In Defense of Single-Parent Families

Download or read book In Defense of Single-Parent Families written by Nancy E. Dowd and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1999-05 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dowd (law, U. of Florida) argues that the justifications for stigmatizing single-parent families are founded on myths used to rationalize harshly punitive social policies that hit children hardest. She says that many two-parent families in fact function as single-caregiving environments anyway, that the two kind of families have some unique and some common problems, that the failure or success of a family has little to do with its form, and that single-parent children often grow up with more admirable traits than their more conventional contemporaries. She looks hard at how the laws and other policies lay extra burdens on families, and recommends reforms. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR