Single-father Families Research Articles

Adolescent girls, single-parent fathers, and menarche.

When adolescent girls reach menarche, they often seek information about menstruation from their mothers. More adolescent girls are being raised in single-father families today and have limited or no contact with their mothers. Thirteen adolescent females, who lived with their fathers as the primary caretaker, described their menarcheal experience. The participants, who had close relationships with their fathers, found it embarrassing to discuss menstruation with any male, including their father. They believed their fathers lacked credibility regarding menstrual issues, and they experienced an emotional and physical distancing from their fathers. Nurses must be aware of the needs of single-parent father families, especially menstrual information for both girls and their fathers.

The Community Context of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use

Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), this article investigates a number of hypotheses used to explain the relationship between family structure and adolescent drug use. In particular, using linked community‐level data, an explicit examination of hypotheses drawn from a community‐context model is conducted. These hypotheses posit that the impact of family structure on adolescent behavior is, in part, explained by the different types of communities within which families reside and that community characteristics moderate the impact of family structure on drug use. The results of multilevel regression models fail to support these hypotheses; adolescents who reside in single‐parent or stepparent families are at heightened risk of drug use irrespective of community context. Moreover, adolescents who reside in single father families are at risk of both higher levels of use and increasing use over time. A significant community‐level effect involves jobless men: Adolescents are at increased risk of drug use if they reside in communities with a higher proportion of unemployed and out‐of‐workforce men.

Comparison of Role Demands, Relationships, and Child Functioning in Single-Mother, Single-Father, and Intact Families

Numerous studies have examined the impact of divorce on parents and children, but most of these studies have been restricted to single-mother families. This study compared differences in role demands, relationships, and child functioning using the responses of parents and children in 30 single-mother, 30 single-father, and 30 intact families. Single fathers had better resources than single mothers, more positive parenting than married fathers, and relied more on friends than the married parents. Single mothers had less education, less prestigious jobs, lower incomes, and more economic strain than the other parents. They also had fewer social resources and more difficulty than married parents with the parenting role. Despite these disadvantages of single mother families, children in these families were no different than children in other families on most measures of well-being. The only problem that was identified in the functioning of children from single-parent families was with their behavior. These findings can be used to develop strategies to reduce risks and enhance the existing resources and strengths of single-parent families.

The Single-Father Family

SUMMARY This paper examines the demographic and economic characteristics of single-father families, with particular attention to public transfer receipt. Cohabiting and non-cohabiting single fathers are examined and compared to fathers in married-couple families. Estimates from the 1997 March, Current Population Survey (CPS) are featured. Selected trend data for 1984, 1989, and 1996 are also presented. The analyses show that single fathers earn substantially less than married fathers, have lower household incomes, are less educated, and are substantially more likely to be receiving public transfers. Further, the socioeconomic gap between single and married fathers has been increasing since 1984.

Comparison of Parenting and Children's Behavior in Single-Mother, Single-Father, and Intact Families

The authors used ecological theory to disentangle the effects of gender, family structure, and role responsibilities on parenting and children's behavior in single-parent and intact families. Data were gathered from parents and a focal child in 30 single-mother, 30 single-father, and 30 intact families. The Parent Perception Inventory (PPI) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were used to evaluate how positive and negative behaviors of parents and internalizing and externalizing behaviors of the children differed across the three family structures. Significant differences were found between single-parent and intact families for both parenting and children's behavior. The researchers determined that role responsibilities and family structure are more important than gender in explaining parenting and child behavior following divorce.

A National Portrait of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use

Using 3 years of data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, we examine the distribution of drug use among adolescents aged 12-17 years by family structure. In addition, we investigate the plausibility of two hypotheses that purport to explain the association between family structure and adolescent behavior, namely economic resources and residential mobility. The results of cross-tabulations and multivariate logistic regression models indicate that the risk of drug use, including problem use, is highest among adolescents in father-custody families (father-only and father-stepmother families), even after controlling for the effects of sex, age, race-ethnicity, family income, and residential mobility. The risk of drug use is lowest in mother-father families. Economic resources and residential mobility fail to explain these relationships, thus casting doubt on their ability to explain the association between family structure and an important adolescent behavior. Key Words: adolescent, alcohol, drug use, family structure marijuana. The development and consequences of adolescent drug use are important social issues. Adolescents who use drugs are at heightened risk of low academic achievement, high school dropout, early sexual initiation, teenage nonmarital pregnancy, troubled interpersonal relationships, and marital disruption in adulthood (Johnson & Kaplan, 1990; Newcomb & Bentler, 1988). A parallel line of research demonstrates that each of these outcomes is also associated with residence in singleparent or stepparent families (Astone & McLanahan, 1991, 1994; Downey, 1994, 1995; Downey & Powell, 1993; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994; Wu, 1996). Although the link between family structure and adolescent drug use has been explored in a number of previous studies (Flewelling & Bauman, 1990; Hoffmann, 1994, 1995; Needle, Su, & Doherty, 1990; Thomas, Farrell, & Barnes, 1996), there are several lessons from the more general research on family structure that should be applied to research on adolescent drug use. The first lesson is that research on the relationship between family structure and adolescent drug use requires large samples to distinguish precise effects. Most studies have been forced to rely on categorization schemes that do not recognize potential differences between father-custody and mother-custody families. For example, much of the research in this area has assessed differences between single-mother families and mother-father families (Hoffmann, 1993; Thomas et al., 1996) or among single-parent, stepparent, and mother-father families (Flewelling & Bauman, 1990; Hoffmann, 1995; Needle et al., 1990). Yet a key result that has emerged from the general literature about family structure is that there are important differences between adolescents in mother-stepfather and father-stepmother families and between those in single-mother and single-father families (Ambert, 1986; Downey, 1995; Downey & Powell, 1993; Lee, Burkham, Zimiles, & Ladewski, 1994). In general, adolescents who reside with their mothers fare better than those who reside with their fathers in both single-parent and stepparent families. Given the small proportion of adolescents who reside with fathers but not with mothers (Bianchi, 1995; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993), it is not surprising that many studies of family structure and adolescent drug use, which often rely on small samples, have not heretofore distinguished the effects of father versus mother absence from the family. A second lesson concerns the theoretical models used to explain the effects of family structure on adolescent outcomes. Much of the research on family structure and adolescent drug use has been descriptive. A typical approach is to examine the distribution of drug use by family structure and then control for various demographic characteristics to determine if the relationships persist. Although this provides important information about the association between family structure and drug use, it fails to explain theoretically why this association exists. …

Grandparent Involvement Following Divorce

Summary Although the value of the grandparent role has been widely documented, researchers rarely have examined the specific activities shared by grandparents and grandchildren, nor have comparisons been made of the involvement of grandparents in single-mother and single-father families. In this study, data on the involvement of grandparents with a school-aged grandchild were gathered from custodial parents in 30 single-mother and 30 single-father families during a two-hour interview. A self-report questionnaire on grandparenting was used to evaluate how gender of grandparent, kin position, and gender of custodial parent influenced the amount of contact, types of activities, and overall level of involvement between grandparents and grandchildren. Using analysis of covariance, significant effects on the dependent variables were found for both the covariate (geographic proximity) and the independent variables. Grandparents were found to be more involved with their grandchildren when they lived close-by, had an adult child with custodial status, were grandmothers, or had a grandchild living in a single-father family. These results challenge many gender-based assumptions that have driven previous research and shaped grandparents' legal rights. Professionals working with families, including family lawyers, can use this information to promote practice and policy that enhances intergenerational relationships in single-parent families.

Gender-role socialization and discipline processes in one- and two-parent families

Parental discipline and gender-role socialization are two interrelated normative processes that may be affected by family structure, parent gender, and child gender. To investigate these family processes and how they may differ depending on family composition, three groups of families (approximately 90% Caucasian) with 5-year-old children were studied: 67 two-parent families, 32 single-mother families, and 13 single-father families. In the two-parent families, mothers were focused on in 33 of the families and fathers were focused on in 34 of the families. Overall, gender-role socialization processes were affected by family structure and parent gender: Single-parent families and mothers had less traditional gender-role socialization than two-parent families and fathers. Family discipline processes were also affected by family structure, as single-parent families reported more positive behavior from their children and reported using more problem-solving strategies. Regardless of family structure, parents used different discipline strategies depending on the gender of parent and child. No evidence was found to suggest that gender-role socialization mediated the discipline process.

Children in single-father families in demographic perspective.

The purpose of this article is to examine single-parent families headed by fathers. "We use specially constructed child files from the 1960-1990 Public Use Microdata Samples data from the Census of Population to address two general questions: (a) To what extent has both the likelihood and the demographic characteristics of these families changed over time? (b) What are the consequences for children of living in different kinds of father-only families? We find that single-father families are comparatively rare, but increasing rapidly, especially since 1980. Increasingly, these families are formed by fathers who are young, never married, with low incomes, and fewer children. Analysis of the 1990 data reveals wide diversity in living arrangements among children in single-father families. Furthermore, the social capital of children's fathers, the availability of adults, and children's economic well-being vary markedly across these types of families."

Single Fathers with Custody Following Separation and Divorce

After years of neglect by researchers, therapists, and lawmakers, interest in fathering has come to the forefront. One group of fathers, those raising their children alone following separa- tion or divorce, has more than tripled in the period between 1970 and 1990 according to the Census Bureau. The literature on single custo- dial fathers, a population that was virtually unstudied until the 1970s, is based on both large and small samples. Comparison groups con- sisting of fathers without custody, fathers in joint custody arrange- ments, married fathers, widowers, and mothers with custody have been employed to further understand single father families. The research shows this lifestyle to be a viable one despite the role ambiguity associated with it. Particular areas of difficulties for these fathers are balancing work and child care, reestablishing a social life, and interacting with the court system. Fathers who choose the role tend to have an easier time than those who are forced into it. This article ...

The School Performance of Children From Single-Mother and Single-Father Families:

Very little is known about the academic performance of children from single-father families. How do they achieve in school relative to children from single-mother and two-parent families? Do the same processes posited to explain the school performance of children from single-mother households account for the educational performance of children in single-father homes? These questions are addressed using a nationally representative sample of 8th graders from the National Longitudinal Study of 1988. Eight different educational outcomes are compared for 409 children in single-father, 3,483 in single-mother, and 14,269 children in biological two-parent families. Children from single-father and single-mother families perform roughly the same in school, but both are outperformed by children from two-parent families. The intervening processes explaining school performance for children from single-father and single-mother families are somewhat different, however. Economic deprivation, or the lack of economic resources, is more useful for understanding the school difficulties of children from single-mother families, whereas interpersonal deprivation, or the lack of interpersonal parental resources, provide a more accurate description for why children from single-father families do poorly in school.

Custodial Fathers: Myths, Realities, and Child Support Policy

Men are increasingly receiving custody of their children, and single-father families with children are increasing at a faster rate than even single-mother families. Howewer, many observers still believe that there are few custodial fathers. Indeed, there are number of myths concerning custodial fathers. We examine three data sets and determine that many of these assumptions about custodial fathers are simply not true. We argue that current child support policies should be re-examined to ensure that they follow the same principles when the custodial parent is the father as when the custodial parent is the mother.

A Comparison of Children Living in Single-Mother and Single-Father Families

Research comparing children living in single-mother and single-father families has become important due to the increase in the number of parents contesting custody in divorce cases and as the number of single custodial fathers increases. The present study was designed to investigate a number of characteristics relating to children living in single-father families (SFFs) and in single-mother families (SMFs). Previous research has suggested that in the case of separation and/or divorce the mother is the more competent parent to raise the children. However, recent studies have provided some support for the idea that single fathers can be effective single parents. The subject sample included 42 single divorced custodial parents (21 single mothers and 21 single fathers) and their 62 (6- to 16-year-old) children. The measures employed were The Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC; Harter, 1985) and The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983). One-way MANCOVA and ANCOVA procedures were performed and it was found that the overall scores of children from single-father families (SFFs) did not differ significantly from children in single-mother families (SMFs) on the SPPC and the CBCL. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Children and Housework in the Single Father Family

Findings from a self-selected sample of 1136 single fathers raising children alone following separation and divorce showed that as children got older, they participated more in housework, that fathers raising teen-age girls received more help from them than fathers raising teen-age boys, and that fathers may expect less from children in the way of participation in housework than had been found in a study of two-parent families. The fathers, who were members of Parents Without Partners, responded to a questionnaire placed in their membership magazine. Also discussed are the fathers' use of outside help and daughters as mother substitutes. Recommendations for practitioners are included.