In this experimental research study, 52 two-parent families were compared with 51 single mother families. Each family had a 4-9 year-old sperm-donated child. The testing involved standardized interviews with the child and parent, questions involving measures of maternal well-being, observations, mother-child relationships, and how well the child adjusts in certain situations. In this study, there were no differences between the groups when it came to parent quality, except for a lower mother-child conflict in the single mother household. There were also no differences in child adjustment. The problems observed in both families that were connected to the children’s adjustment problems were financial issues, the child’s gender, and stress from the parents. The study believes that single mothers with children will not result in the child having psychological problems.
Method/Procedure: The participants that took part in this experimental study were 51 heterosexual single mothers, in comparison to a group of 52 heterosexual mothers that were in a relationship or married. The children used in both groups of the experiment were believed to have come from donor insemination, so that the study would be equal throughout both of the groups. The families were recruited by a Woman’s Clinic in London. The clinic wanted single mothers and two-parent families that contained a donor-developed child within the ages of 4-9, to take part in their study. The preference the clinic was looking for was single mothers that have not lived with or have had a sexual relationship with someone since the birth of the child. Another preference was that the single mother could not be involved in a relationship that meant they would live together, but not be married, for longer than 6 months. Mothers with partners were required to still be in a relationship, as well as live with the child’s father. The clinic took a random sample of single mothers who matched the study criteria, which resulted to be about 70%. Mothers that were not single and corresponded on the age criteria and the gender of the minors, resulted to a participation rate of 72%. Families were given consent so that they could participate in the study and be observed at home. During the home observations, parents were supervised and audio recorded during interviews that lasted about 1.5 hours. For the children, teachers were given a script designed to view the child’s psychological adjustment, as they were videotaped with a camera for 5-10 minutes. The two different groups of mothers were interviewed using an adaptation of a semi-structured interview, used to see their quality of parenting and to view the mother to child relationship in the household. The child’s behaviors were observed, as well as how the different mothers handle each situation. A detailed coding manual is used to make a flexible style of questioning, so that the answer can receive sufficient ratings from the researcher. The researcher’s ratings are carried out by using in-depth information collected from the mother, rather than the mother sharing it herself. In order to test the mother’s psychological well-being, meaning the mother’s anxiety, depression, and stress connected to parenting, researchers used ‘The Trait Anxiety Inventory’, the ‘Edinburgh Depression Scale’, and the ‘Parenting Stress Index.’ All of these instruments, show that higher scores have more difficulties, and are having more advanced reliability and it helps discriminate between clinical and nonclinical groups. To test Parent-Child observations researchers used ‘Etch-A-Sketch’ to collect an observational assessment of mother to child interactions. An ‘Etch-A-Sketch’ is a tool that allows you to draw vertically and the other person to draw horizontally.
Results: The results that are shifted towards single mother families and two person families will correlate and tell us if they have similar aspects or opposite aspects. These results were found by using MANCOVAs (multivariate analysis of covariance) and ANCOVAs (analysis of covariance). As well as variables relating to parent quality. With the two factors being constant factors such as positive parenting and negative parenting staying the same. The between subjects were the two ideas of a solo mother family and a two-person family staying the same. Demographic variables, such as, mother’s age, child’s age, etc. were always being staged as covariates. The covariates were changed as each individual subject was analyzed. They were analyzed in the order of positive parenting, negative parenting, mothers psychological being, and observational assessment of mother and child interactions. Positive parenting variables were mixed with family type (single/two-person) as the between subjects, while the mother’s age, child’s age, and the mother’s working status were the covariates. Wilks results was not significant, the results came out as F (6,92) =0.61, p=.72. This shows that there was no difference in the level of positive parenting between the solo mother and the two parent families. Another aspect that was analyzed was negative parenting variables that were entered into a MANCOVA with the difference in family type as the between subjects’ factor and child’s age, child’s gender, mother’s age, mother’s educational level, and perceived financial difficulties as covariates. Wilks was significant with the results being F (1,96) =12.91, p=.001, d=0.51. These results reflected less frequent battles between mothers and children in solo mother families, than in two-parent families. This was repeated again without covariates and it still remained a significant difference in negative parenting between the two family types. The results show F (4,98) =2.64, p=.04, this again reflecting less battles in solo families than in two-parent families. When looking at the results there was no significant difference between family types for levels of battle criticism and conflict. As well as that, MANCOVA for the variables relating to the mother’s psychological well-being with family type as between factors, and perceived financial difficulties as the covariates. Wilks was not significant F (3,91) = .56, p = .64, showing there was no difference in parental well-being between the solo mother and a two-parent family. Lastly, variables relating to quality mother-child interaction were entered in a MANCOVA with family being subjects. While mother’s age and child’s age, being covariates. Once again wilk was not significant with the results being F (4,81) = 1.05, p = .38, showing there was no difference in mother child interaction between a solo mother and a two-parent family. Throughout all the aspects analyzed it clearly comes to show that there is no clear or large difference between parenting of single mother families and two-person families even with demographical differences. However, the results gave the exception of a single mother family having less frequent battles than a two-person family.
Opinion: In my opinion, I believe this study was very successful in the way researchers formed their test. I chose this critique because I found the study interesting, due to the fact that my mother is a single mother of 4. I have not experienced any form of psychological disorder since my parents got a divorce, so I was eager to learn if other children have. The hypothesis of this study seems pretty valid to me, being that I am a child of a single mother, however, the single
parent children in this study have not met their dad, and were also created by sperm donors. The data shows that there are no differences between the two groups, which proves that these myths are not valid. The experiment design caught my eye because they made it very fair by making all the children in the study created by random sperm donors. I think this was smart because the study would’ve probably had total opposite results if the mothers of both groups were able to have babies with anyone. If the mothers were able to have babies with anyone, the child’s biological father could possibly be diagnosed with a psychological disorder, which could get passed on to the child and ruin the entire study. As far as the way they picked the mothers, I feel as if they should have picked mothers from around the world and not just those in the United Kingdom. I believe the outcomes would have been different if some of the participants were African American females from America. I feel that way because here in America African American children that come from single mothers either get in trouble with the law because they do not have a father figure in their life or they grow up to do great things because they want to give back to their mother for raising them by themselves. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “Twenty-five million children are growing up without fathers in the home. That’s 40% of the kids in America. Statistically, a child in a single-parent household is far more likely to experience violence, commit suicide, continue a cycle of poverty, become drug dependent, commit a crime or perform below his peers in education.” This shows that those that get in trouble with the law are more than likely to have grown up in a single mother household that did not discipline for bad behavior. Kevin Durant, NBA star, is a great example of someone who was raised in a single mother home and achieved greatness. In 2014, Durant was named the NBA MVP of the year and he delivered a heartfelt speech that really stuck with me. Durant had a special moment in his speech where he took the time to thanks his mother, “And last, my mom. I don’t think you know what you did. You had my brother when you were 18 years old. Three years later, I came out. The odds were stacked against us. Single parent with two boys by the time you were 21 years old. Everybody told us we weren’t supposed to be here. We went from apartment to apartment by ourselves. One of the best memories I had was when we moved into our first apartment, no bed, no furniture and we just sat in the living room and just hugged each other. We thought we made it. When something good happens to you, I don’t know about you guys, but I tend to look back to what brought me here. You wake me up in the middle of the night in the summer time, making me run up a hill, making me do pushups, screaming at me from the sidelines of my games at 8 or 9 years old. We weren’t supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You the real MVP.” In this speech he praises his mother for raising him to be the man he is today, rather than showing anger or being imprisoned by the fact that he grew up without a father figure.
Future Findings: If this research were to be done again in the future I think the results would change drastically. I believe this because the world has been changing and getting worse when it comes to psychological disorders. Most of the tragedies that happen in the world today are by men that come from broken homes, for example, Dylann Roof. Dylan Roof murdered nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Peter Hasson, from thefederalist.com wrote, “Whenever we face a shooting like the one in Charleston, South Carolina, we hear a lot about gun control, but never about a major contributing factor: Fatherless men.” Hasson is arguing is that more and more tragedies are be caused by men who are raised in a single mother household. I believe the amount of single mothers will rise in the future, which could affect the amount of psychological disorders that children may have in the study. The field of psychology will benefit in Experimental and Human Factors Psychology, or Family Psychology. I say this because this study deals with marital and family conflicts, as well as parent-child relations.