Prevalence Of Single-parent Families Research Articles

The Impact of Single-parent Families on Children’s Externalizing Behaviour

The article discusses the impact of the increasing divorce rate in China on the prevalence of single-parent families and its influence on the development of children. Children from single-parent families often face challenges due to the incomplete family structure, leading to external behavior problems during adolescence. The article aims to provide a comprehensive review of previous research and examine the implications of single-parent families on adolescent external behavior. It explores the reasons behind behavior problems in these children, including family dynamics, economic circumstances, and societal influences. These factors include the absence of companionship and conflicts between parents at the family level, prejudice against single-parent families and negative social norms at the societal level, and economic constraints leading to materialistic desires. To address these issues and their underlying causes, the article suggests several solutions. For example, social institutions should enhance their supervision of minors, combat prejudice against children from single-parent families, and provide financial support to alleviate economic challenges. Efforts should also be made to improve educational resources. In conclusion, the article aims to enhance the external behavior and overall development of adolescents from single-parent families. By addressing the root causes of behavior problems and implementing practical solutions, it is expected that the well-being and positive outcomes of children from single-parent households can be significantly improved. Future research requires a comprehensive exploration of this topic.

Family Structure through the Adolescent Eyes: A Comparative Study of Current Status and Time Trends over Three Decades of HBSC Study

This study aimed to investigate how family structure varies and identify its time trends in European and North American countries using data from seven surveys conducted between 1994 and 2018 according to the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. The current family structure in 44 countries was described and time trend analysis of 28 countries was performed. Adolescents were asked whom they lived with in their home to describe family structures. Family structures showed distinct patterns and dynamics between countries. In 2018, in all countries, 73% of adolescents lived with both their mother and father; 14% and 5% of adolescents lived in a single-parent family and stepfamily, respectively; and around 9% of adolescents lived in another family type. In the period 1994–2018, the proportion of young people living in intact families decreased from 79.6% to 70.0%, on average about 10 percentage points. There were no significant changes in the prevalence of single-parent families and stepfamilies, but a significant increase in the number of adolescents living without either parent was revealed. The findings have implications for cross-national adjustment of adolescent health, well-being, and behaviours, and for critical analysis of socioeconomic family resources.

The Children of Hobbes: Education, Family Structure and the Problem of Social Order

This article suggests that the problem of social order remains a basic theoretical and practical issue for sociologists. It maintains that Dennis Wrong's discussion of this problem can help us conceptualize degrees of social order or disorder as emerging from patterns of social interactions. Given the increasing prevalence of single-parent families as an American social pattern, the article investigates the possibility that family structure may influence school outcomes by producing varying levels of social order in schools. Specifically, it looks at whether concentrations of students from single-parent families may lead to conflictual environments that can influence the school performance of all students, regardless of individual family backgrounds.

Why So Many Children Are Poor

According to the official U.S. measure of poverty, in 1995 the child poverty rate in this country was nearly 21%, compared with an adult poverty rate of 11%. This article explores why, according to the official measure, there are so many poor children. Working from the premise that children are poor because they live with poor adults, the reasons for adult poverty are reviewed. Both economic forces and demographic trends have contributed to growing inequality of earnings among workers. That inequality coupled with stagnating real earnings has increased poverty. In addition, education, age, and race affect an individual's earning capacity; the article examines the likelihood that an individual will earn enough to keep his or her family out of poverty, given the individual's educational attainment, age, and race. The reasons for the large difference between the child and adult poverty rates are explored, using a decomposition of the poverty population to show how demographic characteristics such as higher fertility rates among poor families and the higher prevalence of single-parent families among the poor lead to substantially higher poverty rates for children than for adults. Finally, the article examines the validity of the official poverty measure and reviews how an alternative measure proposed by a National Research Council panel would address the official measure's shortcomings. If the panel's proposed measure were adopted, it would change the statistical face of poor children. It would, for example, show an increase in the proportion of poor children who live in families with two parents and a corresponding decrease in the proportion in families with only one parent, and it would show an increase in the proportion of children who live in families with at least one full-time employed adult and a corresponding decrease in the proportion in families with no adult employed full time.

Growth screening and urban deprivation.

To assess the effect of urban deprivation on childhood growth in a modern British society by analysing data from a regional growth survey, the Tayside growth study. The Tayside Region in Scotland, which has three districts with distinct socioeconomic status: Dundee (D, urban city), Angus (A, rural), and Perth (P, rural and county town). Height and weight of 23,046 children (> 90% of the regional childhood population) were measured as part of a child health surveillance programme, by community health care workers at 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 14 years. Height standard deviation score (calculated against Tanner) and body mass index (BMI-weight (kg)/height (m)2) were calculated for each child by a central computer program; mean height standard deviation score and BMI standard deviation score were calculated for each measuring centre (school, health clinic). A deprivation score for each centre was calculated from the prevalence of single parent families; families with more than three children; unemployment rate; the number of social class V individuals; the percentage of council houses. Mean height standard deviation score for Tayside was 0.11. An intraregional difference was demonstrated: mean height standard deviation score (SD) D = 0.04 (1.0); A = 0.14 (1.1); P = 0.21 (1.1); P < 0.002. There was a positive association between short stature and increasing social deprivation seen throughout Tayside (P < 0.05), with a strong association in Dundee primary school children (r = 0.6; P < 0.001). Analysis by district showed that the association was significant only above the age of 8 (P < 0.004). There was no relation between BMI and social deprivation. In an industrialised developed society, urban deprivation appears to influence height mostly in late childhood, and this association should be taken into consideration in the clinical management of short stature. Height seems to be a better physical indicator of urban deprivation, and hence an index of childhood health, than BMI.