Growing Up with a Single Parent

Growing Up with a Single Parent PDF Author: Sara McLanahan
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674040861
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Nonwhite and white, rich and poor, born to an unwed mother or weathering divorce, over half of all children in the current generation will live in a single-parent family--and these children simply will not fare as well as their peers who live with both parents. This is the clear and urgent message of this powerful book. Based on four national surveys and drawing on more than a decade of research, Growing Up with a Single Parent sharply demonstrates the connection between family structure and a child's prospects for success. What are the chances that the child of a single parent will graduate from high school, go on to college, find and keep a job? Will she become a teenage mother? Will he be out of school and out of work? These are the questions the authors pursue across the spectrum of race, gender, and class. Children whose parents live apart, the authors find, are twice as likely to drop out of high school as those in two-parent families, one and a half times as likely to be idle in young adulthood, twice as likely to become single parents themselves. This study shows how divorce--particularly an attendant drop in income, parental involvement, and access to community resources--diminishes children's chances for well-being. The authors provide answers to other practical questions that many single parents may ask: Does the gender of the child or the custodial parent affect these outcomes? Does having a stepparent, a grandmother, or a nonmarital partner in the household help or hurt? Do children who stay in the same community after divorce fare better? Their data reveal that some of the advantages often associated with being white are really a function of family structure, and that some of the advantages associated with having educated parents evaporate when those parents separate. In a concluding chapter, McLanahan and Sandefur offer clear recommendations for rethinking our current policies. Single parents are here to stay, and their worsening situation is tearing at the fabric of our society. It is imperative, the authors show, that we shift more of the costs of raising children from mothers to fathers and from parents to society at large. Likewise, we must develop universal assistance programs that benefit low-income two-parent families as well as single mothers. Startling in its findings and trenchant in its analysis, Growing Up with a Single Parent will serve to inform both the personal decisions and governmental policies that affect our children's--and our nation's--future.

Growing Up with a Single Parent

Growing Up with a Single Parent PDF Author: Sara McLanahan
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674040861
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book Here

Book Description
Nonwhite and white, rich and poor, born to an unwed mother or weathering divorce, over half of all children in the current generation will live in a single-parent family--and these children simply will not fare as well as their peers who live with both parents. This is the clear and urgent message of this powerful book. Based on four national surveys and drawing on more than a decade of research, Growing Up with a Single Parent sharply demonstrates the connection between family structure and a child's prospects for success. What are the chances that the child of a single parent will graduate from high school, go on to college, find and keep a job? Will she become a teenage mother? Will he be out of school and out of work? These are the questions the authors pursue across the spectrum of race, gender, and class. Children whose parents live apart, the authors find, are twice as likely to drop out of high school as those in two-parent families, one and a half times as likely to be idle in young adulthood, twice as likely to become single parents themselves. This study shows how divorce--particularly an attendant drop in income, parental involvement, and access to community resources--diminishes children's chances for well-being. The authors provide answers to other practical questions that many single parents may ask: Does the gender of the child or the custodial parent affect these outcomes? Does having a stepparent, a grandmother, or a nonmarital partner in the household help or hurt? Do children who stay in the same community after divorce fare better? Their data reveal that some of the advantages often associated with being white are really a function of family structure, and that some of the advantages associated with having educated parents evaporate when those parents separate. In a concluding chapter, McLanahan and Sandefur offer clear recommendations for rethinking our current policies. Single parents are here to stay, and their worsening situation is tearing at the fabric of our society. It is imperative, the authors show, that we shift more of the costs of raising children from mothers to fathers and from parents to society at large. Likewise, we must develop universal assistance programs that benefit low-income two-parent families as well as single mothers. Startling in its findings and trenchant in its analysis, Growing Up with a Single Parent will serve to inform both the personal decisions and governmental policies that affect our children's--and our nation's--future.

Becoming an Unwed Mother

Becoming an Unwed Mother PDF Author: Prudence Mors Rains
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135132778X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
Most unmarried women who engage in sexual intercourse do not become unwed mothers; they use contraceptives, secure an abortion, or get married before the baby is born. What happens to the minority of women who bear illegitimate children? This book is the first study to describe in detail the actual situation of unwed motherhood, as opposed to the causes and pathology of deviance. Based largely on observation of middle-class white girls in a psychiatricallyoriented mater nity home and lower-class black teenagers in a day school for unwed mothers, the study focuses on the unwed mother's moral career as it is shaped by social agencies.

The Triple Bind of Single-Parent Families

The Triple Bind of Single-Parent Families PDF Author: Nieuwenhuis, Rense
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447333640
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
Single parents face countless hardships, but they can be boiled down to a triple bind: inadequate resources, insufficient employment, and limited support policies. This book brings together research from a range of disciplines from more than forty countries--with particularly detailed case studies from the United Kingdom, Iceland, Sweden, and Scotland. It addresses numerous issues related to the struggles of single parents, including poverty, employment, health, children's development and education, and more.

Departments of Labor, and Health, Education, and Welfare Appropriations for 1967

Departments of Labor, and Health, Education, and Welfare Appropriations for 1967 PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1700

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Book Description


Experiences of the Unwed Mother as a Parent

Experiences of the Unwed Mother as a Parent PDF Author: Mignon Sauber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Illegitimacy
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description


Motherhood

Motherhood PDF Author: Sheila Heti
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 1627790780
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
From the author of How Should a Person Be? (“one of the most talked-about books of the year”—Time Magazine) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring novel about whether to have children. In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti’s intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home. Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original novel that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how—and for whom—to live.

Motherhood and Social Exclusion

Motherhood and Social Exclusion PDF Author: Christie Byvelds
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781772581980
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Though the negative effects of social exclusion are well documented, there is a paucity of research on women's experiences of social exclusion as they relate to mothering within the institution of motherhood. Social exclusion is a socially constructed concept; it refers to a multi-dimensional form of systematic discrimination driven by unequal power relationships. It is the denial of equal opportunities, resources, rights, goods, and services for some, by others, within economic, social, cultural, and political arenas. Carrying, birthing, and mothering children place women in a unique position to face social exclusion based on their role as mothers. Perhaps at no other time in our lives could we benefit more from feeling as though we are engaged in our community than when we enter into and are experiencing the patriarchal institution of motherhood. As the widely used proverb states, ?It takes a village to raise a child?, it also takes a village (of societal institutions) to support mothers.This collection explores motherhood in the context of social exclusion. The book is divided into four parts, each exploring the topic from a different perspective: A Historical Look at Motherhood; Mothers and Crime; Disability, Care Work, and Motherhood; and Personal Narratives

Regretting Motherhood

Regretting Motherhood PDF Author: Orna Donath
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
ISBN: 1623171385
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
A provocative and deeply important study of women’s lives, women’s choices—and an ‘unspoken taboo’—that questions the societal pressures forcing women into motherhood Women who opt not to be mothers are frequently warned that they will regret their decision later in life, yet we rarely talk about the possibility that the opposite might also be true—that women who have children might regret it. Drawing on years of research interviewing women from a variety of socioeconomic, educational, and professional backgrounds, sociologist Orna Donath treats regret as a feminist issue: as regret marks the road not taken, we need to consider whether alternative paths for women currently are blocked off. She asks that we pay attention to what is forbidden by rules governing motherhood, time, and emotion, including the cultural assumption that motherhood is a “natural” role for women—for the sake of all women, not just those who regret becoming mothers. If we are disturbed by the idea that a woman might regret becoming a mother, Donath says, our response should not be to silence and shame these women; rather, we need to ask honest and difficult questions about how society pushes women into motherhood and why those who reconsider it are still seen as a danger to the status quo. Groundbreaking, thoughtful, and provocative, this is an especially needed book in our current political climate, as women's reproductive rights continue to be at the forefront of national debates.

Life-Span Developmental Psychology

Life-Span Developmental Psychology PDF Author: Edward J. Callahan
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 1483268640
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Life-Span Developmental Psychology: Nonnormative Life Events documents the proceedings of the 7th West Virginia University Life-Span Conference, held in Morgantown, WV, in May 1980. This volume focuses on the effects of nonnormative life crises, those which occur to only certain individuals within a specific culture or group and are for the most part considered to be disruptive to the normal life course. Contributors were invited from a number of orientations and academic disciplines, ranging from traditional life-span psychologists to practicing clinical psychologists. The dynamic interplay of these diverse approaches results in a very exciting level of intellectual and practical stimulation, which is reflected in the chapters of this volume. The chapters are grouped topically to mirror the pairings of the conference presentations. Key topics covered include the dimensionalization of life events; adolescent pregnancy and parenthood; grief and adjustment for families dealing with sudden infant death; family violence; and impact of divorce on children.

Parenting Matters

Parenting Matters PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309388570
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525

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Book Description
Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.