Single Parent Families Case Study

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Understanding Families and Health

Single Parent Families

A single parent family comprises of a person, who usually has no resident spouse or resident partner in the household, but forms a parent‐child relationship with at least one child, who is living in the household. Single parent families, in general, may occur due to the separation, divorce or death of a spouse or a partner (State Government of Victoria 2014). Separation or divorce of parenting partners is the most likely contributing factor to a large number of single parent families. Births of children to un-partnered mothers is another most likely contributing factor. Although most single parents (about 55% in 2003) are either divorced or separated from a registered marriage, a small fraction (about 5%) are widowed. A significant fraction of single parents (about 35% in 1997 and about 39% in 2003) have never been legally married and a big fraction of these single parents are likely to be separated de facto couples. (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2007).

Between the years 2004 and 2006, there were an average of about 486,000 single parent families in Australia, which had children under the age of fifteen. This number makes about 22% of all families in Australia in the same time period, which had children under fifteen. The number of single parent families with children under the age of fifteen years, has steadily increased for about twenty years, since 1986. Between the years 1986 and 1988, single parent families made up to 14% of families with children under the age of fifteen years, on average. This number increased to an average of 20% between the years 1996 and 1998, and reached to 23% between the years 2002 and 2004. However, within the last few years, this number...

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...ford to buy them the right look, labels and brands in whatever they wear. They also mention to be poor in peer comparison with respect to enjoying family bonding such as travels and group events (Health & Social Care in Community 2008). Also, the rates of high school dropouts, teen pregnancies and poverty are higher among children raised in single parent families (Wadsworth Cengage Learning 2011).

On a positive note, however, several children in such families can provide an emotional support to their socially unadapted parents, regularly.

In conclusion, single parenting families form a large and significant demographic. Both single parents and children face issues that have a serious impact on the development within the family unit itself and also how the individuals of such family units perform and develop socially. Much understanding is required.

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