Differences in Academic Achievement of Children Raised by Single Parents

Differences in Academic Achievement of Children Raised by Single Parents

Author: Tamara Janice Spivey

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The purpose of this project is to look at the differences between single parenting and two-parent parenting. This researcher wants to prove that having both parents is an important part of a child's well being. However, the researcher also realizes that single parents can also do a wonderful job in raising their children without the help of the other partner. There were 20 different 5th grade teachers who surveyed from public and private schools in Southern California. One the average, the teachers that were surveyed had over 15 years of teaching experience. The number of students in the classroom ranged from 19-35 students. The 5th grade teachers were asked questions pertaining to their experience and knowledge of what they have observed in their students academics who come from single parent families. The data was collected will indicate whether students who are raised by a single parent differ in their academic achievement than those who are raised in a nuclear family. The study that was conducted helped determine those differences. The survey centered around three questions: 1) What are the academic advantages of being raised by a nuclear family rather than a single parent? 2) Does the gender of a single parent make a difference in their child's academic achievement? 3) Does the amount of quality time single parents spend with their children affect their academic performance? Out of the 20 5th grade teachers that were surveyed, 100% agreed that there are academic advantages of being raised in a nuclear family rather than a single parent. Out of the 20 surveys, 13 agreed that the cultural background of a student makes a difference in their academics and 7 disagreed. Out of the 20 surveys, 19 agreed that the amount of quality time a single parent spends with their children affects their child's academics. The results from these surveys indicate that two is better than one.


Growing Up with a Single Parent

Growing Up with a Single Parent

Author: Sara McLanahan

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9780674040861

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Nonwhite and white, rich and poor, born to an unwed mother or weathering divorce, over half of all children in the current generation will live in a single-parent family--and these children simply will not fare as well as their peers who live with both parents. This is the clear and urgent message of this powerful book. Based on four national surveys and drawing on more than a decade of research, Growing Up with a Single Parent sharply demonstrates the connection between family structure and a child's prospects for success. What are the chances that the child of a single parent will graduate from high school, go on to college, find and keep a job? Will she become a teenage mother? Will he be out of school and out of work? These are the questions the authors pursue across the spectrum of race, gender, and class. Children whose parents live apart, the authors find, are twice as likely to drop out of high school as those in two-parent families, one and a half times as likely to be idle in young adulthood, twice as likely to become single parents themselves. This study shows how divorce--particularly an attendant drop in income, parental involvement, and access to community resources--diminishes children's chances for well-being. The authors provide answers to other practical questions that many single parents may ask: Does the gender of the child or the custodial parent affect these outcomes? Does having a stepparent, a grandmother, or a nonmarital partner in the household help or hurt? Do children who stay in the same community after divorce fare better? Their data reveal that some of the advantages often associated with being white are really a function of family structure, and that some of the advantages associated with having educated parents evaporate when those parents separate. In a concluding chapter, McLanahan and Sandefur offer clear recommendations for rethinking our current policies. Single parents are here to stay, and their worsening situation is tearing at the fabric of our society. It is imperative, the authors show, that we shift more of the costs of raising children from mothers to fathers and from parents to society at large. Likewise, we must develop universal assistance programs that benefit low-income two-parent families as well as single mothers. Startling in its findings and trenchant in its analysis, Growing Up with a Single Parent will serve to inform both the personal decisions and governmental policies that affect our children's--and our nation's--future.


The Triple Bind of Single-Parent Families

The Triple Bind of Single-Parent Families

Author: Nieuwenhuis, Rense

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2018-03-07

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 1447333640

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Single parents face countless hardships, but they can be boiled down to a triple bind: inadequate resources, insufficient employment, and limited support policies. This book brings together research from a range of disciplines from more than forty countries--with particularly detailed case studies from the United Kingdom, Iceland, Sweden, and Scotland. It addresses numerous issues related to the struggles of single parents, including poverty, employment, health, children's development and education, and more.


How the Family Influences Children's Academic Achievement

How the Family Influences Children's Academic Achievement

Author: Shui Fong Lam

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 1996-12-31

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 9780815326205

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Studies the interactive effects of family status and family process on children's academic achievement, drawing on research with a group of students in two inner-city schools to illustrate how parenting style mediates the influences of family structure and socio-economic status on academic performance. Concludes that an integrated model is superior to the traditional view of family status and process as independent factors. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Families without Fathers

Families without Fathers

Author: David Popenoe

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-12

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 1351520563

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The American family is changing. Divorce, single parents, and stepfamilies are redefi ning the ways we live together and raise our children. Many "experts" feel these seemingly inevitable changes should be celebrated; they claim that the "new" families, which often lack a strong father, are actually healthier than traditional two-parent families—or, at the very least, do children no harm. But as David Popenoe shows in Families Without Fathers this optimistic view is severely misguided. Examining evidence from social and behavioral science, history, and evolutionary biology, Popenoe shows why fathers today are deserting their families in record numbers. The disintegration of the child-centered, two parent family—especially in the inner cities, where as many as two in three children are growing up without their fathers—and the weakening commitment of fathers to their children that more and more follows divorce, are central causes of many of our worst individual and social problems. Juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, welfare dependency, and child poverty can be directly traced to fathers' lack of involvement in their children's lives. Our situation will only get worse, Popenoe warns, unless men are willing to renew their commitment to their marriages and to their children. Yet he is not just an alarmist. He suggests concrete policies, and new ways of thinking and acting that will help all fathers improve their marriages and family lives, and tells us what we as individuals and as a society can do to support and strengthen the most important thing a man can do.


Parenting Matters

Parenting Matters

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2016-11-21

Total Pages: 525

ISBN-13: 0309388570

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.


Persons in Context

Persons in Context

Author: Niall Bolger

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 052135577X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Social changes, including women's entry into the labour force and higher rates of divorce and remarriage, dramatically altered family life and raised complex questions about how individuals develop in the ever changing contexts of family, community and society. The goal of this 1989 volume is to enhance our understanding of human development in an evolving social context. Featuring contributions by eminent scholars in developmental, clinical and personality psychology, behavioural genetics and sociology, Persons in Context: Developmental Processes presents advances in theory and research on two central topics: how environments influence individuals in the course of development and how individuals select and shape the very environments that influence their development. The volume assembles a theoretically convergent body of research on how individuals and environments are linked in the course of development, including studies of genetics - environment relations, social interns, social interchanges in family systems, and linkages between the family and other major settings, such as peer groups, communities, and the larger social structure.


Single Parent Families

Single Parent Families

Author: Marvin B Sussman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-05-12

Total Pages: 642

ISBN-13: 1317764595

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Here is a comprehensive source of vital information on single parent families in contemporary society. This book analyzes literature and empirical research concerning single parent families and explores issues and challenges they face. Contributing authors from many fields and perspectives examine a broad range of subjects relating to families in which one person is primarily responsible for parenting. The only state-of-the-art compendium on the topic of single parent families available today, the book synthesizes empirical, theoretical, and contemporary literature about the diversity, myths, and realities of single parent families in western countries. Each chapter contains a demographic overview, definitions, a literature review, and implications for practice, research, education, and social policy. Theoretical and conceptual perspectives related to parenting and wider families are included. An analysis, synthesis, and commentary on single parent families concludes the volume. Themes highlighted throughout the book include socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of single parent families, cultural and ethnic features, and legal and ethical components. Some chapter topics include: single parenthood following divorce single parenthood following death of a spouse never married teen mothers and fathers female-headed homeless families adoptions by single parents noncustodial mothers and fathers grandparents as primary parents single parents of children with disabilities Single Parent Families contains additional resources useful for family professionals: an annotated bibliography, a video/filmography, and a national community resource list. The book is intended for a multidisciplinary audience, including sociologists, psychologists, health care professionals, social workers, therapists, and other researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and educators. An ideal primary or reference text for undergraduate and graduate level programs, the book can also serve as a tool for staff development and continuing education in service agencies.