Single Parents Essay

573 Words3 Pages
As compared to over forty to fifty years ago, single-parent families are common in today’s world. A single-parent is a parent who cares for one or more children without the physical assistance of the other biological parent in the home. The percentage of children who live with two parents has been declining among all racial and ethnic groups throughout the years. It has been widely believed that children in single-parent homes are generally far worse than those in homes with two parents. In Jamaica, as reported by the local news 45% of families are single parent families with the mother being the head. Although this mother will obviously be negatively affected as she tries to accomplish seemingly impossible goals, the focus seems more to be on the negative effects that single-parenthood has on the children involved. According to Princeton sociologist, Sara McLanahan, who stated in the *”Sunday Gleaner”* that children from father-absent homes manifest a number of internalising and externalising problem behaviours, including sadness and depression, delinquency, aggression, teen pregnancy, as well as poor social and adaptive functioning, low self-esteem and school absenteeism. That notion impacts me greatly because I am a child raised in a single parent family and none of the characteristics stated above define who I am. Instead, this depressing situation has forced me to curb my life and character into an assiduous young lady , eager to excel not only to fulfil my mother’s desires but for self-fulfilment. My parents had split when I was at the tender age of five. At such an age a ponderous burden had been placed on my shoulders – deciding which parent to permanently reside with. The choice of residing with my mother led to the break in the strong bond I had with my father. He and I were very close and I still vividly remember a multitude of good times that we

More about Single Parents Essay

Open Document