Running head: SINGLE PARENT FAMILY 1
Single parent family
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SINGLE PARENT FAMILY 2
Single parent family
A single parent as per Hetherington (2014), is an uncoupled person who spends most of
the day responsibilities for raising a child or children. The primary caregiver of a single family
structure is the mother. Single parent structures are as a result of calamities such as divorce,
death of the partner or unplanned pregnancy. Historically, single parent family has been common
due to high parental death rate brought about by maternal mortality, wars and diseases .Since
1960, there has been a significant increase in the number of children that live with a single parent
in the United States. This paper looks at the history, the misconceptions, the current economic
and social standing of single parent family as well as how this type of family raises kids and is
presented in the American media.
According to history, at least 30% of children lost their parents in English and French
villages between 17th and 18th century. Similarly, in China, 30% of the boys had one parent by
age 15. This examples show that divorce was a rare concept in history. Sarsour et al. (2011) state
that after the fall of the Roman Empire, divorce became very difficult to obtain. In United States,
there has been increase in single parent since 1960s. A 29.5% increase in single parent family has
been recorded from 1980 to 2008. This was caused by increase in children born to unmarried
women and due to prevalence of divorce among couples. Births to unmarried women in US was
recorded at 40.7% in 2010. In the same year, 15.6% of kids were living with a divorced parent,
11% with parents who have never been married and about 1.5% with a widowed parent.
Moreover, the findings of the census done in 2010 shows that 30% of families had a single
parent.
A recent poll in 2014 showed that Mississippi recorded the highest number, 54% of births
to unmarried mothers. An estimated 16% of children globally come from single parent family. In
SINGLE PARENT FAMILY 3
New Zealand 2013 census, 17.8% of families were from single parent family. Also 14% of
Australian families in 2003 were single-parent households. In United Kingdom, more than 1 in
every 4 parents are single parents with children and 80% of this single parents are males. A
report by New York Times also showed that single parents are defined differently in relation to
each country’s culture and that countries in Middle East and Asia are the least likely to have
children raised by single parents.
Booth & Dunn (2013) assert that there are different types or cause of single parenting
since history. They include widowed parents, divorced parents, own choice and unintended
pregnancy. Historically, single parenting was as a result of death of the parent. Historic wars also
deprived significant numbers of families of a parent. However, in the modern society,
improvements in maternal care and sanitation have reduced death rate in reproductive age,
