Running head: PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

Parents and The Lack Of Parenting: A Review Of The Literature

Cherise Slocombe
Hampton University

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

Abstract
Parenting and a Lack of parenting can have many effects whether it is on the individuals
involved or society as a whole. This very important but not very commonly talked about issue
takes place every day around us. Results of this common, but rarely talked about issue can be
seen throughout the media and how the youth are being portrayed as violent and mentally
unstable. This paper aims to show both the negatives and positives that can be derived from a
lack of parenting.

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

Topic: Parents and the Lack of Parenting: A Review of the Literature

This paper is aimed at answering the questions that deal with parents with a main focus
on the lack of parenting. In order to determine what is considered a lack of parenting one must
first be able to determine good parenting from bad parenting since a lack of parenting would fall
under the category of bad parenting. Good parenting skills are those skills which are required to
help children become productive members of society. In order to have good or successful
parenting skills it is important that the parenting skills are comprised of these five important
factors: Education, Discipline, Moral Foundation, Nurturing and Communication skills.
Bad parenting would be considered the opposite to this, where one or sometimes even
more than one of these five very important aspects of parenting are missing. This can be due to
three different factors: one of the parents not being in the childs life, parents being too caught
up with themselves or work and not being able to give the child the time and attention required,
or parents simply trying to be their childrens friend more than there parent. These can all have a
great impact on a childs life, whether it is positive or negative. This is why the parent roll is
considered to be so important. This review aims to answer the following four very important
questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.

What causes a lack of parenting?

What are some of the effects a lack of parenting can have on a society?
How are children affected by a lack of parenting?
How do children who have both parents compare to those who do not?

The following review on literature will: provide information on the causes and effects than a lack
of parenting can have on a child and society, as well as compare those children who came up
with both parents to those who did not.

What causes a lack of parenting?

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

In order to fully determine how a child is affected by a lack of parenting one needs to
determine what causes a lack of parenting. As mentioned before you can say a lack of parenting
can come from a parent being missing within a childs life, parents being caught up with
themselves or work and not being able to give their children the time and attention they may
need and some parents simply trying to be there childrens friends more than their parents.
When a parent is missing within a childs life, or the child lives with one parent at a time simply
refers to a single parent family. This situation can be caused by various personal situations
between the parents, each family is different. In the United States single parent families have
become increasingly prevalent. More than 25% of American families are single parent families.
(Richards, L. N., & Schmiege, C. J.. (1993). Problems and Strengths of Single-Parent Families:
Implications for Practice and Policy. Family Relations, 42(3), 277285.
http://doi.org/10.2307/585557) With the single parent family already having few expectations of
them and with the focus being placed on such families it has been said that this kind of family
might be an inadequate child rearing environment. In the survey carried out, 40% of respondents
agreed that single parent families can be a cause of a lack of parenting.
Secondly we look at those parents who may be too busy to pay enough attention to their children.
This can come about from parents who are trying to balance their time consuming careers as well
as their family lives, some of these careers which parents take on require more than the usual
eight hours of a regular desk job. Jobs such as Chief Executive Officers, Doctors and lawyers
may require a lot more time. This in turn can lead to the parents not being around all the time and
not spending as much time as they should with their children, it can also lead to children being
left to be raised by nannies/housekeepers, or children being placed in front of televisions or
computer screens. This is turn can cause even more problems since when the child is placed in

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

front of these screens the parent has no idea the content of what the children might be seeing, of
which in most cases it can be quite questionable. Parents who are usually guilty of this kind of
behavior tend to use money to compensate for their absence but this does not replace the fact of
them not being there. Majority of the respondents (60%) believed this was the main cause of a
lack of parenting.
Lastly we look at parents who try to be their childrens friend more than their parents. Some
parents believe they will get through better to their children if they are their friend rather than
their parent. Parents who use this method tend to give their children a lot more freedom, to let
them make mistakes on their own so they can determine for themselves what kind of person they
are or want to be, parents also tend to use this method because they believe that if their child
believe they are their friend it makes it a lot easier for the child to trust them and come to them
with any issues they might have. Many parents across the world especially in America exercise
this fairly new parenting method. Of the respondents 60% of them believed this was a cause of a
lack of parenting, while 55% believed it was parents trying to be their childrens friend and 40%
believed it was due to single parent families.
What are some of the effects a lack of parenting can have on a society?
A lack of parenting can have an effect on a society in many ways, whether it is positive or
negative. Although in most cases it is seen that the negatives outweigh the positives when it
comes to the very sensitive topic. Let us begin with the negatives which are brought about from a
lack of parenting. Unfortunately many crimes are being committed by children at a much
younger age compared to those in the past. In the state of Georgia in Aiken and Columbia
counties children as young as 10 years old have been involved in violent crimes. Four teenagers
and an elven year old were also arrested in home invasion in Grovertown. Officials in Georgia

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

believe that the lack of parenting is the main cause of a lack of social values and an increase in
violent behaviors among the youth. Colombia County Juvenile Court Judge Doug Flanagan said
the youth committing these crimes are getting much younger and more violent. Colombia
County Sheriff Clay Whittle believes this upsurge in crime by youngsters is a lack of parents
paying attention to their children as well as a lack of social values. It is believed that parenting
affects violence, crime and war, which can be due to psychosocial factors caused by a lack of
parenting.

Table 1.
When a child is brought up with violence, neural connections form in an unhealthy
fashion particularly in the childs brain. It has been said that when a child becomes overwhelmed
with stress it can lead to a stress response that contributes to irrational behaviors such as
hypervigillence, violence towards others and revictimization. As represented in the above graph
(Table 1), 75% of respondents also believed a lack of parenting had an effect on society, while
only 25% of the respondents believed it did not have an effect on society.
How are children affected by a lack of parenting?

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

It is clear that the way a child is parented has a deep and indelible impact on childrens
lives, especially in their formative years this has a direct effect on their brain growth and
development- and not always for the better. When parents do not create a loving and supportive
environment a child brain develops in an altered form. A lack of parenting can affect intelligence
and education, as stated before; a parents nurture affects the growth of a childs brain. Parenting
affects their childrens career success, especially if parents were unsupportive and engaged in
put-downs. This then becomes wired in the childs brain circuitry during development, this can
also lead to limits on upward social mobility for the child. Parenting also affects the morality of
the child, parental affection and attention matter a lot more than one many realize. Research
shows that fast responses to infants cries as well as physical contact, affection, breastfeeding and
co sleeping all help children grow up to become adults with mature moral development. It also
helps to develop a sense of empathy and moral sensitivity to others. Parenting can also be linked
to addiction, studies have shown that adverse childhood experiences can lead to an increase in
addictive behaviors, such as substance abuse as well as the need to dull the pain caused by ones
own childhood mistreatment. It is no secret that substance abuse often leads to serious life -long
problems that affect individuals and society as a whole.
Parenting can also affect relationships; the relationship between a child and his or her parents
serves as a foundation for the childs future relationships. In order for children to conduct
optimal relationships it is important that from infancy they experience love and positive
attachment behaviors from their primary care givers. A scientific study conducted by the
Washington University school of Medicine shows that children of nurturing mothers have much
larger and healthier brains.( I. (2015, March 27). Bad Parenting - What It Really Does to Kids. )
How do children who have both parents compare to those who do not?

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

Although it is acknowledged that living in a single parent family may have definite
consequences for both the parent and the children involved. The data reported in this paper are
from a qualitative study of 71 single parents mothers and father.
According to a growing body of social-science evidence, children in families disrupted by
divorce and out-of-wed-lock do worse than children in intact families on several measures of
well-being.( Richards, L. N. (1993). A lot of studies conducted compare single parent families to
two parent families, while ignoring the tremendous variability found in this increasingly popular
family form. The lack of attention to the diversity that is found within these single parent
families contributes to the negative judgments. The strengths of a single parent family have been
less of a research focus than the problems of these types of families. In a rare study of healthy
single parent families, it was reported that parental and child health issues were related to
communication and social support. It has been found that single parent families who have larger
networks of social support had better physical and mental health. Good communication also
within single parent families was also a major key related to positive mental and physical
outcomes.
In the below table it shows the respondents of the primary research had a split view on this
particular question.

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

Table 2
Fifty percent (50%) of the respondents believed that children who are raised with both parents
are better off than those who are raised by a single parent. While the other fifty percent (50 %)
did not share this view, they did not believe those with two parents were better off than those
who are only raised by one.
Conclusion
Although parenting and a lack of parenting continue to be an issue that is continuously
brought up and that has to be dealt with by society. Some of the underlying causes for these
lapses in parenting can be pin pointed, therefore showing the work that has to be done in order to
help manage this pressing issue. Even though they are not all negatives that comes from a lack of
parenting, but as seen within this paper the negatives clearly outweigh the positive

PARENTS AND THE LACK OF PARENTING

REFERENCES
Richards, L. N., & Schmiege, C. J.. (1993). Problems and Strengths of Single-Parent Families:
Implications for Practice and Policy. Family Relations, 42(3), 277285.
http://doi.org/10.2307/585557
Hewitt, D. (2015, August 13). Definition of Parenting Skills. Retrieved April 01, 2016, from
http://www.livestrong.com/article/67270-definition-parenting-skills/
I. (2015, March 27). Bad Parenting - What It Really Does to Kids. Retrieved April 01, 2016,
from http://www.imperialvalleynews.com/index.php/news/living-and-lifestyle/2439-badparenting-what-it-really-does-to-kids.html
Richards, L. N. (1993). Retrieved April 01, 2016, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/585557?
seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents
The Effects of Poor Parenting On Children And Society. (2012, March 28). Retrieved April 01,
2016, from http://hubpages.com/family/The-Effects-of-Poor-Parenting-On-Children-AndSociety
What is a Parent? (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2016, from http://dcss.smcgov.org/what-parent

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