Topic > Family Factors Influencing Children's Behavior

Child poverty is a growing national concern, but few are actually aware of the root cause of the absence of married fathers in children's home environments. We all know that children raised by two parents tend to be more successful in life, considering school, the future job market and even their future marriages, than children raised by a single mom or dad. According to the US Census, “the poverty rate for single parents with children in the United States in 2009 was 37.1%. The rate of married couples with children was 6.8%." And from this it can be concluded that marriage and two-parent families exert enormous power over a child's life, where absence can create unstable and chaotic families. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay It is brought to our attention by the Washington Post, Kimberly Howard and Richard V. Reeves state that one of the reasons for the emergence of this problem is that a family with married parents has higher household incomes on average. This is so important because it can also apply to families without children. It's simply easier to provide and maintain two salaries rather than just one. In Leaving Atlanta, Octavia constantly complains about her clothes and how well they fit. Her mother makes sure they never fit her properly, whether it's pants that are too short and show the world her ankles, baggy dresses that are passed down from her cousin in Macon, Georgia, or full white girl's shoes of moths. One day she encounters a flashback to a year earlier, when her father had come to visit her. One summer she was at her grandmother's house and he brought her a surprise in a bag. Inside the bag were school supplies along with a sweater made of a strange, itchy material. Her father, who is married to a whole new family, is a professor at a nearby college in a beautiful part of South Carolina while her mother works the eleven to seven night shift to try to make ends meet and provide for both her and to Octavia than living in front of projects. This briefly shows how money in marriage can play an important role because due to Octavia's father's family, nice things and better environment are more suitable than her mother's. Two-parent families usually have more time to devote to homework help, bedtime reading, or simply time well spent together. According to Aaron Hass' article, “Your time is precious to both you and your child. Your willingness to give of your time sends a message: you matter. A parent who gives of themselves implicitly communicates their love and dear respect for their children. Referring to Leaving Atlanta, Octavia has very few meetings with her mother due to her mother's work shift. The only confrontation they have with each other is when Octavia comes home from school, but even during that time she spends most of her time in her room alone, or the slim chances of her being late for school and her mother returning home first she leaves. Also, one day Octavia comes home late from school and when she actually comes home, her mother gives her a drastic slap in the face without taking the time to listen to Octavia. To quote Hass: “And if you, the person your child respects most in the world, believes that he is worthy of your undivided attention, your child will bask in a sense of his own importance.” The closer the relationship you have with your children, the greater the opportunity for you to offer them respect and self-acceptance, something that Ottavia crucially suffered from. Despite 10.