2-3-2017 – A Word to the Wise: Single parenthood is associated with higher poverty rates and higher rates of welfare receipt. It also is associated with higher rates of depression, unhappiness, low self-esteem, and poor health. (McLanahan and Booth 1989; Seltzer 1994; Brown and Eisenberg 1995).

2-2-2017 – A Word to the Wise: The stepfather role, if remarriage is chosen, is doomed to failure almost from the beginning. The child typically will reject efforts for a stepparent to discipline. Children are torn between loyalties even if they like the stepparent. They hope in their hearts the parents will get back together, and this is not possible with the remarriage. Issues with authority are magnified even more when cohabitating relationships exist.

2-1-2017 –  A Word to the Wise: Moreover, the mother does not have the energy to provide the loving warmth that was available before the divorce. Obsessed with her own needs, she seeks comfort for herself, further alienating her children. A large number of these women turn to cohabitation out of insecurity and fear of commitment. This further undermines family morals.

1-28-2017 – A Word to the Wise: At the same time, the mother is forced into a dual role of provider and parent. The stress becomes tremendous. There is no energy to discipline properly. The mother either over disciplines or under disciplines; neither one is good for the child.

1-25-2017 – Children suffer great emotional problems from the separation and divorce of their parents. The father-child relationship is weakened and in many cases destroyed
altogether. When separation and divorce occur, The children decide that parents are
not trustworthy, and they usually decide to make choices for themselves. Frequently,
this results in poor decisions about peer relationships, drugs, and friends, as well as
the rejection of authority. All of this sustains a cycle of divorce, remarriage, and
divorce.

1-23-2017 – A Word to the Wise: As if these problems were not enough, other difficulties for the children of divorce occur. In fact, the child from a broken home inherits the consequences of that breakup, beginning immediately and continuing until their death.

1-20-2017 – A Word to the Wise: Moreover, these mental consequences of immorality in the children can be seen in that 87 percent of children from two-parent families graduate from high school, while only 68 percent of students from families with one biological parent graduate.

1-19-2017 – A Word to the Wise: Evidence from longitudinal research indicates that, on the average, children of divorced parents do worse than children from intact families, even prior to their parents’ divorce. For example, one widely cited study found that half of the difference in achievement test scores between boys from intact and non-intact families was due to pre-divorce differences. 26 However, follow-up studies of these same children have since shown that divorce had long-term negative consequences, in addition to the effects of any pre-divorce differences in the child’s well being.

1-17-2017 – A Word to the Wise: Some may think that remarriage is a good alternative, but the statistics do not bear this out. In a national survey looking at achievement and health problems of stepfamilies, it was discovered that children in stepfamilies show an elevated risk of maladjustment and school failure. In fact, the incidence of emotional or behavior problems for children aged 3-17 in a home with their biological parents was only 8.3 percent; however, the incidence of these problems was 19.1 percent in a single-parent mother family and 23.6 percent in a mother-stepfather family structure.

1-16-2017 – A Word to the Wise: Whether it is because of disease, loss of a parent, or other effects we will discuss, these children all seem to be dramatically affected by the immorality of their parents. Sara McLanahan, a researcher in the area of single-parent families, makes a statement that I feel focuses on the issue at hand. She states: We reject the claim that children raised by only one parent do just as well as children raised by both parents. We have been studying this question fourteen years, and in our opinion the evidence is quite clear: Children who grow up in a household with only one biological parent are worse off, on average that children who grow up in a household with both of their biological parents, regardless of the parents’ race, educational background, regardless of whether the parents are married when the child is born, and regardless of whether the resident parent remarries.