The One-Parent Family: Recent Literature

Abstract

LITTLE RESEARCH has been done on the one-parent family despite the importance of the phenomenon. Of the 44.2 million families tallied in the 1960 Census of the United States, 12.5 percent were classified as one-parent families. According to the Census definition, the one-parent family is a parent-child group consisting of and one or more own sons or daughters under 18 years old living together. The one-parent family is predominantly headed by a mother. In most divorce actions in the United States, the mother receives custody of the children. In cases of desertion, it is usually the father who leaves the other family members. Differential longevity rates favor females; the 2,093,073 widows in the 1960 Census constituted 50 percent of all female family heads. And, finally, the unmarried parent who keeps the child is usually the mother. While one of every eight families in the United States falls outside the two-parent pattern, there is awkwardness in the terminology used to designate the one-parent family head. The terms used by the community, such as single parent, lone parent, without partner, and only parent, shed some light on the marginal status of the one-parent family in our society. This family cannot be ignored in courses offered in high school and college. Family disorganization and reorganization following divorce, desertion, bereavement, and illegitimacy constitute basic topics in the curriculum on family and child development. The annotated list of readings which follows suggests to the family life educator that the books, pamphlets, and journal articles available represent a wide range of approaches, from the sociological, psychological, and social work to the advice-giving and the personal accounts. This list is a selected one, emphasizing readings which may be particularly useful to the family class. A more extensive list of titles, but without annotations, has been compiled by Professor Robert Bell of the Department of Sociology, Temple University, Philadelphia.1 While further research will undoubtedly increase the reading choices in the next decade, there is already a basis for classroom discussion.