Single Parenting Pros and Cons

Parenting is unconditional love and support which is present among all living beings on earth depends upon how strongly you need it. India is one of the best lands of nurturing their children and analyzes their weakness to develop strength, having a proper plan to bring their children into a high level of achievement usually male children from high independence to high responsibility die-hard due to the cultural obligations and parental expectations to take care of them in elder age. Parenting denotes the biological relationship of father and mother to a child that emerges with the fundamental concern of the Indian society.

Single-parent families may be defined as ―A family comprising of a single mother or father having their dependent children. The single-parent family is created in several ways, the death of one parent, divorce, separation, and neglect.

Parenting is an art where both father and mother work collectively to help their children for survival and independence. In the present scenario, the task of parenting is a difficult one. In order to provide a quality life to children, both parents invest their maximum time, effort, and resources into the task of parenting. However, nurturing children single-handedly is a difficult process both financially and psychologically.

Single parenthood is a challenging endeavour, an act of accountability undertaken by a person often performed jointly by the parents. Single parents face numerous obstacles in raising their children. In the past times, one had the cooperation of their parents, siblings, and immediate family members in such circumstances, making it simpler to tackle the onerous burden of raising a child. However, the notion of joint appears to have fallen out of favour in the present era. One parent is solely responsible for ensuring a healthy and prosperous childhood. As a parent, one does their utmost to give their children what they desire, yet this may not be easy.

Single Parenting a Difficult Scenario and Causes

Parenthood has always been an important area of research in psychology; various theorists and researchers have focused on different types of family structures and parenthood. Parents perform multiple culturally, socially, and biologically determined roles to ensure the development and well-being of their children. Parental roles are mainly divided among both parents in dual-parent families or intact families. Still, a breakdown in the family may lead to a different family structure altogether called a single-parent family. Single parenting can be understood as the availability of only one parent to take up the responsibility of two people for nurturing a child. Single parenthood is not always an outcome of a breakdown in the family; it can also be a choice considering a rapid cultural shift in society. The possible reasons for single-parent family structure can include the death of one of the parents, divorce or separation of the parents, single unmarried biological parent, and single unmarried adoptive parent. Single parenthood may have an impact on the family’s economic and social conditions along with individual family members’ psycho-social position in terms of their relationships with one another and parenting capabilities.

Where single parenthood has been a common phenomenon, it is believed that single motherhood or Fatherhood can be filled with a great deal of emotional, economic, and social challenges. The challenges may not be limited to the single parent but can also be experienced by their children as a result of the absence of a father, given the patriarchy and cultural norms in India, where there may be a social stigma attached to single-parent mothers and their children

Problems Faced by the Child of a Single Parent

The following factors have the potential to affect a child’s life now and in the future:

• Studies:  Parenting styles can have an impact on academic success and motivation
• Mental wellness:  The mental health of children can also be affected by parenting styles. Kids raised by tyrant, lenient, or uninvolved guardians will quite often encounter more tension, discouragement, and other psychological well-being issues.
• Confidence:  Kids raised by guardians with a legitimate style will generally areas of strength for have regard than kids raised by guardians with different styles.
• Social connections:  How children interact with others can be impacted by parenting styles. For instance, children whose parents are permissive are more likely to be bullied, whereas children whose parents are authoritarian are more likely to bully others.
• Grown-up connections:  Additionally, it may be more likely for children of strict, authoritarian parents to experience emotional abuse in adult romantic relationships, according to research.

Over the years, children raised by single parents have been source of concern and issue for research across the globe. There is possibility that students from a single parent home will face the feelings of insecurity, loneliness, anger, and fear or phobia Therefore, the above consideration has become the basis that this research focuses on the influence of single parenting on emotional development of a child.

Separation or death of parents can be a traumatic experience for children. It brings sudden changes in family structure and socio-emotional and financial experiences. Psychological and physiological problems may manifest from unresolved traumatic experiences in single-parent children. For instance, negative remarks or micro-insults significantly affects the person’s overall well-being as in the long run, these may create conflict and stress, in turn increasing the risk of traumatic stress symptoms and depression. Lack of social support has been linked with physical and mental health outcomes such as heart disease and mortality.[ On similar lines, several other studies suggest that children brought up by single mothers are at higher risk of developing conditions such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and externalizing behavior. To deal with such difficulties faced by single-parent children as a result of prolonged trauma, psychologists and physicians can come together to provide better care. For the same, current exploration of experiences of single-parent children is required in contemporary times, which not only helps in understanding unique challenges but also any strength that such children may develop over time. Therefore, the present research explores and understands lived experiences and perceptions of single-parent children in the current scenario and intends to capture positive and negative adaptations resulting from a new family structure

Problems of Single Parent and Perceived Parental Stress

It is not only about the problems encountered by the children but it is also challenging for a single parent to bring a proper development of a child and it becomes more challenging in certain circumstances . Every single parent need some social support to ease out his or her journey of single parenting. Following are the types of social support for a single parent :

Types of Social Support

Social support refers to the extent to which a person belongs to a welfare network in which he or she offers love, assistance and responsibility to and from his or her relatives, friends, employers and medical staff. Increased social assistance can be linked to better overall health outcomes. Although it is possible to support each other in several different ways, research has split particular forms of support in three different types of social support:

Emotional Support

Emotional Support requires physical comfort such as touch, listening and empathy. A friend or wife may welcome and hear issues with emotional support while being supportive and likely sharing common experiences. Mate support is the most common way to support emotions.

Esteem Support

Esteem support is expressed in expressions of motivation and confidence. Anyone who offers appreciation may indicate the strengths and show their faith in you. Life coaches and various therapists have this form of service and let their patients know that they trust in them.

Informational Support

Informational support is offered in the form of guidance, data collection, sharing and analysis. Examples of this type of help social media sites, blogs, chat rooms and phone hotlines.

These types of emotional support is required at different wavelengths both for a male or a female single parent but a child is dependent for all such social support primarily on his/her parent and then on his or her peers and friends. If a parent lack these elements of social support he or she is not able to avoid insecurity or fear in his/her mind which further creates issues of confidence and self respect  and this indirectly gets culminated in their children. Hence the overall emotional, financial and esteem well being of a single parent further results in the proper emotional development of their children.

The single parent has to play the role of both father and mother which itself is a very challenging task to perform and ensure that their child does not feel a void of any of them in his/her life. Sometime the gender difference also poses a problem to understand and communicate with the child. i.e. the female child will not be able to communicate on various issues if she has only father as her single parent. The single parent has to keep all these factors in mind and help the child in his or her development process.