Single Parenting; Negative Effects on a Child -By Kasali Oluwasegun Oluwajuwon

Are two heads truly better than one? According to C.S Lewis, two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. This is a proof that things we do in unity come out better than the ones we do as individuals. Single parenting has to do with a family being headed by an individual. It can be caused by divorce, abandonment, becoming widowed, domestic violence, rape, childbirth by a single person or single-person adoption. This can affect a child in different ways. In subsequent paragraphs, emphasis will be made on, developmental problems and psychological effects of single parenting.

First off, many behavioural effect on single parenting children revolves around their progress in school. They tend to have lower school achievement, discipline problem, lower class attendance and more crime .They tend to get lower grades, and dropout rate is higher than their counterparts. I have a friend in my secondary school days who is better than I am, academically, not until his parent‘s divorce.  His dad left him and his siblings for their mum. So their mum had to work harder than she used to, she no longer hastime for herself anymore not to talk of her children. My friend had to start working at night and then come for classes in the morning, these really affected him academically that he could not do well like he use to. After the end of the session he failed mathematics and he was ask to repeat, he could not cope with sitting in class with his junior students, at the end he stopped coming to school. Few years later I saw him in a street fight at Bariga, Lagos state, with his gangs.

Moving on, Children of single parents are also affected psychologically. One of the common reasons for single parenting is divorce. Symeon (2007) notes that children of single parents are more likely to display risky behaviors: smoking, drinking, delinquency, violence, unsafe sexual activity and suicide attempts. Children of single parents are more prone to various psychiatric illnesses, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse than children from homes with two parents. The child is prone to traumatic experiences, at the end the child is likely to become a hustler at a tender age to survive. If such child drop out of school at the end, the child will be sad whenever he or she meets his or her class mates later in the future. This can cause depression and the child is likely to blame his parents at the end. The child is also likely to mingle with the wrong set of people who are likely to invite the child to bad things like drugs, and alcoholic abuse thinking it is a way of reducing trauma.

Single parenting should not be encouraged. Parents are to be together because each party (husband and wife) has their own different roles in the home. However, the role of child training and inculcating moral discipline has always been a joint effort. This is because two are better than one. The love a child gets from a family is what a child needs to live and serves as guide for the child. The effects of single parenting psychologically and academically affects the child. Parents, therefore, need to be responsible for their words.