexually active than girls raised without involved fathers. It is a known fact that 43% of US children live without their father. Approximately forty-six percent of jail inmates in 2002 had a previously incarcerated family member [US Department of Census]. Children act out in a number of ways to release their feelings of abandonment, betrayal and loneliness when a father is missing from the home. Massey University researchers report that 85 percent of children treated for behavioral disorders do not have a father in the home. Boys and girls exposed to gangs are more likely to be drawn to the groups that provide a sense of security they missed by not having a father in the home. Children who do not have the benefit of a strong, stable...
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...Literature 1 Effects of Broken Family to the Adolescent In this regard, Sherman (1983) conducted a comprehensive review of the early literature on the psychosocial correlates of adolescent substance abuse. He concluded that: The majority of research studies supported the traditional view of the adolescent substance abuser as rebellious, lacking in self-esteem, having a low sense of psychological well-being, poor academic performance, low religiosity, a broken family, anxiety, alienation, and maladjustment. (p. 134) This section of the presented review of the literature indicated that there is a clear and direct correlation between adolescent substance abuse and parental divorce with the likelihood being that parental divorce is, at least to some extent, a causative factor in both use and abuse of drugs and alcohol among teens. The next question that needs to be asked regarding these findings is: What are the types and kinds of treatment being given to these youngsters and how effective are these interventions? In an effort to answer this question, the next section of the presented review examines studies related to the treatment of adolescent substance abusers from divorced families. The treatments that have been implemented with adolescent substance abusers are varied. According to Jenson, Howard and Jaffe (1995), the most common of these are: social skills training, family therapy, case management systems, most of which utilize posttreatment support groups to maintain abstinence...
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...Are Single Parent Homes a Dysfunctional Model of Family? According to a recent study from CBS, the United States has the highest divorce rate of any country at 45%. Due to this high rate of divorce, many families find that there is an imbalance of family roles in these newly created single parent households. Being a single parent has its own set of challenges for the individual and creates challenges for the family such as, spending smaller amounts of time with your children, having an excessive work load and disrupting the wellbeing of the children. Often times, single parents find that they are unable to spend as much time with their children. This can be caused by having to share their time with the parent no longer living in the home, multiple children living in the home, and the custodial parent having to either take on a new job or an additional job. In a divorce one parent is awarded custody of the children and the non-custodial parent is often granted visitation. This visitation can be multiple times during the week, once a week, a few times a month and so on. While this time is important for the child and non-custodial parent, it is time that the custodial parent is missing out on with their child. Being a single parent to multiple children brings on a set of different challenges by not being able to spend as much one-on-one time with each child. After all, the single parent is only one person. The single parent may find that they are either entering the...
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...Two parents are better than one There are more and more parents who are divorced or they never marriage but have children. In my opinion, two parents are better than one. Not only are children with two parents better off emotionally, financially, medically, etc., than children of single parents, children of married parents fare better than children of unmarried parents living together. The children of happy marriages are much healthier in the term of mental than the children of divorced parents or the children of single parents who were never married. In an article from Rhona Mahony, she writes that: “Researchers interview 60 recently divorced couples who are experiencing such trouble with their separation that they have sought counselling from a professional psychologist. One -third of the parents have generally adequate mental health. An additional 15 percent of the men and 20 percent of the women have severe mental illness, such as paranoid thinking or manic-depressive disorder.” (www.stanford.edu ) She also argued that: “The researchers discover that after the divorce, many of the children in those families have trouble in school and struggle with intense feelings of anger and sorrow.” (www.stanford.edu) It can be seen from the research that not only parents have mental illness but also children. In addition, Mohony refers to Second Chances (Wallerstein), which...
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