Lived experiences of single parent families in a high density suburb in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe.

The purpose of this study was to understand the representations of the image drawing of family of single-parent and biparental family children in Taipei County. There were 120 children, who were the first grade and second grade students; and they were randomly chose from Tucheng, Banqiao, Xinzhuang, Zhonghe, and Jinshan these five areas. In addition, they were divided as two groups: 60 single-parent family children and 60 biparental family children. All children were asked to make a Kinetic Family Drawing, and then researcher collected all children’s Kinetic Family Drawing pictures. There all collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Chi square, one-way ANOVA. From all children’s pictures of Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD), this study found the results as following: 1. Single-parent and biparental Family children’s Kinetic Family Drawings have significant differences on “action”, like “interaction between figures” and “activities”. 2. Single-parent and biparental family children’s Kinetic Family Drawings have significant differences on “position, distance, and barriers”, like “physical distance between figures” and “barriers”. 3. Single-parent and biparental family children’s Kinetic Family Drawings have significant differences on “style”, like “compartmentalization” and “omission of figures” 4. Single-parent and biparental family children’s Kinetic Family Drawings have significant differences on “figure characteristics”, like “size of figures”,“transparencies”, and “figure with the shortest arm length”. 5. Single-parent and biparental family children’s Kinetic Family Drawings have significant differences on symbols”, like “kitchenware”. According to the result, the researcher proposed some suggestions as references for parents, school teachers, and future researchers about family education, parental education, and future research.

Τhe aim of this study is to investigate the situation of communication related to sexual issues between single parents and adolescent children and the influence of related factors. The main conclusions of the research were as follows: 1. The gender of single parent had a prominent effect in both the intimacy of the parent and adolescent children and the physical condition of adolescence. The marriage status of the single parent may cause the differences of the sexual attitude, the allowance of sexual behaviors before marriage, and the physical condition of adolescence. 2. Single parents who had more positive attitude toward sex regarding their adolescent children will also gain a more positive communication about the social issues relating to sex, and will talk to child about the opposite sex and social issues relating to sex much more frequently. 3. As to the effect of communication regarding sex by single parents, we found that there were five items as predicting factors: gender, the virtual secondary schools and colleges, the range of permission of having sex before marriage, contraception and venereal disease. And among them, gender had the largest contribution in prediction. 4. Most single parents were unwilling to ask for help from the relatives from the family of his or her ex-wife or ex-husband, in that case, the social workers can offer very little help. There was still a considerable margin for the social workers to work harder in helping the single parent families.

There is no doubt that an active intervention by school nurses for the ones who are in possible high risk of health issues in elementary school is the most effective way of school health promotion. With the design of longitudinal studies, this study is based on a collective data from the school health data system of the 104 elementary school students who entered school in the year of 91 in southern Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to discuss about school injury and illness rates and their relationships between family conditions, individual characteristics, and school achievements. There are three study hypotheses which include, first, single parent families and new immigrants have a higher school injury and illness rate compare to the families with parents. Second, the students with particular illnesses will perform a noticeable rate on injury and illness than general students. Last, the ones with lower school achievements will be resulted negatively compare to the ones with better school achievements. By using percentage rate, average rate, standard deviation to describe the basic data of the participants, then the t-test and the multiple linear regression were used to examine the hypothesis. The total result of school injury and illness rate for six-year period is 15.0±13.2 (time/person). On the other hand, grade six students has the highest injury rate of 2.9±2.5(time/person/year; t/p/y) and illness rate of 0.8±1.4(t/p/y) with first grade ended the second highest on injury and illness rates among all other grades. The injury rate increases along with the grades, but the illness rate resulted on the contrary. In the comparison of the variables, Single family or the ones with bad performance on Chinese language or math have a significantly higher injury and illness rate. The predictors of student injury and illness rates include single parent, new immigrants, and bad performance on Chinese language or math achievements with an explaining variation of 32.5% to 63.0%. The value of this study will help school nurse to provide a better school health management strategy for different grades, family conditions, diseases, injuries, and illnesses in order to promote elementary school students' health issues at school.

This qualitative study investigated the experiences of young Muslim adults and their mothers from Zamboanga City, Mindanao, Philippines in surviving the difficulties of single parent families. Perspectives from the experts on Muslim culture regarding the dynamics of Muslim families were also gathered. Ten young adults, who experienced their parents’ separation during their adolescent years, and their mothers from single-parent Muslim families served as participants. The participants were visited and interviewed based on the scheduled appointments given by their community and religious leaders. Five themes emerged from the study using the Creswell’s Spiral Analysis. The first theme found was the gender differences in family obligations. The males in the study had a higher educational attainment than most of the females in the family. The young adults with higher educational attainment redefined their situations in a positive way. The other young adults, on the other hand, accepted their family challenges with resignation. The second theme was the special roles of the extended family, including relatives and stepfathers. Thus, remarriage as a solution to financial crises came out as the third theme of the study. Obtaining better opportunities abroad was another theme that surfaced showing how the single parents and their children cope with financial challenges. The last theme was the parent’s influence on their children’s outlook in life. It was prevalent in the study that the attitudes of the parents, particularly the mothers, influenced the young adults’ perspectives on life. Keywords : young Muslim adults, single mothers, Zamboanga city, separation, Muslim families

In recent years, India has seen an increase in alternative familial structures. Changes in attitude and aspirations along with the weakening of the power exerted by parents and families helps promote alternative living arrangements. A single-mother family may come about as a result of the preferences, choices, and/or constraints held by the parent. The aim of this study was to explore the perspective of adolescent, Indian females, who belong to Single Parent Families, on the notion of family. Another objective was to draw a parallel between an individual from a Divorce Family and another from a Family who lost the father to death. We specified our focus to Single Mothers, only. We used descriptive, qualitative methodology and purposeful sampling and interviews for collecting the data. There were 2 participants who explained their perspectives on family as a concept and their own families. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis revealed that adolescents understand family more than just as a group related by blood and kinship. Adjustment and coping may come about differently. The loss of Father has a big implication on financial stability. We could identify strong parent-child communication, a healthy network of community support, and remarkably high levels of adolescent autonomy as factors of single parent families.

To study the association between sleep hygiene and sleep duration and quality among school-age children, and to explore the risk factors related to poor sleep hygiene. Totally 2019 grade-five children were sampled by stratified cluster random sampling from 10 primary schools in Shanghai, during November and December 2009. Questionnaires were used to investigate children and their parents. Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale (ASHS) was used to inquiry sleep hygiene of children; Children Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) was used to assess their sleep duration and quality; Family and Social Environment Questionnaire was used to collect demographic and socio-economic information. T-test, one-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression model were established to identify the risk factors for sleep hygiene. The age of subjects was (10.81 ± 0.38) years old, 49.0% (989/2019) were boys. The ASHS total score was 125.43 ± 15.17, girls with better sleep hygiene than boys (127.05 ± 14.41 vs 123.74 ± 15.75, P < 0.05). The sleep duration was (9.47 ± 0.58)h/d, children slept less than 9 h/d had lower ASHS total score than those slept 9 - 10 h/d or over 10 h/d (121.69 ± 16.09 vs 126.17 ± 14.62 vs 126.50 ± 15.36, P < 0.05). Children with poor sleep quality had worse sleep hygiene than those with good sleep quality (121.00 ± 15.84 vs 128.36 ± 13.92, P < 0.05). Children with television set in bedroom had lower ASHS total score than the others (122.40 ± 15.76 vs 126.74 ± 14.66, P < 0.05). Children from single parent family had lower ASHS total score (117.90 ± 16.80 vs 125.94 ± 14.89, P < 0.05). Children whose father had irregular sleep or wake pattern had lower ASHS total score (122.65 ± 15.30 vs 125.89 ± 14.90 vs 127.79 ± 14.71, P < 0.05). The regression model confirmed that existence of television set in children's bedroom, single-parent family and father's irregular sleep pattern were the risk factors of poor sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene was closely associated with sleep duration and quality among school-age children. Children with television set in bedroom, male, from single parent family and whose father had irregular sleep or wake pattern had worse sleep quality.

&lt;p&gt;J Spec Educ Rehab 2009; 10(1-2):63-71.&lt;/p&gt;

A strong focus for zoo education is inspiring visitors to care for the environment and this inevitably means reinforcing messages that relate to the adoption of sustainable lifestyles. Since lifestyle changes are likely to involve some level of personal cost or sacrifice, zoo educators are faced with the challenge of aligning this objective with the visitor expectation of a recreational day out to see the animals with the family. In order to evidence their effectiveness as education providers, zoo must also evaluate their educational activities and this represents a second challenge. The Learning Together intervention was devised specifically to address these two challenges as single parent families participated in zoo-based workshops with themes that related to environmentally responsible lifestyles. Results from focus groups in the zoo and semi-structured interviews in the community several weeks later showed that parents had gained a new understanding of the role of zoos and were motivated to make lifestyle changes that persisted over the lifetime of the project.

Within members of the global village, affluent or poor nations alike, the family structure has undergone a dramatic change. Taiwan is no exception. In the past, the traditional Taiwanese family secures social order by fusing social forces adhesively. However, accompanied with economic development, feminist movement and population immigration, the traditional Taiwanese family structure has undergone a dramatically change. The traditional family has faced colossal challenges; the increased unwedded mothers, sky-high divorce rate, separated family due to parents working in the both side of the Taiwan Strait. All of these contribute towards making the single parent family as a “social fact” in the trend of Taiwan social change.Unlike other countries, the ratio of single parent family with male headed families has been relatively high in Taiwan. A 2001 nationwide survey of 3500 single parent families in Taiwan indicates that the ratio of male headed and female headed single parent families respectively is close to 1:1, and the economic condition has no significant difference. Furthermore, since the remarried rate of parents in the single parent family is low (in 2007 the divorce rate in Taiwan was 2.5/1000, the remarried rate for male was 27.1/1000, for female was 11.2/1000), more than half of surveyed single parent families have lived in such structure more than five years. It shows that the lifestyle of single parent family in Taiwan has become commonplace. Two distinctive characteristics of Taiwanese single parent family are the high ratio of (1) covert single parent family due to a conservative culture regarding separation being better than divorce; (2) three generation family with grandparents, single parent, and children becomes the most significant social support network of single parent family. Follow this line of thinking, Taiwanese social policy of single parent family should be planned to adjust to the special cultural needs of single parent families in Taiwan like single parent family living with grandparents. However, Taiwanese government has not yet implemented such policy and establishes various social aids for eliminating poverty. These unstructured aids have focused generally on single parent family with mother only while most single parent families relied on un-official and non-organizational support.This study has suggested that the government should actively construct comprehensive family-focused policy and support network among single parent families to provide services to reduce their heavy housework and work load and explore different needs of various single families.

The impact of emotional acknowledgement and self-esteem on resilience to family dysfunction

The main purpose of this research is to examine the impact of parenting styles, and self-concepts on life adjustment among high (vocational) school students in single-parent families. The results indicated that high (vocational) school students' life adjustment was predicted by their genders, years of study, school attributions, social-economic status, parents' gender, parenting styles, and students' self-concept. In addition, the respondents also presented relatively a high level of self-concept and good overall life adjustment. In terms of parenting styles, the students perceived positive and encouraging parenting styles from their parents, but there were significant differences due to the social-economic status and causes of single parent. Different genders, years of studying, and social-economic status have significant differences in overall level of student’s life adjustment. The implications and the applications of results and there are discussed. The conclusion of this study is based on the results of the study mentioned above, and can be used as a reference for people who would like to study further in this field.

Each day there are more children being born and raised in low-income, single-parent homes, a condition being associated to a greater bonding vulnerability between mothers and young children, and to a negative effect on children’s mental health. This background information promoted a series of transversal and comparative studies on low-income, mother-child dyads. The global investigation includes two previous studies and two main studies, the first ones evaluating maternal stress and interaction quality, in single-parent and nuclear families. The results show a greater stress level and lower interactional quality in single-parent families. The two main studies evaluated mother-child dyads of single-parent families. The first one considered Chilean families with children attending and not attending public day nurseries, and the second one, Chilean and German families. Both of them evaluated infant psychomotor development, stress levels, maternal depressive symptomatology and mother-child interaction quality with the CARE-Index instrument. In the intercultural study were also evaluated interdependence and independence in the construction of self, ideology of sexual roles and tightness or looseness of social and family norms. The results of the first study show a positive effect by attending public day nurseries on infant psychomotor development, but a negative effect on mother-infant bonding quality. The negative effect on bonding quality increases when attendance to a day nursery starts before the child is 6 months old, just like the positive effect diminishes on infant psychomotor development, with the early start. The results of the second study show interactions of higher quality in Chilean dyads, and greater psychomotor development in German children, and higher scores on interdependence and tightness of family norms in Chilean mothers. There is an opportunity for reflection on the support strategies for early infancy in Chile, on vulnerable families, and the parenting models considering cultural contexts to interpret the results.

Pediatric nursing in Taiwan.

Background： Adolescents from divorced families experience poorer mental health and lower self-esteem than those from intact families, and report more alcohol、tobacco and other drug use and antisocial behaviors. Lowered self-esteem，anxiety and depression may be motivations for substance abuse，particularly depressants. It is hoped that this research will give deeper insight into this area. Study objective： This study aims to explore the related factors affecting family structure, personality and peer effect on smoking, drinking and betel quid chewing in adolescent students. Methods： The study sample was taken from students of three junior high schools in Pingtung County in southern Taiwan. The total sample number was 1493 cases which included 462 seventh grade, 481 eighth grade、and 499 ninth grade students. The data of the research was collected by questionnaire. The researchers collected data via the new Lai personality examination, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale（RSE）, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale（CES-D）and also administered a structural questionnaire. The questionnaire contained basic demographic information on adolescent (include peer and family) attitudes and behavior toward smoking, drinking, and betel quid chewing . Results : The prevalent rate of betel quid chewing was 7.10% (male 11.97%, female 1.89%), cigarette smoking 14.09% (male 19.73%, female 8.12%), and alcohol drinking 21.60% (male 23.27%, female 19.83%) of interviewed students. Initial use was in the fifth-sixth grade. Logistic regression analysis showed the major factors influencing adolescent smoking, alcohol use, and betel nut use included: poor grades、family structure with grand-parenting、smoking, drinking and betel nut use attitude、peer and sibling behaviors、and overall academic achievement. Peer and sibling behavior had more relative importance than parenting influence on adolescent smoking and betel nut use. But family alcohol use more relative importance then peer. Lower self –esteem and externalized personality had some effect on smoking，alcohol use and betel-nut use, as did the influence of depression on smoking and drinking，but in logistic regression was not significant. Conclusion： The incidence of male smoking, alcohol use and betel nut use was higher then that for females, but in cigarette use the distinction between genders was reduced; with alcohol use there was no variation. Grand-parenting has an influence on adolescent smoking, alcohol and betel nut use more than in single parent and intact families, and focus should be placed on this problem. Peers and family will also influence these three behaviors, but peer smoking and betel nut use is more important than parental influences；family alcohol use is also more important than peer alcohol use. Externalized personality disassociation is linked with adolescent smoking，alcohol and betel-nut use. Intervention programs should be designed for early intervention and need to focus on adolescent personality、family structure、the teaching of mood relaxation techniques and the influence of peers in stopping smoking, drinking and betel quid chewing in adolescents.

Single parenthood has greatly influenced the educational and psychological development of many adolescents, more so in developed nations. The purpose of this paper was to establish the effects of single parenthood on educational and psychological development among adolescents of ACK Cathedral Archdeaconry Diocese of Mt. Kenya Central. This paper was guided by two objectives namely: to determine the relationship between adolescent educational achievement and the single parenthood in Cathedral Archdeaconry, and to assess the impact of single parenthood on the adolescent’s psychological development in Cathedral Archdeaconry. The study utilised descriptive research design to collect quantitative data from 75 adolescents and 75 parents which was analysed descriptively and inferentially. The study found out that majority of the adolescents were coming from single parent households with grandmothers as household heads with few households headed by their biological mothers who are rarely available for the youths. The study further established that this structure of households negatively influences the educational and psychological development of the adolescents. The study recommends that single parents must be proactive in the manner they handle and parent their adolescents by creating time to properly up bring them to avoid lapses in their educational and psychological development. Article visualizations: