We all know the numbers – they can be found in droves on the internet borrowed from the US Census Bureau. Single parenting statistics that appear on every second blog and website include such information about mothers who are custodial parents as:
- 45% are currently divorced or separated
- 34.2% have never been married
- 19% are married (In most cases, these numbers represent women who have remarried.)
- 1.7% were widowed
And of the fathers who are custodial parents as being:
- 57.8% divorced or separated
- 20.9% never having married
- 20% currently being married (In most cases, these numbers represent men who have remarried.)
What are the experts researching? As single parenting evolves in society, teen pregnancy rates drop but the media stays stuck on old stigmas, its interesting to view single parenting statistics through the eyes of researchers.
Teen pregnancy: contraceptives…?
In 2006, Michelle Trudeau covered a National Public Radio® broadcast hosted by Mike Presca and Madeline brand on their sex and drugs segment of how teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. have declined remarkably since 1990. A study published in a 2006 issue of the American Journal of Public Health suggested that while a reduction in sexual activity was partly responsible, contraceptive use was a more significant factor, bearing somewhat on single parenting statistics.
Michelle Trudeau explored the decrease alongside researchers from Columbia University and the Guttmacher Institute in New York. Using the government’s massive databank on teenagers they looked at the sexual behavior and contraceptive use of teenage girls, ages 15 to 19, at two different points in time, 1995 and 2002.
Dr. John Santelli lead researcher explained that about 85 percent of the decline in pregnancy was due to contraceptive use while 15 percent was due to fewer teenagers having sex, an interesting angle to add to single parenting statistics due to teen pregnancy. To younger girls, abstinence played a bigger role than for the group as a whole and for those above 18 rates could be attributed to improved contraceptive use and not to a change in sexual engagement. In 1995, 34 percent of girls said they used no contraceptive in their last intercourse while by 2002 this figure had dropped by almost 50%. In fact, more girls were delaying their first intercourse.
Sarah Brown directs the nonprofit, nonpartisan, National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy explains that young people are getting the that there are two choices which stood to affect single parenting statistics among teens; either you don’t have sex – or you do, but with contraception, leading to more responsible sexual behaviour. Identifying the reasons for the decline are important because they inform the content of sex education programs for teenagers regarding abstinence or contraception in years to come.
Wade Horne, assistant secretary for Children and Families (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has notably promoted abstinence education) is not surprised by the decline showing that delay in the initiation of intercourse also plays a mojor role. Single parenting statistics and their role among the decline of teen pregnancy also reflects the importance of abstinence education, as well as effective intervention strategies such as access to contraceptive services.
…or abstinence?
Bill Bumpas of OneNewsNow looked at how these trends are continuing 4 years later in 2011. –
After slight increases in teen birth rates and the resultant single parenting statistics from 2006 and 2007, new 2008 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention illustrate a continuing, downward trend, according to the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA). Executive director Valerie Huber reports that teen birth rates hit a high of 62 out of 1,000 girls in 1991, but they dropped to 41.5 in 2008.
“We have seen not only a trend for decrease in teen birth rates, but we’ve seen a trending down in sexual initiation rates for teens, which means more teens are choosing to be abstinent,” she explains. “Let’s encourage that downward trend, and let’s continue to encourage healthy decision making.” says Huber.
This bears on policy and proposed budgets, particularly regarding President Obama’s move away from abstinence education toward teen pregnancy prevention. Huber explains that this treats the symptom instead o the cause and that trying to prevent teen pregnancy without abstinence education is only putting a Band-Aid on the problem in the midst of a “sex-saturated culture.”
Single parenting academic research statistics
The More Things Change…Single Parenting Revisited by Marcy Gringlas of the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Marsha Weintraub from Temple University deals with investigations of maternal and preschool child functioning in households headed by single mothers. Single parenting statistics from these researchers show that nonadolescent women raising children from birth without a male partner differed from demographically matched, married counterparts with regard to stress and social supports but no differences in child outcomes were observed.
28 families (70%) from the original sample were reassessed as children entered preadolescence. Barometers included maternal and teacher report of behavior problems, social competence, and academic performance, while maternal measures included parenting, social supports, and stress. According to teachers, preadolescent children of single mothers had more behavior problems, lower social competence, and poorer school performance than children of married mothers. Single parenting statistics among mothers show that those who lacked emotional support reported higher stress. Maternal stress moderated family status effects on child outcome. Further analysis revealed stability over time for maternal and child variables, with greater vulnerability for children of solo mothers.
In Attitudes toward Working Single Parents: Initial Development of a Measure by Carrie L. Noble; Lillian T. Eby; Angie Lockwood (University of Georgia) and Tammy D. Allen
(University of South Florida) three studies describe the development and refinement of a measure designed to assess what is referred to as single parenting statistics and information concerning Attitudes Toward Working Single Parents (AWSP). The first study consisted of deciphering attitudes regarding the effect of single parenthood in regard to work and family. The second and third produced a final scale which the researchers hope may prove useful in guiding future research aimed at understanding the unique challenges faced by working single parents.
The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology article Parenting through change: An effective prevention program for single mothers. by Marion S Forgatch and David S DeGarmo contributed to single parenting statistics in the area of random experimental prevention study. In other words an evaluation of the effectiveness of a parent-training program. The study sample included 238 divorcing mothers with sons in Grades 1-3 which showed reduced coercive parenting, prevented decay in positive parenting, and generally improved effective single parenting statistics of practices in comparisons of mothers in experimental and control groups. According to the researchers; ” Improved parenting practices correlated significantly with improvements in teacher-reported school adjustment, child-reported maladjustment, and mother-reported maladjustment. The intervention indirectly benefited child outcomes through improved parenting practices for a model based on child report and, to a lesser extent, on teacher report.”
Paul Florsheitn, Patrick Tolan and Deborah Gorman-Smith investigated Family Relationships, Parenting Practices, the Availability of Male Family Members, and the Behavior of Inner-City Boys in Single-Mother and Two-Parent Families. The primary aim of this angle on single parenting statistics study was to clarify whether differences in the functioning of single-mother and two-parent families relate to the occurrence of behavioral problems among inner-city boys (ages 10-15). Data was collected on;
- family relationships;
- parenting practices;
- the positive influence of male family members; and
- the severity of externalizing behavior problems.
Results showed the following information and single parenting statistics concerning behavioral comparisons;
- multiple family risk factors contribute to the occurrence of behavior problems;
- most family risk factors were generalizable to both single-mother and two-parent families;
- although boys in single-mother families were at greater risk for developing behavior problems than boys in two-parent families, the risks associated with single motherhood were offset by a structured family environment, an effective disciplinary strategy that allowed for some degree of adolescent autonomy, and the positive involvement of a male family member; and
- single parenting statistics and assumptions associated with them showed that not all differences in the functioning of single-mother and two-parent families were associated with problem behavior, underscoring the importance of distinguishing between adaptive and maladaptive aspects of single-mother family functioning.
Myth busting assumptions
Media has attached itself to a number of social problems including violence as being the cause of family breakdowns. Regardless of the myths and stereotyping, single parents are becoming the better for it. The following place these assumptions in clearer perspective.
Predominance of the traditional nuclear family; Single parenting statistics that show negative origin result in skewed perspectives which feed the myth that single parenting is an aberration, not the norm. This causes isolation and adds pressure to an excitingly tenuous situation. In last 25yrs, the number of single parent families has more than doubled and U.S Census Bureau estimates that 59 percent of United States children will live in a single-parent home at least once during their minor years.
Over 16 million children currently live in single-parent homes and single parenting statistics show that more of these families can be defined as “binuclear” families, with both parents actively involved in parenting and creating two separate homes for their children. Loanda Cullen,a psychotherapist in Colorado who leads workshops for single parents, teaches parenting classes and single parents her 15-year-old son, Sean. Published an in Single Parenting in the Nineties which drew attention to unhealthy myths.
Loanda explains that the myth that children in single-parent families have deficits, do poorly in school and suffer emotionally and behaviourally was fuelled by sociologist Barbara Whitehead. According to several researchers, her negative conclusions about the outcomes of children from single-parent families ignored all the data that contradicted her position,
She cites how Judith S. Wallerstein herself employed tainted search subjects “… drawn largely from children in treatment for psychological disorders or from the wards of the criminal justice system.” After all, single parenting statistics and studies are never appropriate to predict outcomes.
The myth that single-parent families are “broken homes has been challenged openly before.” For example the TV series, “Grace Under Fire,” showed Grace, a single mom, protesting this assumption, “My home is not a broken home. When I got a divorce, I fixed it!” The myth that children from single-parent families have lower self-esteem is based to a certain extent on income levels which are not only low among single parenting statistics but also family units.
In order to challenge single parenting statistics of this nature, according to Loanda, by overcoming this in teaching kids that who you are is not based on what you have, and modeling unconditional self-esteem through self-respect nurtures resilient and successful citizens of the 21st century. The myth that one should strive to be entirely self-sufficient has caused much shame and guilt among those who are emotionally and financially challenged.