Abstract
The one-parent home is one of the major family arrangements of school children today. Over 15 million children live in one-parent homes, most in mother-only homes and most as a result of separation or divorce. From a total of about 62 million children overall, the number in one-parent homes is an important and growing subgroup of children in the country. Each year over 1 million children under the age of 18 have parents who divorce. In the United States in 1986, 25% of the households with children under 18—about 1 in 4—were single-parent homes (U.S. House of Representatives, 1986). Membership in one-parent homes is even greater for black children, with about half of all black children under 18 years old in one-parent homes (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1982). It is estimated that over 50% of all children born after 1980 will live with one parent for at least 3 school years before reaching the age of 18. Most will live in poor, female-headed households (Furstenburg, Nord, Peterson, & Zill, 1983; Garbarino, 1982; Glick, 1979; Masnick & Bane, 1980).
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Epstein, J.L. (1990). Single Parents and the Schools. In: Hallinan, M.T., Klein, D.M., Glass, J. (eds) Change in Societal Institutions. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0625-2_6
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