Single-parent family: what effect does it have on children? A single-parent family is a home with only one parent and one or more children. Single-parent families are becoming very common across all racial and ethnic groups because people are no longer required to get married before having children. Most families have only one parent due to divorce, never being married, separated, widowed or for work reasons. The most common are separation, divorce and simply never being married. In these cases, the mother is usually the single parent. It's not often you see a father taking care of his child alone. This usually happens because they don't know how or simply don't want to take care of their child. Statistics show that family structure has a great impact on certain characteristics of a child such as his attitude and level of respect. Children tend to be less respectful towards people because they do not respect the parent who is not present. In many cases a child can become depressed living with only one parent, losing control and doing things he shouldn't. Sometimes the child may feel like he is incomplete, leaving him to do crazy things to find what he feels is missing. often the child feels that he is the reason his parents are not together. Single-parent families are becoming so common that it's to be expected. The number of children living with their father has increased, but is still quite low compared to that of children living with their mother. Which parent you were raised by matters. Each parent can only teach you what they have learned. Your mother can only teach you how to be a mother and your father can only teach you how to be… middle of paper… it's more of a black and white issue. It affected other races, but especially whites and blacks. Although both are affected, a black child is more likely to be born into a fatherless home than a white child. This is a problem because during overtime not many women get married but still have children. Since there are many single-parent homes, the home has a fixed income. They don't have as much money as they would if both parents lived in the same household. In the 1960s the percentage was actually higher than it is today. There were more families living in poverty then than there are now. Since the 1960s, the percentage of children living with their mother alone had increased by more than 30%. The number of children living with a single parent has increased significantly. In the 1960s the percentage was about 20% and increased to about 53%. 2010.