Single Parent Struggle Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Single Parent Struggle - Research Paper Example It is quite difficult to anticipate how kids will survive the change in their lives, and how they will react to the absence of one of their parents. Teenage pregnancy is another problem that leaves adverse effects upon the single parent and the child. The rate of out-of-wedlock teenage births has increased over the years, and this has put a great threat to the ethical and social concerns of the society. This paper tends to argue that a single parent, whether divorced or teen mother, has to struggle hard to survive and raise kids. â€Å"More than 40 percent of marriages in America end in divorce† (The Survivor’s Club, para.2). One has to think about a lot of issues, from managing finances to raising kids to looking for a new life partner. Once the decision has been finalized, and the divorce has occurred, the hardest part is to re-assemble the shattered pieces of one’s personality, mind and heart, and to recover from the trauma. A single parent has to go through many sorts of discriminatory behaviors at workplaces and other areas of life. As for a single teen mother, she is stigmatized by the society so much so that this perception creates great negative impacts on her life and her opportunities in education and employment. Single teen moms do not find themselves capable of graduating their high school nor do they go for proper prenatal care out of embarrassment. The baby, when comes to the world, fails to get proper psychological and social development. Single teen moms have difficulty in keeping up with school requirements and relating with peers after giving birth (McDermott and Graham). Furthermore, Single parents suffer from much negative behavior from their children. For example, in case of divorce, children are the ones who suffer the most when their parents are having clashes with one another. They adopt many negative behavioral patterns, which might not show at the moment, but are very powerful and get expressed when they grow up into teenage and older adults. Parents start their new lives, but the lives of children get shattered because they have to live with one of the two parents, due to which they become deprived of the love of the other parent. This makes them under confident and frustrated, and they grow up into disturbed individuals. Preschool children are normally attached to their mothers, so their reaction will not be very strong if their fathers leave, as Cooney, Hutchinson and Leather state, â€Å"Post divorce relations between young children and their parents are largely differentiated by the gender of the parent† (153). However, school age and adolescent children react very severely because they do not understand the concept of parents parting each other. They may finally adapt to the situation, but they become vulnerable and feel deprived. School age children may feel very miserable, scared, timid, helpless, and deserted, when one of the two parents is not around. Adolescents show severer reactions through anger and aggression. They may even become involved in sex and drugs. Hence, it is important for the divorcing couples to think about how their children will solve the riddle of their lives. Children of divorce may benefit through proper counseling. Children learn to cope with the circumstances resulting from divorce. Counseling helps them in their emotional stability, which is very necessary for them to grow up into normal and stable individuals of society. Since all children possess unique qualities, they react to counseling strategies in their own ways. Their age and development phase counts very much toward th eir reaction to counseling. Opponents of this argument