Single parenting is a tough job, anybody can tell you that. What most people can’t tell you is what growing up with one parent can do to the child. Multiple studies have shown children are more stable emotionally and successful in their careers when they have been raised in a traditional family household.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been proven that single parent children have twice the risk of a serious negative outcome (“The Kids Are Not Really Alright” by Wilcox). It has also been found that males raised by a single mother are more than twice as likely to end up incarcerated by the age of 30. Bruce Ellis of the University of Arizona discovered that 1 out of 3 girls whose fathers had left before the age of 6 ended up pregnant in their teenage years.

 

Not all children who are raised by a single parent end up troubled though. Parenting SA, a partnership between the Department for Education and Child Development and the Women’s and Children’s Health Network, found that growing up in a single parent home can teach children important life skill such as independence and how to adjust to major changes.