1. SINGLE PARENTHOOD
Elena Portch 12DN

2. INCREASE IN SINGLE PARENTHOOD

3. ALLAN AND CROW (2001)
Increase in single parent hood is due to two factors:
 Increase in marital breakdown
 Rise in births to unmarried mothers

DAVID MORGAN (1994)

Could partly be due to changing relationships
between men and women

4. INCREASE STATISTICS:
1961 – 2% of the population lived in single parent
families
 2005 – 12% of the population lived in single parent
families
 Between 1972 and 2002 the % of children living in
single parent families increased from 7% to 23%


5. CAUSES OF SINGLE PARENTHOOD

6. DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS
People who are married can become single parents
through:
 Divorce, separation or death of a spouse
 People who have never been married can become
single parents because:
 May have been living with other parent when the
child was born or if they did not live with the parent
when the child was born


7. CHANGING ATTITUDES
Increase in single mothers due to a decrease in
shotgun weddings
 Shotgun marriages were often seen as unstable
and led to lone motherhood

RAPOPORTS (1982)
Claimed that single parent families were
increasingly accepted as one aspect of family
diversity
 Was an ‘emerging form’ of the family


8. LONE PARENTS, BENEFITS AND THE
UNDER CLASS

9. WELFARE PAYMENTS
Some believe that single parenthood has increased
due to generosity of welfare payments
 New Labour politicians think that this has not led to
an increase in Britain
 New Labour encourage lone parents to seek
employment and not rely upon benefits
 Evidence that a large majority of lone parents do
not wish to be reliant on state benefits


10. CONSEQUENCES OF SINGLE
PARENTHOOD

11. MARY MCINTOSH (1996)
Media in the UK has been reflecting a concern
about lone mothers that amounts to a moral panic
 Lone mothers have been blamed for problems such
as:
 Youth crime
 High taxation to pay
 Encouraging a culture of dependency on the state
 Producing children who grow up to be unemployed


12. LIVING STANDARDS
Tends to be associated with low living standards as
single parents have a lower gross household
income per week
 May also receive child maintenance payments from
the non-resident parent with help of the Child
Support Agency (CSA)

ALLAN AND CROW (2001)
Believe that the CSA provides little help to lone
parents
 By late 1990’s only 30% of non-resident parents
contributed anything towards child maintenance
payments


13. SARAH ARBER (2000)

Found that children of lone parents did overall
suffer more ill health than other children
E.E CASHMORE (1985)

Questioned whether it was better for a child to live
with one caring parent instead of a caring and
uncaring