A dramatic change has occurred causing the “nuclear family” to not be as popular as it use to be. Single-parent homes have become the new families and have been more frequent for over the past two decades. A single-parent home can consist of children under the age of eighteen being raised solely by the mother, father, grandparent, or other legal guardian (APA, 2015). The children of single-parent homes can come from parents who are unmarried, divorced and not remarried, separated, and widowed (Single Parent Families, 2015). The sudden increase of single-parent homes has become more relevant than ever. There are more than 20 million kids living in the United States with one parent with separation and divorce being the most common reasons for this. Single-parent homes affect the well-being of children by putting them at risk for experiencing several different emotions, stress, difficult life events and circumstances, and poverty (Living With a Single Parent, 2015). It is highly important to understand that single-parent homes are constantly rising and affecting the lives of children in tremendous …show more content…
They also reported the number of children in single-parent homes by race as well. Each race had high numbers of children living in single-parent homes, but, the Caucasian population had the highest ranging at 9,289,000. Following after them was the Hispanic population at 7,044,000 and the African-American population at 6,427,000. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, Mississippi and the District of Columbia have the highest percentages of young children living in extreme poverty in single-parent homes ranging at 15 and 17 percent respectively. Children of all races and locations are deeply affected by single-parent homes and some more than others.
The developmental domains of children growing up in single-parent homes are impacted in significant ways. Children are faced with several problems and issues that they must learn how to adapt, cope, and live with. The cognitive, social, and emotional domains are the most affected in them. With that being said, single-parents face a variety of issues when raising children alone because they are not able to provide many of the things children need (Falana, Bada, and Ayodele,