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Essay on Single Parent Homes

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Single parent homes: How are they affecting our youth? The cause of behavioral and/or emotional problems among our youth could come from being raised in a single parent home. Many children resort to negative acts of behavior because of limited parental supervision within the single parent household. Children are two to three times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems in single parent homes (Maginnis, 1997).

Research and etiology on the problem behaviors in childhood and adolescence often focus on the role of the family on the development of antisocial behavior. An important factor examined in past studies has been family structure, and this research has shown that youth from single parent families often have higher …show more content…

The single parent also showed lower ego functioning and in turn were less playful with the children, less empathetic, less tolerant of negative behavior from the children, and more likely to display non-age appropriate behavior (Walker & Hennig, 1997). Single mothers are more likely to make negative statements about and to their children, therefore resulting in a low self esteem in the child. Walker and Hennig (1997) also discovered an up side to single parenting, the relationship between parent and child was more nurturing. This could come from the loss of intimacy in the single parent's life. Problem behaviors in single parent homes could be the result of low income within the household. It was reported that 80% of single mother households had incomes of $15,000 of below (Peden, 2004). Loss of economic security can cause many problems in a single parent household. Economic problems may cause a loss of attachment between the parent and the child (Hollist &McBroom, 2006). Poverty has shown to cause poor mental health in single mothers and therefore having a bad influence on children. Poor mental health also had an effect on the mother's ability to perform at work or simply left them unemployed. Youth from single parent homes showed an increase in drug use. Children from single parent homes are also more likely to smoke cigarettes, use drugs, and drink alcoholic beverages. In a study done by Hollist and Mcbroom (2006) 49.2% of children being raised in single

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