Growing Up With Only One Parent (single-parent Family): Does It Have Consequences For The Child?

Have a single parent family It can be quite a challenge. Single-parent families may face many challenges throughout the parenting process, but they can also be overcome. But, are there consequences on the psyche of the child raised by a single parent?

What is a single parent family?

The single parenting refers to a father or mother who raises their children without the help of a partner. There are several reasons why this situation occurs. For example, it may be that they were in a relationship that ended, due to divorce or loss or a parent not taking care of their responsibilities, or in other cases, they have simply chosen to be single parents. Parents who face this situation know that they will have to face many challenges along the way. Still, despite difficulties, children can grow up happy, successful and well-adjusted.

What are the problems that a single-parent family will have to face?

There is an increasing number of single parent families In fact, there are both fathers and mothers who raise their children alone. Although there are advantages to this type of parenting, single parents will also have to face the following challenges:

• Economic problems : Most of single parent families They should try to seek support from the family to be able to work and be able to fulfill the responsibilities of the children. Even so, not having two salaries can imply certain limitations. Studies surrounding this tend to indicate that the majority of single-parent families remain on low incomes and have a higher risk of poverty than couples.
• Lack of adaptation: If the reason for a single parenting It is precisely the divorce and the abandonment of the other parent of their responsibilities, your children may also suffer certain adaptation problems or may have certain feelings of shame. In these cases, when children do not adapt, they may experience problems sleeping or at school.
• Emotional problems: In some cases in which the mother or father raises the children alone, there may be a certain emotional lack due to the lack of time that may arise from having a full-time job, space for yourself, to be with the child. to. Fulfilling all of these responsibilities can sometimes mean being too busy to be aware of the emotional problems your child is experiencing.
• Loneliness: Single parents may experience certain feelings of loneliness because, sometimes, they cannot share their difficulties with their family or friends. This happens especially when being single is due to the death of one’s spouse.

How do children feel in single-parent families?

Seeing all the difficulties that must cope with single parent families it is obvious that a question arises: Does this family structure have an impact on children?

A recent study of Center for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, tried to answer this question, also checking what the children in this type of family thought, felt and how they behaved. The researchers thus evaluated 50 families of single mothers, who were compared with 52 heterosexual families with two parents and at least one child aged 4 to 9 years.

According to researcher and doctor Sophie Zadeh, the findings of this research suggested that what matters most was not the absence of the father, but the good relationship between the mother and the child. Other key conclusions obtained were the following:

• When there are significant economic problems in these families, added to a high level of parental stress, higher rates of child adjustment problems appear.
• When asked about changing family circumstances, 51% of the children expressed the desire not to make any changes and 38% expressed the desire to make some changes.
• The majority of children (59%) reported a high or very high level of satisfaction with school.
• The majority of children (63%) had not experienced any problems at school or had only experienced trivial problems (34%).

We must emphasize that there are no studies to the contrary, which could demonstrate this distortion.

What are the positive effects of having a single parent family?

Despite all the difficulties, a single parent family It also has its positive side:

1. Strongest ties: Single fathers or mothers tend to spend more quality time with their children. In fact, they tend to develop a stronger and more unique bond with their child that may not have been possible to achieve in a two-parent home.
2. More contact with the community: Due to the difficulties that single-parent families must go through, many people end up getting involved in helping the single father or mother. In this way, a feeling of community is created.
3. Share responsibilities : Children from a single-parent family tend to be more accustomed to assuming responsibilities and contributing to helping their mother or father. This does not mean taking on tasks that they are not capable of due to age.
4. Maturity: Children from single-parent families usually have to collaborate with their parents for the good of the family. In these cases, they must also learn to deal with disappointments and turbulent emotions.

How to deal with stress when faced with single parenting?

As we see, raising children alone is not easy. In these cases, people often have no one to support them or share their dilemmas or concerns. However, during periods of emotional stress, we recommend that you keep the following tips in mind:

• Establish routines: Routines will offer your children a feeling of security. For example, having a consistent time for going to bed, waking up, and eating.
• Take care of your mental health: Taking care of yourself is also very important to avoid overwhelming your child. The reason is that your stress or sadness also