Lone Parenthood

This book is about single parents, who make up an increasingly important and controversial group in Western society. The growth in the number of single-parent households is linked to debates about the 'decline of family values' and questions about state involvement in family life. Their economic and social deprivation relative to two-parent households is now a persistent theme of political and academic debates about social policy. Lone Parenthood sets out to explore the nature of the challenge that single parents present to social policy and conventional thinking about families. Contributions from a group of authors from a range of disciplinary backgrounds bring together important current research and theory on this major aspect of modern society. A central theme of the book concerns the particular difficulties faced by single parents bringing up their children without a partner in the household. While the authors recognize that individuals have entered single parenthood through various routes, and have different ways of coping with the problems they may encounter, they also see that single parents are united by the common experience of having to make their own lives and those of their children without the support of a partner and with limited support from the State. This timely study of single parents is essential reading for students and researchers of family sociology, the sociology of gender, women's studies and social policy, and professional social, community and voluntary sector workers.