The West and the problem of single-parent families

One of the most important social changes in the last two generations of the Western societies has taken place in the realm of marriage and family foundation. The increasing growth of the rate of divorcing, living together without formal marriage, giving birth to illegitimate children, and having free sexual relationships has resulted in an increase in the number and variety of single-parent families. Due to the broad expansion of the problem, psychologists and sociologists performed studies concerning the effects of living in a variety of single-parent families and two-parent (formally married) families on the children. The results of these comparative studies have shown meaningful differences in cognitive, emotional, social, educational, hygienic, physical, and sexual fields between children in single-parent families and those in real (formally married) families. This paper introduces some types of single-parent families and discusses over the results of some of the above-mentioned studies.