Leshok 1

Adam Leshok

Sociology

Kairis

2 April 2016

American Families: Families with a Single Parent

The type of families I researched were families lead by a single parent. I decided to

research this type of family because I know that over the last 50 or so years, single-parent

families have become more and more common and are even expected to increase in the future. I

also wanted to research statistics on single-parent families because I have been very fortunate to

be in this type of family/ living situation, but I know a lot of people who do live in this type of

situation, including some of my friends. So I thought that if I researched single-parent families I

could have more knowledge and understanding on the topic and better understand the situation

that a lot of people find themselves in, especially recently.

In my research, the biggest piece of information I found is that it is over five times more

likely that a single-parent household is lead by a mother than a father. Over 12 million cases of a

single-parent family being led by the mother were recorded in the 2012 U.S. Census, whereas

about 2.5 million cases of a single-parent family led by the father were recorded in the same

Census. I also found that throughout the whole United States, about 14.4% of families are led by

a single parent. 12.1% of families are led by a single mom, and 2.3% are led by a single dad

according to the same 2012 Census. Breaking it down by race however, things look much

different than the countrys overall statistics. The least common race to live in a single-parent

household is Asian American. Only 6.9% of Asian American families are lead by a single parent,

and again most of these cases are families led by a single mom. After that are white Americans,
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who do make up most of the population of the United States. 11.8% of white American families

live in a household led by a single parent. Then there is a large jump to Hispanic families with

20.9% of Hispanic families being led by a single parent. However, the highest percentage of

single-parent families are found in blacks or African Americans, who have a staggering 32.1% of

families being led by a single parent. That is almost one out of every 3 African American

households that has one parent absent, and in 90% of these cases it is the father who is absent.

What is even more mind-boggling is another way to look at the statistics that shows that 54% of

black children in the U.S. are being raised by a single mother. This is possible because in over

50% of cases, single parent households have more than one child under 18 years old, so by

counting all of the children instead of households, it was found that 54% of black children are

raised with their father absent. Trends pointed out by the U.S. Census show that father only

families were found to be economically better off than mother only families. Also single parent

families have even increased noticeably between the 2007 and 2012 Census. The Washington

Times analysis of U.S. Censuses show that in the last 50 years the number of single-parent

households has doubled. The 2012 Census also noted that more single parents were never

married as opposed to being divorced widowed or separated.

Theoretical Perspectives that can explain some of the trends in single-parent households

are conflict perspective and symbolic interactionist perspective. Conflict perspective focuses on

the power struggle between husbands and wives. Between the two parents in a family there is

constant conflict, sometimes big, sometimes small, between what the husband wants and what

the wife wants and children can increase this conflict because more decisions have to be made

about the life and well-being of the child. This conflict can be bad for the parents and the family

as a whole. It could also explain why there has been an increase in the number of single-parent
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families in the last 50 years and even in the last few years. There are becoming more and more

single parent households because in a household with only one parent making decisions there is

no conflict between one parent with the other in decision making because there is no other

parent. Which in some cases can be beneficial because it can lead to a more peaceful and less

tense home environment and can make things simpler. So since there is no conflict between two

parents in a one-parent household this is becoming a more popular option for people. Symbolic

Interactionist Perspective can explain why single-parent households led by the father are

economically better off than single-parent households led by the mother. This is because

traditionally women have been the stay-at-home parent and men have been the parent who works

to make money for the family. So in two-paycheck marriages, husbands tend to work more than

wives while wives take more time off to stay at home and take care of kids. This trend still

carries over into single-parent families. So in single-parent families led by the father they are

economically better off because the father works more and so he can make more money.

Although it could be argued that this is not what is best for the children in the family and it could

be said that the father needs to be home helping his children, economically speaking, father-only

households tend to be better off. As for race, I could not find much credible research done on

why certain races have much higher rates of single-parent households than others. But using my

own knowledge on the topic, including what was discussed in class last week about social

deviance and race, I would say that the reason more black and hispanic people have single parent

families than any other race would be because of education and poverty. Noting that in many

single-parent families the parent has never married, I believe it is because blacks and hispanics

have a higher percentage of people in poverty and without quality education and because of this

they do not have the money to get married. Also, since it is now more accepted to have children
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before marriage than any other time, people do not feel pressured as much into getting married to

have kids. So, people who may not be ready to have kids are having them which can be an issue

because without marriage there is less commitment so breakups and separation of the two parents

is more common which leads to more single-parents raising children.

In my future career, I am thinking of something in Engineering or possibly buisness, I

would not be surprised to come across people from a single-parent family at all. It is very

possible that some of my coworkers will be single parents or I may help single parent families in

my job however it may happen. In my own career as an Engineer I do not see myself being very

affected in my work by members of a single parent family because in doing my job it really will

not matter what backgrounds my coworkers have come from because that is not what my job will

be about. Now if I saw my future career to be a career in counseling, on the job I would just have

to be mindful when the people I am helping are from a single-parent household because

counseling would be on a case by case basis and people from a single-parent family could have

different problems or concerns than someone from a traditional nuclear family might and I would

have to give the people I am helping advice that would apply to them specifically. For example, I

may not want to suggest that a boy should go fishing with his dad because it would be fun if I

knew that he was from a single-parent family led by the mother. Instead I may want to give him a

suggestion of something he and his mother can do together. The information I have learned in the

research for this essay has truthfully been pretty eye opening for me because I have learned how

common some things, like not knowing your father or being a child of divorce, can be to some

people even though I have not been affected by it in my personal life. Knowing that not

everybody has had the same upbringing as me will help me be more conscious of the situations

of people around me. Some of the knowledge I learned in research will also help me be
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understanding of more people because I also learned about the effects that are caused by being

raised in a single-parent household, so I know what different family situations, like being raised

by one parent, can be like and what effect it can have on people in that situation. This will be

both helpful in my professional career later in life and in my personal life interacting with all of

the people I come across because I can be mindful of other peoples situations which will help

me interact with them better.

Works Cited:

Kreider, Rose M. America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2012. N.p.: U.S. Census Bureau,

n.d. Census.gov. U.S. Department of Commerce, Aug. 2013. Web. 2 Apr. 2016.

Andersen, Kirsten. "The Number of US Children Living in Single-parent Homes: Census Data."

LifeSiteNews. LifeSite, 05 Jan. 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2016.

Livingston, Gretchen. "Fewer than Half of U.S. Kids Today Live in a 'traditional' Family." Pew

Research Center RSS. Pew Research, 22 Dec. 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.