34 Part 1 Decisions About Parenting
Single-Parent Families
A single-parent family includes one
parent and his or her biological or adopted
children. Single-parent families can be
formed in a variety of ways. Many single-
parent families consist of a once-married
parent and his or her children. The
other parent is gone from the family as a
result of death, divorce, desertion, or legal
separation. Other single parents have never
been married. Today, it is more common for
never-married adults to give birth or adopt
children. These single parents may not have
had the chance or the desire to marry.
Although married-couple families still
outnumber them, single-parent families
are the fastest growing family structure in
America. More and more adults are raising
children alone. One-fourth of all children
in the U.S. will spend at least part of their
childhood living with a single parent.
The reasons for single parenthood can be
traumatic. A parent may not have planned
to raise children alone. Despite these factors,
parent-child relationships in this structure
are often very close, 2-4. These families often
develop strong relationships with relatives
and friends.
Stepfamilies
When two people marry, one or both of
them may bring children from a previous
relationship into the marriage. The new
family they create is called a stepfamily. In
a stepfamily, one or both spouses may have
been married before.
As the number of single parents
increases, the formation of new stepfamilies
becomes more common. For example, a
single parent may meet a new partner and
decide to remarry, creating a stepfamily.
Each spouse becomes a stepparent to the
other spouse’s children. Stepparents are
related to stepchildren by marriage instead
of biologically. In their new marriage, the
parents may decide to have a child of their
own. This child is a half brother or half sister
to the other children in the family.
Stepfamilies may include the following
relationships: parent and child, stepparent
and stepchild, brothers and sisters, half
brothers and half sisters, and stepbrothers
and stepsisters. Each set of stepchildren also
has another parent outside the stepfamily.
This parent may or may not be remarried and
head a stepfamily of his or her own.
As with nuclear families, spouses can
share parenting tasks and responsibilities.
All the family members can develop new
relationships, even though some relationships
may become more complicated than others. At
the beginning of these new families, all family
members experience some level of difficulty
adjusting. It takes work and commitment to
blend the lifestyles of two families, 2-5.
2-4 Although single-parent families often face
many challenges, they can feel happy, secure,
and loved.