In the perfect television world of the sitcom, most families have two parents, and those families with one parent are either so well adjusted that the children are counseling their peers at school or so maladjusted that they become icons for bad children everywhere. In the real world, there are more and more single parent families, or families made up of multiple marriages or relationships on either side. Indeed, the definition of ôfamilyö has undergone a drastic change from the 1950s concept of the nuclear family (father, mother, child) to one that is more loosely defined as groups of people connected by blood and marriage; sometimes connected simply by virtue of the fact that even though these two criteria are not met, they are ôconsidered family.ö In the midst of this knew type of family a new type of child has developed. This paper will examine the effects that this type of atmosphere has on the developing child, particularly in regards to how single parents effect their developing children.
According to the 2000 Census data, single parent families and extended family groups are on the rise.
The number of families headed by single mothers has increased 25 percent since 1990. . . Contributing to the numbers are a high rate of divorce and out-of-wedlock births. . .about a third of all babies were born to unmarried women, compared with 3.8 percent in 1940. Demographers now predict that more than half of the youngsters born in the 1990s will spend at least part of their childhood in a single-parent home. (Newsweek, 2001).
In a society that is already moving quickly, led by distracted and over-extended parents, the nature of childhood has undergone a profound change. Behaviors that were considered "at-risk" are now "normal" and more and more children are being referred to learning and developmentally disabled classes because of the chaos they experience in their lives everyday. Most of these children come from si...