English
Causes
Why did it happen? It happened because of death, divorce, desertion.
Why does it happen? It could be because of an accident, sickness, age, or because of lack of trust, love, or interest in the partner.
Why will it happen? When there is no compatibility and tension mounts, there is sure to be an after-effect; in this case, it was mutual separation.
Effects
What did it produce? The creation of a single-parent household
What does it produce? Pressure on the single parent to support and observe his or her child/children
What will it produce? Children both take responsibility and support the single parent, or the child gets involved in unethical practices due to the lack of parental supervision.
What leads to the creation of a single-parent household? It would be difficult to point at one particular factor, but the most common factors that come to mind are because of a death, separation, or divorce, not necessarily in that order. The sudden change of status, the psychological imbalance, and the fall of happiness to despair and loneliness, are what confronts women more than men in divorce. The process of divorce begins a process of unraveling, estrangement, or emotional separation years before legal divorce are obtained. Divorce comes about when one or both of the marital partners begin to feel alienated from the other. Conflicts intensify, become more frequent, and often go unresolved. Feelings of bitterness, helplessness, and anger escalate as the spouses weigh the costs and benefits of continuing their legal status.
Causal Analysis systematically examines the causes and/or the effects of an event, situation, belief, or action. Normally, Causal Analysis is a research process wherein results or observations are drawn from hunches or experience. Casual Analysis looks at macro and micro problems to arrive at a consensus. On the subject of what causes people to rise above a disadvantaged background such as poverty, single-parent household or abusive parents?
The problem with young students is that in their quest to seek happiness elsewhere, they experiment and explore various possibilities that could be either harmful to them, or make them what they want to be. In trying to understand Casual Analysis and the reason what causes people to rise above a disadvantaged background such as poverty, single-parent household or abusive parents, two prominent methods are explored. Macro problems are identified using the identities of ‘place, people, procedures, and policies.’ Micro problems then try to identify the most appropriate reason for such a cause. The reason why people have a disadvantaged background such as single-parent household is because of the indifferent social, intellectual and recreational bonding of individuals. The reason why there are single-parent families is because of events such as death, divorce, or even desertion in the family.
It’s true that many marriages have broken down owing to personal preferences, and in recent times, the love-hate relationship among newly and not-too-recently couples have increasingly grown alarmingly. A marriage is not just the physical and emotional bonding of two individuals, but it also includes the social, intellectual and recreational bonding of individuals. Even though there may be differences in some of these classifications, a difference of opinion or incapability among them could disrupt the relationship, leading to a strained relationship and ultimately in divorce. In the event of a divorce, their children face severe hardships in terms of family bonding, love, care, and support. The children grow up missing the company of loving parents who supports them, encourages them, and loves them. ‘Thirteen’ is a movie that illustrates the folly of single parent family. The movie deals with children exposed to drugs and alcohol abuse, underage sexual behavior, and self-harm; things that are quite evident in certain school students in the U.S today. The pressure of being a single parent dealing with an adolescent daughter or son can be a handful. In most cases, the father-daughter, mother-son relationships are more profound, but when a single mother has to deal with her growing daughter, who is attached to her father, the implications can be volatile, as seen in the change in Traci, the protagonist’s attitude in the movie, Thirteen.
Children of single parent households go through a lot of social and cultural difficulties in life. According to Arredondo (2013: p.21), a number of scholars who have studied the relationship between family structures; single versus two-parent homes, divorced versus still-married parents, and so on, found that children raised by single mothers were more likely to struggle than those children raised in two-parent households. Also, “these children, raised in single-parent homes, were found to have negative academic outcomes, psychological problems, and non-compliant behavior” says Baer (1999); and Ford, Brown-Wright, Grantham, & Harris (1998). It is also true that the continued use of biased, problem-focused models negate one’s understanding of why many children raised by single parents have thrived, despite overwhelming disadvantages (Brody et al., 1996), in Arredondo (2013: p.22). Unlike some of their friends, who have their mothers and fathers to support, console, and spend time with them, single-parent children don’t have such luxuries. Some children hardly get to spend time with their parent, who is busy trying to make a living for the family. Left on their own, these children end up in wrong company to get away from the problems at home. However, for those who people who choose to rise above a disadvantaged single-parent household, they look at life more seriously than their classmates and become more responsible. According to Messner (1996), teachers and others close to them, consider single-parent students as “dependent and vulnerable. Since these ‘infantilized’ students suffer from anxiety and insecurity at home, they work more like adults than children.” He goes on to say that children who experience parental separation because of different reasons need not necessarily be of the same intensity, and can be of varying length. This means that the grieving process stages are not similar to each child. Therefore, the belief that children of single-parent households suffer from low self-esteem and personal conflict may not completely be true.
When a family breaks up, a small student may not understand or react to it any way. As long as the child has the protection and comforting words of the mother or father; whoever is with the child, the child will grow just as well as any ordinary child living with either his or her biological parents. As an adolescent, the chances of the child becoming a victim of his or her family divide cannot be ruled out. It is true that parental supervision and support should always be there for children in their adolescence, as this is a period of change, and the pains at home can affect the child considerably. Social, cultural and emotional bonds are inter-related, and when adolescents experience a change in their emotional outlook, their relationship with others around them changes and can become either vulnerable or emotionally intimate. Messner (1996:13) states that as a student or child grows older, there is a restructuring of the family. This does not necessarily mean that the family has to break up for the change to occur, but should that happen, “the break-up may cause a change in family roles, level of authority, and responsibility.” This is something that needs to be considered. The adolescent may find him or herself playing an equally important role with authority of the family as the remaining parent may or may not consolidate all of the authority. The sudden change brings sharing of power, and the adolescent’s ownership level in decision making may increase. This change can affect his/her actions in school, as the adolescent now finds him or herself with more responsibilities.
In a study by Kaslow and Schwartz (Messner: p.13), they found that many of the student respondents who were from single-parent households, said that they had assumed more responsibilities at home than they anticipated. Due to financial stress and the pressure of the single parent to earn for the family, they assumed the roles of caretakers at home. Because their single-parent was busy trying to make a living for them, and they had little time to spend with their children, the majority of student respondents were given childcare and household responsibilities that exceed their developmental level. A number of students even went to the extent of helping their parent by doing part-time jobs. Lynne Martin, in Breaking the Cycle of Poverty through Education and Job Training in Students Rising Above, in answering the question of how do you break the cycle of poverty and create economic opportunities for young people who have overcome tremendous obstacles such as poverty, abuse, and neglect, quotes young Ask Ali Rucker, and adolescent 15-years-old. Rucker is among the many young adolescents who have become financially independent today. Coming from a poor family, Rucker understood the pain her parent was going through to educate her and support the family, and decided that she would lend her support by working to pay for her college fee. She is now working at a law firm and considering going to law school.
It so happens that some students/adolescents become more responsible than others and plays a proactive role in running their single-parent household. These responsibilities include caretaking of their younger brother(s) and sister(s) if any, any supporting his or her mother/father by taking up part-time jobs to support studies and household expenses. This change or inculcating the habit of being responsible is called Parentification. Boszormenyi-Nagy & Spark (1973) defines Parentification as “the process where a child takes on the role of a parent, role, role reversal, or generational boundary disturbance” in Arredondo (2013: p.23). This phenomenon takes its root from an unexpected situation befalling a child, such as a family breakup, an accident, or a surprise. As and when this does happen, the child begins to think and act in a manner
Conclusion
While intimate relationships can be harmonious and breath-takingly exciting, the plunge in mutual acceptance and belief in one another can be catastrophic, especially if it involves children in between. In most cases, the decline and fall of marriages is due to the lack of interest or intimacy between the partners. While a lot of effort goes on to save a relationship from falling apart, when intimacy is lost, so too is the marriage. When the two individuals believe in one another and give them some space, there is bound to be good times. However, intimacy is broken the minute partners begin to suspect each other’s fidelity. Because of their lifestyle and their professional demands, men and women have little or no time for intimate relationships, as a result of which they divorce, and leave their children vulnerable to external influences. However, research has shown that not all children fall into bad company, and take on responsibilities much beyond their age. Taking Ali Rucker as an example, many young adolescents, because of their intricate situation, have become responsible and independent today
Works Cited
Arredondo, P, (2013), The relationship of Parentification to Adolescent Psychological Adjustment in Single Parent Mexican and Mexican-American Female-Headed Families, Alliant International University, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, p. 21-23
Martin, L, (2013), Breaking the Cycle of Poverty through Education and Job Training, Students Rising Above, Retrieved July 7, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/students-rising-above/breaking-the-cycle-of- poverty_b_2521930.html
Messner, D, Z, (1996), Single-parent family adolescents and academic performance, 01/1996, ISBN 9780591441468, p. 183
