Research Question How do single parents experience the job of raising their children alone
In the study, an analysis of the extent to which being a man or a woman and single is associated with the parent feelings and well being. This will include the use of qualitative data from the single parents and the extent of family related problems they experience in bringing up the children.
The focus will be on the level at which the increment of the single parenting duties and the role that women used to play for the single men and the various hardships that the single parents undergo. In addition it includes the social support that they get from the society and the depressive inner emotions in the parents.
Historical Background
The various definitions for a family are diverse across the various cultures and norms of the society. However, there may be some universal family traits. Anthropologist Murdock defines a family as involvement in residence, economic, and biological reproduction (Krause 2010). The United States census bureau takes a family as two or more persons related by birth, marriage, or adoption, who reside together (Krause 2010). Krause (2010) went ahead and stated that Websters point on households as the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children. This negates the single parented families as full households.
The role of a family and its characteristics with respect to the manner of upbringing children is of great importance in the control of the social aspects. According to United States census bureau, the November 2009 report indicates there are around 14 million single parented families where single females constitute of 83 and single fathers take 17. In this case, approximately 25 of single parented families reside below federal poverty levels (Thadani 2010). Single parenting results from, divorce, death, separation, or deportation (Miller 2010).
In the United States, according to Miller (2010) approximately 40 or 50 percent of first time marriages end in divorce. The factors resulting into divorce are complex and in most cases, this occurs due to combination of a number of the factors. The main specific factors include premarital relationships, cohabitation, the family of origin, the length of marriage among others. These factors are determined by the specific relationship dynamics, personality attributes, and problem behaviors (Widiger 2007).
As the research suggests, the presence of both parents in the family and their involvement is very crucial to a childs development. For example, Parke (1995) specified the various ways that are related with the involvement of fathers including socioeconomics, marital satisfaction, family of origin, timing of parenthood, and marital attitudes. This also includes the participation of the fathers in the exchange of fathering skills within the various generations and participation in family upkeep (Widiger 2007). Hirshi (2009) went ahead to research on single parented families and their neighborhoods where he concluded on hardships in acquiring neighborhood support to sustain family needs for the lower social economic class single parented families.
Problem statement
The identification of specific factors that place a family at risk for behavioral and emotional problems has concerned social scientists for years. The past researches findings including Widiger (2007), adds to the knowledge but they neglect the importance of particular life events and circumstances that predispose the family and more so the young ones to adjustment problems.
For this case, the focus is on the potential effects of single parenting as a single life stressor to the family would be of great importance to the field. As Robinson (2009), it is evident that multiple, stressful life events pose a greater threat to the familys long-term psychological well-being than does a single life stressor but the extent of the stressor is different.
However, various ways through which the singled parental child relationships and the manner of parenting affects life of both the parent and the child are not clearly understood (Camonar 2002).
Also, McKenry (2005) went ahead to state that the number of single fathers in the society for the purposes of research is not as large and this hinders on the expansion of research related to the single parenting for the case for single fathers especially for a quantitative research. The research that examines well being of parents also fails to consider that men and women may manifest their well being differently (Comanor 2002).
Objectives of study
The major objective of the study will be to determine the different hardships and the well being of single parents in upbringing of their family.
Theoretical conceptual framework
Family stress theory that was developed by theorist Hill in 1949 as McKenry (2005) explain requires the balancing of work and family duties where it incorporates crisis, a stressor event, family existing resources and the family perception to the stressor. Personal health is also a major concern and the mind-body-family should be connected to manage the stress. On the family perspective, the theory deals on the family attachments and the interactions. The theory also expands on the issue of spiritually and religious perspective in the management of stress and trauma. This also expands on the treatment of post traumatic disorder with the children and the family and the care giving. The theory expands on the post disaster of single parenting (McKenry 2005).
The family stress theory provides a model for assisting single parenting by illustrating the remarriage experiences and the possibilities of intervention in the family and the changes that can take place in the policies. As Callister (2006) explains, the model illustrates that a stressor event, interacts with the family crisis meeting resources, the meaning that the family gives to the stressor, and the creation of crisis. It then creates a dynamic model on the adaptation and family coping of single parenting with time and the option of remarriage. The theory illustrates on behavioral, emotional, cognitive, event perception, resources, external context, internal context, and the responses of single parenting Callister (2006).
Family system theory as derived by theorist Bowen in this case, argues the family is a system of interconnected individuals, with changes in one or more members or relationships having reverberating effects through out the entire family (Miller 2003). The family is affected by the environment and the contents in the vicinity. The theory makes use of risk resilience perspective where consideration of single parenting goes ahead to consider the parent child relationship and the environment outside the family. Family system theory is used in the understanding of the family behavior and the adjustment. It has mostly been used in the therapeutic paradigm for the assessment and treatment of families (Miller 2003).
This theory deals on interdependence rather than dependence where it makes use of recursion and feedback elements. For recursion, it deals with reciprocal causality. A systems perspective does not illustrate on simple causality for a case X causing Y. as a result, for the family, its derivation results from relationship between individuals and elements where one is a case of the other. In this case, the theory states that a change in any one member of the family is experienced in the entire family. For the feedback, it dwells on self corrective mechanisms and the communication system. For stability to be sustainable in a family system, the system must both remain stable and change when appropriate (Miller 2003).
Literature review
Scholars as Radin (2002) suggested, generally agree that much of childrens socialization takes place in the context of the family, for it is through the family that the developing child is afforded the opportunities and experiences necessary to acquire the fundamental skills, behaviors, values, and knowledge that enable him or her to engage successfully in social relationships. Hence, single parented family researchers often look at the family for potential sources of stress to youths development.
According to Comanor (2002), there exists a two-tiered system of childrearing in the United States. One tier of the families is where there are both parents sharing the upbringing roles of their children, and the other is for the single parented families where one parent plays the duties of both parents in upbringing the children. The single parent, usually a woman has all of the responsibility for maintaining a household and lack the psychological or social support inherent in a two-parent family (Comanor 2002). This, as a result, deters the amount of time that could be available in the upbringing of the children and the relation with the parent. As a result, she may not be able to devote the time necessary to monitor her childrens behavior.
Parke (1988) believe that both the social and the emotional well being of the children are dependent on the two-tiered system of child rearing in the United States. In this case, the scholar states that the single house hold children lack the parental teachings and are as a result short of the social norms (Callister 2006).
Using the concept that the family is an arena for the transmission of risk, one can draw from two theoretical strands of literature the first is stress-coping research, which provides a framework for understanding how youth cope when their immediate environment places high demands on them, Pierret (2001) suggested that the already existing formulations of the stress process, increased strains may result into new strain forms and multiply the existing ones. These strains may lead to the depletion of positive psychological resources or, alternately, an overreliance on previously established negative coping strategies. Risk factors enhance our understanding of the etiological roots of family members maladjustment, but this line of research suffers limitations with respect to issues of conceptualization and measurement (Pierret 2001).
There are multiple types of stress. However, Heath and Orthner (1999) focuses on internal and external stressors associated with being a single parent. Internal stresses is caused by the individual, this is a result of people worrying about things they personally have no control over (Callister 2006). External or environmental stressors is opposite of internal stressors. External stressors are created by the surroundings of single parents. Stress can manifest itself physically, mentally, emotionally and behaviorally. An example of an internal stressor would be the feeling of inadequacy or loneliness and an external stressor could be work (Heath Orthner, 1999).
Does children behavior depend so much on family structure and the quality of parental relationship Comanor (2002) observed a strong correlation between the various undesirable behaviors and outcomes in life with the manner of upbringing and also the availability of parents. For the single parented families, which may be the result of deportation, divorce or even separation, children are unable to attain to various basic needs and have higher stress than for a full family.
Pierret (2001) further suggested that the correlation continues to occur when various important factors like the available resources, are altered or even remain the same. When such factors as income of the households, child support law enforcement and so are made better the negative outcomes experienced by children do not change in any way. While children in two-parent families have higher mean levels of educational attainment and psychological well-being than their counterparts in stepparent and single-parent families, the effects of parental conflict are also more significantly negative for them than for their counterparts (Pierret 2001). This negates the hostile family parental relationships environments in the single parented families.
Mothers in marriages and having husbands are reported to have improved physical health even for their children as opposed to those of single families. The correlation exists even when relating for household income, socioeconomic status, and mothers employment according to Wallace and Bachman (1991). In addition, (Mackay 2005, Wallace and Bachman 1991) researched on the need for both parents in the family and the results in relation to the drug usage in the adolescents. This was in reference to Hispanics and blacks where in the parents presence, their levels of use for a number of drugs would be even lower than reported.
In addition, (Bergstrom 1989, Callister 2006) study which examined family structure as a predictor of adolescents initial substance abuse and sexual intercourse found significantly higher levels for children of non-intact families, even after controlling for age, race, sex, and mothers education. They conclude that, children of disrupted families are at a higher risk of initiating the use of controlled substances and engaging in sexual intercourse, and that a firmer understanding of the mechanisms that underlie this association is needed. (Comanor and Phillips 2002)
Yarber (2005) conducted a meta-analysis of the impact of single-parent households, in which they assess the existing research on its relationship to delinquency. They found that any impact of family structure or juvenile delinquency remains stable, and the effect of intact versus single-parent families is a consistent and real pattern of association where the prevalence of delinquency in broken homes is about 10 to 15 higher than in intact homes. He also supported Bergstrom (1989) research that the impact of no intact families was consistent among males and females, and black and white youth.
Broken homes reduce the chances for the connection between the child and the parent and the child is unable to learn the conventional manner of living from the parents traits. In a research on the relative influence of family structure versus parental attachment, and in the incorporation, Becker (2004), was able to analyze on these questions. Is parental attachment the overriding factoring in controlling delinquency, regardless of family structure Or does family structure provide some unalterable weakening of social control (Callister 2006).
Research indicates that most of the criminologists are interested on the peoples commitment to crime during the time of the action. In this case, the criminologists assumes the family factors and the manner of upbringing that could have resulted to the sought of action that was committed. (Bergstorm1989, Yarber 2005) This leads to the negation of families and the family relationships in the criminology theories and literature. The background life and the ways of upbringing the very victims who commits crime in effect are not considered. The researcher went ahead to illustrate that the family neglecting is metaphysical and hence criminologists suggestion that the involvement into crime results due to the absence of a better means of achieving the needs or the availability of the required commodity (Yarber 2005).
The economic theory has worked on the availability of resources fro the family where it explains on the effects of household income to the behaviors of children. This is through considering the neighbor hoods of the residential areas and the availability of the basic life needs. Taking for instance, in his rotten kid theorem, Becker (2004) research was further supported by Robinson (2009) who did a lot on the family relationships, where he argued that the availability of enough resources for the family reduces chances of ill behaviors.
Most of the singled parents experience economic hardships especially in cases where the female parent was a housewife and is the singled. The family is forced to adopt inner city neighborhoods with problems in institutional and also social resources. Hirshi (2009), went on to emphasize on unavailability of basic assets and the young ones may adopt the hustling and getting over ways of learning and achievement of requirements.
Bergstrom in his work agrees with this as long as individual efficacy can be easily transferred from one member to the other. However this will depend much on the sharing of the house hold income from the head of the household. It may also depend on the structuring of the gifts and the family members comprehensively avoid defiant acts, (Bergstrom 1989). Pierret (2001) went ahead and argued that the presence of pure public good and the contribution of each and every child to the positive end of the family lead to the well behaved children. Among the various propositions related to single parenting, or either or both of the parents in the household are unsettling the harmony of the household, the parent can hardly participate in the implementation of the streamlined behaviors in the family. This erodes all the mutual cooperation in the family members and the future of the family becomes endangered. (Pierret 2001).
Comanor and Phillips (2002) on the other hand present a replica in which the existence of both parents makes it possible in monitoring and addressing defiant acts by withdrawing certain privileges from the errant child. Presence of the male parent increases the streamlining of youth behaviors as opposed to the mothers. (Comanor Phillips 2002).
The demands of balancing work and family can present internal and external stressors. Single parents encounter issues such as financial stability, time management and social disconnect. Another issue of concern is the lack of concern presented by employers in regards to the extra duties affiliated with being a single parent. Often times the psychological well being and personality traits can influence how situations are perceived and experienced (Heath Orthner, 1999).
However, the general focus in experimental economic literature has in many instances focused on the outcome of parental division on the lives of the young ones, with various fears about the bias that is brought about by existence of certain manner of upbringing that are associated with single parenting or separation which would eventually lead to undesirable outcomes for children.
Nancy (1999) says that single parenting leads to the breakdown or reawakening of previously established internal controls between the parent and the adolescent. The fundamental hypothesis of the social control theory is that human beings engage in unusual conduct because rule or law contravention is presumably attractive and stimulating. Robinson (2009) overstated on the parents priorities and how they help childrens to understand what is of importance to him or her at present. The priorities changes as the personal live changes. Personal priorities are in correspondence to the different aspects of an individual life as that tends to compete for the personal attention. This calls for the division of the personal time into the various duties and events that one undergoes through (Robinson 2009).
In most cases, the youth are naturally deemed to envy the other members of the society. As a result, they look for a fast means of achieving their needs and are involved in the crime related events. The consequential shared incompetence, in particular social units such as family thus lead to the weakening of the external controls. The family works both as an internalized control and also as an external control. Not only is it important in defining norms for conventional behavior, but family relationships also provide an external source of social control (Becker 2004, Comanor Phillips 2002).
Successful single parenting is often limited to those with resources for those without, it is a status fraught with negative consequences (Nancy 1999). The before mentioned issues single parents encounter such as financial stability, time management and social disconnect can also lead to depression. This too, is a major issue connected to single parents. There are many disadvantages that single parents have to encounter (Robinson, 2009). However in the article provided by Robinson (2009) she wonders whether single parent families are definitely a population in need or do perceptions of single parents need to be changed. It has been indicated in research provided by Robinson (2009) that social support is extremely important in instances of single parenting.
The strongest disincentive in the past was the moral and the social. Ironically, however, even harsh economic consequences have had little effect on the rate off single parenthood. The increase in single parenting is not, it seems economically linked. Thus, Nancy, 1999 went ahead and stated that the problems related to the house hold income in many cases may lead to the segregation of the single parents but this does not affect the single parenting family. However, in the future, the long term conditions of the children may be affected and result into problems.
Research Methodology
Research Design
The design methods to be used in this research will be guided by research objectives. Various research tools will also be used or employed. The main source of information will be through the use of qualitative research approach. The guiding research question is what are the different hardships, experiences and the well being of single parents in upbringing of their family. The use of one to one interviews will help in the collection of relevant data.
Observation will be used to capture the information that case study could not be able to capture. However, inaccuracies in reporting the data from the interviewees especially when it relates to single parents may affect the quality of information and this would be taken into consideration when reporting findings.
Data collection methods
A one to one interview will be used to collect the data guided by the research objectives. A sample size of approximately 10-15 single parents will be interviewed. The sample size is sufficient for the study due to easiness in working and it is also representative of the study area. The sample interviewees will be random.
Data analysis
The response from the respondents will be coded from the interview responses and results deduced where a report will be finally written. This will call for the open coding for development of initial categories followed by selective coding relating on the core concept.
Expected results
Individualistic and structuralism perspectives have important implications for understanding how parenting may affect the life and psychological well being of the single parents. As the theories suggest, the single mothers will be expected to exhibit higher levels of psychological well being as opposed to the fathers (Pierret 2001).
The men are expected to become more competitive and job oriented, whereas in the case for women, they turn to be more nurturing and child centered (Becker 2004).
In the control for gender, minority group status, and the parental experiences, it is expected that the findings for the single parents will be at a significantly higher risk for status, property, and person delinquency than the two parents families.
Finally, the research is expected to show economic strain in some single families with drug abuse mostly with single fathers (Becker 2004).
The single parents, especially those in the lower economic class will be expected to experience economic stress through straining hardships and the solely handling of duties. In other cases, the parents will have segregated themselves from the society in handling life issues. In some, they will have someone to assist them in attending their duties more so for the high economic class group (Robinson 2009).
In addition, as Pierret (2001) evidenced single parenting, and the social learning theory, on either or both of the parents gender there will be unsettled harmony of the household, where the parent can hardly participate in the implementation of the streamlined behaviors in the family. On the other hand, the parental protection is expected to be very strong and the single parents experience a strong bonding with their children.
In the day to day behavior just as the family stress theory, some parents experience psychological distress with failure in worklife integration. In this case, as Becker (2004) says, heshe neglects one of the two, the integrated approach loses the equilibrium and this leads into a trade off and an eitheror situation. The parent will mainly be focusing and obsessed on the economic future and well being of the family.
For the proactive parents, he or she will be able to recognize his responsibility where their behavior will be a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions based on feelings (Becker 2004).
Conclusion and Recommendation
Family structure and the success for children is not only based on the types of the family, but single parent families have often been the focus for delinquencies potential for children (Comanor Phillips 2002). Also residential mobility, poverty, and ethicalracial heterogeneity undermines formal and informal community ties by decreasing communication and increasing anonymity among residents, thereby decreasing the chances someone will intervene to control the behavior of children(Robinson, 2009).
A high level of single parents families may lead to the decay of the social norms and controls which affects the un-monitored peer groups, which is one of the leading predictors of higher neighborhood delinquency rates. This is essentially due to presence of many households with absent adults there are fewer adults available for the day to day monitoring of their own children and other children in the area (Pierret 2001).
The existing emotional support system and community support programs ranging from informal groups should be encouraged. They help single parents in adjusting to the family circumstances, organizing family recreational activities and provision of forums fro the exchange of ideas, on the healthy living of a single parented family. This is also through the collaboration of the faith based and churches programs that even offer educational programs fro the single parented families (Yarber 2010).
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