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Selected Online Reading on Children and the Situation of Single Parents

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Selected e-articles

Abstract by the author: Objective: This article investigates single mothers' repartnering by analyzing two distinct transitions: the formation of a partnership with separate households and the subsequent formation of a household with a partner. Background: Previous research found impacts of repartnering on the well‐being of single‐mother families. However, detailed investigations of single mothers' repartnering have been rare and have mostly failed to differentiate the process of finding a partner from the process of forming a household with him. Method: Using pairfam data (www.pairfam.de; Waves 1–3, 2008–2009, 2009–2010, 2010–2011), the study provides event history analyses of a sample of 786 single mothers. It investigates the durations between (a) becoming a single‐mother family and finding a new partner and (b) finding a new partner and forming a household or, alternatively, dissolving. Results: Although a large proportion of the women were living alone with their children for several years, many maintained a relationship in separate households. Neither education nor employment status is found to affect the likelihood of repartnering, which suggests that socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers are not able to use repartnering as a strategy for quickly addressing their economic needs. The mother's age, the children's ages, and the partnership context at the time of entry into single motherhood are shown to affect partnership formation and household formation differently. Conclusion: The results illustrate that when investigating repartnering among single mothers, it is necessary to separate the analysis of partnership formation from the analysis of household formation.

Abstract by the author: Objective: To understand how low‐income men's views of paternal responsibility shape their engagement with fatherhood program messages and services. Background: Research on the situated contexts of fathering has found that the social and symbolic dimensions of fathering spaces influence how men construct and enact fatherhood scripts. Qualitative studies of fatherhood programs have mostly investigated parenting education and job assistance programs, revealing how fathering interventions allow disadvantaged men to shape positive paternal identities. Method: In‐depth interviews and focus groups were conducted with a nonrandom sample of 64 primarily Black and Latino low‐income fathers who participated in a federally funded responsible fatherhood program. An inductive coding technique was used to identify reasons men enrolled, the alignment of program messages with fathers' views, and how the program allowed fathers to negotiate obstacles to sustained involvement. Results: Fathers overwhelmingly found the program valuable because it offered the social and economic means they needed to enact varied meanings of paternal responsibility—or "being there." Most fathers reported that the program allowed them to realize their involvement goals, thereby enabling them to better align their paternal identities and behaviors. Conclusion: Fatherhood programming that promotes a broader idea of paternal provision to include money and care aligns with how disadvantaged fathers tailor their understandings of paternal involvement to account for socioeconomic constraints, including poverty and racism. Implications: Fatherhood interventions can influence disadvantaged men's abilities to claim and enact responsible parent identities, but programs must address the importance of resources and opportunities, including and especially access to well‐paid work, for shaping paternal involvement.

Abstract by the author: Joint physical custody (JPC), a parental care arrangement in which a child lives with each parent for at least 25–50% of the time after separation or divorce, is increasingly common in many Western societies. This is a major shift from the standard of sole physical custody, with mostly mothers providing primary childcare after a parental separation or divorce. The increasing share of separated or divorced parents who practice JPC, which in some countries, US states, and regions reaches 30% and more, results from increasing gender equality due to mothers participating considerably in the labor force and fathers being actively involved in their children's daily lives. This review focuses on the effects of JPC on children's and parents' well‐being, based on 40 studies from North America, Australia, and Europe published between 2007 and 2018. In sum, there is empirical evidence from different countries that suggests that JPC arrangements can have positive effects on the well‐being of children and of parents. However, the existing studies are conceptually, methodologically, and contextually very heterogeneous. In addition, self‐selected highly educated parents with a high socio‐economic status, a low conflict level, and children between the ages of 6–15 practicing JPC dominate the samples. Thus, the risks and benefits of JPC are not clear yet and are heavily debated by advocates and academics. The review concludes with suggestions for future research. Translation into Spanish

Abstract by the authors: This article takes the example of single men who wish to become single fathers, using surrogacy, as a case study to examine the nature of legal subjectivity and the process by which persons acquire social visibility through legal mechanisms. The article investigates the notion of the absent subjects in law and examines the ways in which single men have been rendered invisible in the area of assisted reproduction. It investigates the emergence of legal subjectivity through the acquisition of rights in the context of fertility treatment. In this respect, it analyses the recent jurisprudence of the English courts and the changes in the human rights law that helped construct single men as subjects of law. The article proposes the concept of (in)visibilization for a number of reasons. It allows us to observe and examine the slow and contingent emergence of legal subjectivity in law. It illuminates ways, in which aspects of the critique of human rights as an inadequate vehicle of social inclusion can be overcome. In both respects, the concept of (in)visibilization provides a diction, in which we can analyse legally relevant experiences, which have not yet crossed the threshold into the formal system of law.

Abstract by the authors: Single fathers by choice (SFC) are a relatively new, quite small but growing addition to the many family forms that have burgeoned in the USA and UK since the 1970s (Golombok, 2015: 160–162). SFC created a Facebook group in 2018 with 137 members, they are getting some press attention, including but not limited to single celebrity dads, and social scientific studies are starting to be undertaken (Carone et al., 2017, Graham and Braverman, 2012). Some single men adopt, but as the 21st century progresses, surrogacy, particularly gestational surrogacy (Blake et al., 2016), is becoming a more frequent route. British law, which had restricted parenthood via surrogacy to couples, was changed in 2019 so as not to discriminate against single parents. A USA-based nonprofit organisation that helps gay men world-wide use surrogacy sees ‘interest from single men’ as ‘part of a broader surge in gay families' (Scher, 2018). The Pop Luck Club for gay fathers in Los Angeles reported that about a quarter of the 240 families in the group in 2008 were headed by single men (Navarro, 2008). Some heterosexual single men are also using surrogacy. One US-based agency reports that between 2006 and 2011 they helped nearly as many heterosexual single parents as gay couples (Trimmings and Beaumont, 2013: 471) and the American man who started an SFC hotline says about half of the approximately 30 calls he receives each month are from straight men (Ludden, 2012). This review examines the two surrogacy memoirs of a British heterosexual man who undertook single fatherhood in 1999 and that of a gay man from California who embarked on surrogacy in 2014. Together they reveal how in the space of these 15 years, at least in some cultural milieus, the ‘reproductive consciousness’ of men changed dramatically. Their first-person narratives augment our understanding of the experience of surrogacy for men who do not intend to parent with a woman. They also offer a glimpse of how painful, life-threatening and life-altering these made-to-order pregnancies can be for surrogate mothers and their families.
 

Abstract by the authors: Background: In this study, we aimed to compare the quality of life (QOL) of single mothers with that of married mothers and to identify the sociodemographic and psychological factors affecting single mothers' QOL. We identified the factors that were similar and different between single and married mothers. Methods: We analyzed survey data obtained from 195 single mothers and 357 married mothers living in an urban community in South Korea. The QOL was assessed with the World Health Organization Quality of Life-abbreviated form (WHOQOL-BREF). All participants completed the following self-report questionnaires: the Global Assessment of Recent Stress, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, the Scale for Suicide Ideation, the Korean version of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test, and the WHOQOL-BREF. These self-rating scales were used as continuous variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to examine the association of quality of life with the sociodemographic and psychological factors for single and married mothers. Results: Single mothers showed lower QOL than married mothers. Older age, high income and education level, and professional job status were positively correlated with the QOL of single mothers. Residential instability, higher stress levels, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and alcohol-related problems were negatively associated with the QOL of single mothers. Multiple regression analysis suggested that residential instability (public rental housing: β = − 10.779, p < 0.001; Jeonse rental housing: β = − 0.324, p = 0.01) and alcohol-related problems (β = − 0.522, p < 0.001) were independent factors affecting lower QOL, whereas professional job status (β = 8.452, p = 0.037) was independently associated with higher QOL in single mothers. However, these factors were not associated with the QOL of married mothers. Higher education level was independently associated with higher QOL in both groups (β = 3.149, p < 0.033 in single mothers, β = 12.052, p < 0.001 in married mothers). Conclusions: Higher education level was associated with higher QOL in both groups. Unlike in married mothers, type of residence and occupation (related to the economic level) had a significant impact on QOL in single mothers. Alcohol-related problems were significantly correlated to QOL in single mothers compared to married mothers.

Abstract by the authors: Single parent families, including families headed by single fathers, are becoming increasingly common around the world. Previous evidence suggests that single parenthood is associated with adverse health outcomes and increased mortality; however, most studies have focused on single mothers, with little known about the health of single fathers. This study aimed to examine mortality in a large population-based sample of Canadian single fathers compared with single mothers and partnered fathers and mothers. We used a representative sample of 871 single fathers, 4590 single mothers, 16 341 partnered fathers, and 18 688 partnered mothers from the Canadian Community Health Survey (cycles 2001–12; earliest survey date: Sept 5, 2000; latest survey date: Dec 24, 2012). We anonymously linked survey participants to health administrative database records to ascertain health status at baseline and mortality from survey date up to Oct 28, 2016. We included individuals who were aged 15 years or older, living in a household with one or more biological or adopted child younger than 25 years, and living in Ontario, and we excluded those who left Ontario during the study period or had data discrepancies. Single parents were defined as those who were divorced, separated, widowed, or single, never-married, and non-cohabitating, and partnered parents were defined as those who were married or common-law partners. We investigated differences in mortality using Cox proportional hazards models with adjustment for sociodemographic, lifestyle, and clinical factors. Median follow-up was 11·10 years (IQR 7·36–13·54). Mortality in single fathers (5·8 per 1000 person-years) was three-times higher than rates in single mothers (1·74 per 1000 person-years) and partnered fathers (1·94 per 1000 person-years). Single fathers had a significantly higher adjusted risk of dying than both single mothers (hazard ratio [HR] 2·49, 95% CI 1·20–5·15; p=0·01) and partnered fathers (2·06, 1·11–3·83; p=0·02). In this first head-to-head comparison of mortality across single and partnered parent groups, we found that single fathers had the least favourable risk factor profile and greatest risk of mortality. Social histories might help physicians identify these high-risk patients. Further work is needed to understand the causes of this high mortality risk and how clinical and public health interventions can improve lifestyle and behavioural risk factors. Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

 

Abstract by the authors: Single parenthood is often approached as a problematic situation. People become single parents through divorce, separation, or bereavement and have to cope with this situation. These transitions to single parenthood lead to unforeseen problems with respect to the organization of the household. Nevertheless, there are also single parents for whom single parenthood is a positive story. These people are single parents by choice. Today, it is no longer necessary to have a partner to start a family, as people are able to choose to become single parents through sperm donation or adoption. Hertz (2006) argues that single parents by choice might have remained single due to circumstances, but nevertheless had a strong desire to become a parent. This means that single parents by choice offer a different perspective on single parenthood, as they voluntarily choose to become parents on their own. Nevertheless, single parents by choice face the same issues as other single parents: to combine their work responsibilities and their parental roles. In this paper, we explore how single parents by choice became parents, and how this transition affected their other preparations for parenthood. The central research question in this study is therefore: “How does the way in which single parents by choice become a parent affect the reorganization of their lives in the facilitation of single parenthood?” We used qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 single parents by choice to explore how they organized their work-family life before and after giving birth.

Abstract by the authors: Poverty impacts holistic health and wellness, yet little research in counseling has been conducted exploring the holistic wellness and self-care of marginalized groups. Self-care and wellness are important components of overall mental health, and integrating strategies for self-care and wellness can support mental health counseling practice. A transcendental phenomenological design was used to explore and describe the wellness and self-care experiences of 10 single mothers in poverty. Data were collected using individual, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, conducted for 45 to 60 minutes each. Major themes that emerged from the data include (a) barriers to wellness and self-care, (b) supports with wellness and self-care, (c) single mothers' awareness of wellness and self-care, and (d) personal strengths of single mothers in poverty. Implications for clinical mental health counselors include utilizing strengths-based approaches, wellness, and advocacy interventions for single mothers in poverty.

 

Abstract by the authors: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the gender‐role types and child‐rearing gender‐role attitude of the single‐parents, as well as their children's gender role traits and family socio‐economic status, on social adjustment. We recruited 458 pairs of single parents and their children aged 8–18 by purposive sampling. The research tools included the Family Socio‐economic Status Questionnaire, Sex Role Scales, Parental Child‐rearing Gender‐role Attitude Scale and Social Adjustment Scale. The results indicated: (a) single mothers' and their daughters' feminine traits were both higher than their masculine traits, and sons' masculine traits were higher than their feminine traits; the majority gender‐role type of single parents and their children was androgyny; significant differences were found between children's gender‐role types depending on different raiser, the proportion of girls' masculine traits raised by single fathers was significantly higher than those who were raised by single mothers; (b) family socio‐economic status and single parents' gender‐role types positively influenced parental child‐rearing gender‐role attitude, which in turn, influenced the children's gender traits, and further affected children's social adjustment.

 

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