# Single Mother Homes Are NOT The Worst For Children

- Link: https://thechildsupporthustle.com/single-mother-homes-are-not-the-worst-for-children/
- Published: 2024-05-06T09:23:35+00:00
- Author: MsRockMon

[⌊\"\"⌉⌊\"\"⌉[Source: Dad Talk Today, Facebook

Kenya N. Rahmaan

There has always been divisiveness within families, married and never married, when
separation happens and children are involved.   Unmarried parents tend to fight 
over possession and visitation issues because of legal rights to a baby born “illegitimately”
or out of wedlock.  In contrast, divorcing parents can have more drawn-out and acrimonious
uncoupling because of property division, [child support](https://Thechildsupporthustle.com),
and alimony payments.  To be sure, unmarried parents more than not find themselves
caught in The [Child Support](https://Thechildsupporthustle.com) Hustle, too.  [https://youtube.com/live/j4LStMGWCvo](https://thechildsupporthustle.com/single-mother-homes-are-not-the-worst-for-children/\"https://youtube.com/live/j4LStMGWCvo\")
However, if the mother receives welfare benefits, the couple’s involvement is by
the government’s strong arm, not the long arm, as married couples.

 

The trending topic within the [child support](https://Thechildsupporthustle.com)/
family court/shared parenting/whatever else reform chaos that’s going around is 
that children are in danger when raised by single mothers.  The commentary started
as a whisper a few years ago but has now evolved into an outright growl that is 
louder than any heard when the fight for meaningful reform to child support, family
court, and shared parenting laws was desperately needed.  The ‘research’ and ‘statistics’
floating around to support the slanderous charge against single mothers are from
a few sources, but the studies are not what they seem.   Who could have guessed 
that?

 

When questioned about the preposterous claim, the original post’s author quickly
added a couple of links to a journal published by the National Library of Medicine
in 2016 as proof.  The authors hypothesized in the journal entitled _Single Mother
Parenting and Adolescent Psychopathology that single mothers were more likely than
cohabitating mothers to:_

 

 * engage in negative parenting behaviors,
 * engage in psychologically controlling behaviors,
 * and engage in rejecting parenting behaviors (Issar Daryanai, Jessica L Hamilton,
   Lyn Y Abamson, and Lauren B. Alloy 2016).

 

A commonality often occurs when people are trying to substantiate a claim.  They
omit important details of their argument.  In the case of single mothers being worse
parents, the authors based the study on single motherhood in contrast to two-parent
families and not single fatherhood, as some would imply. [https://thechildsupporthustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_1174-2.jpegwp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_1174-2-1.jpegcharlie-kirk-said-this-about-black-women-welfare-do-you-agree/](https://thechildsupporthustle.com/single-mother-homes-are-not-the-worst-for-children/\"https://thechildsupporthustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_1174-2.jpegwp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_1174-2-1.jpegcharlie-kirk-said-this-about-black-women-welfare-do-you-agree/\")
I n fact, the authors explain why single mothers are likely to find themselves raising
children alone in the first place.   According to Daryanai et al., single-mother
families are far more likely to experience poverty than two-parent families due 
to:

 

 * loss of a partner’s finances,
 * lower maternal educational attainment,
 * and discriminatory wages against women.

 

These three factors change the entire trajectory of the argument that single moms
harm their children when raising them singlehandedly.   When including other aspects
of the study, such as the sample size of only 385 single mothers or that 4.6% and
4.7% of the single mothers either became cohabitating or became single, respectively,
during the study, the full scope of the original claim shifts.   Finally, the scholars
concluded that adolescents in single-mother families experienced less severe anxious
symptoms at the first follow-up than adolescents in two-parent families.  The group
suggested several ideas to account for the discrepancies.  However, evidence will
always trump a hypothesis.  Daryanai et al. write,  “There is nothing inherently
detrimental about growing up in a single-mother family; in fact, the majority of
children raised by single mothers are well adjusted.”

 

Unfortunately, if not sad, I see a movement that began as a fight for reform in 
an unconstitutional child support system, the re-abolishment of the use of debtor
prisons, and equal rights for fathers into nothing more than a competition about
who can sling the most dirt on the other.  It is one thing to produce information
that may be negative, but at least offer a suggested solution to counter the negativity.
It is entirely different to spread propaganda and prejudice as a revenge tactic.
Saying the single-parent homes are worse than two is statistically correct for many
reasons.  When it works for the children and parents, it’s a winner.

 

However, single-parent homes are the topic, whether led by mothers or fathers.  
Instead of categorizing every single mother as bad, look at the source.  Many organizations
claim to fight for fathers’ rights but only want clicks, views, and money.   Claiming
that every single mother is dangerous is no better than saying that every father
who pays child support is a deadbeat dad or labeling all children living without
their father in the home as fatherless.  [https://youtube.com/shorts/O_Iv7K7EHBM](https://thechildsupporthustle.com/single-mother-homes-are-not-the-worst-for-children/\"https://youtu.be/gxnFJ-MC6b4?si=K9G_eOGKW-WiUmxr\")
The government profits from our division; likewise, all foes do not come dressed
as your enemy.

 

References:

Daryanani, I., Hamilton, J. L., Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (2016).  Single 
mother parenting and adolescent psychopathology.  _Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology_,
_44_(7), 1411-1423.  [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0128-x](https://thechildsupporthustle.com/single-mother-homes-are-not-the-worst-for-children/\"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0128-x\")