socio paper

Submitted By ana0423
Words: 627
Pages: 3

There is a variety of issues that can impact American families today. One of the issues that can impact families is deviance. Deviance is a behavior that contravenes the conduct, standards, and expectations of society. People and groups with status and power are the ones that define what behaviors are deviant and what behaviors are not. Deviance can impact families because of the way the deviant individual was raised. For example, children living in a single parent household may become deviant as a cry for attention. In 2004, 20 percent of White families, 29 percent of Hispanic families, 59 percent of African American families, and 11 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander families had single parents. Children that live under a household with only one parent may develop social or emotional problems in the future. They are also economically disadvantaged compared to a household with both parents. Also the quality of parenting is insufficient to children living with a single parent. In comparison to children living with both parents, single parents do not offer enough emotional support for the children. Single parents tend to have fewer rules, may be inconsistent with their discipline, less supervision, and can get in more conflicts with their children. There are studies that prove that children living with a single parent can show poor academic achievement, suffer with emotional problems, have a low self-esteem, and have problems creating and keeping social relationships. At my job I had the experience of witnessing how single parents can influence a child to act deviant. One of the kids at my job is constantly acting up. He never listens when he is told to do something and when he gets in trouble, he runs away to avoid the issue. At home he may not have a sufficient amount of discipline and supervision because he refuses to listen to us adults at times. His response to his deviant actions sometimes is, “well my mom never gets me in trouble for this.” Like in the studies done with children and single parents, single parents may be inconsistent with their discipline or they may not have rules for their kids. This can be because the parent has a lot of stress going on because they have to provide for their children all on their own. The child I mentioned above at my job also suffers with emotional problems. Sometimes when he gets in trouble for misbehaving he will start crying and mentions how much he misses his dad and how his mom does not let him see him. Many