.

Name of Candidate: Jerilee Watts

School:

Lacovia High School

Teacher:

Ms. Tomlinson

Subject:

Social Studies

Territory:

Jamaica

Center Number:

Female headed single parent families its advantages and disadvantages on

the community of Beadle Dr Santa Cruz St. Elizabeth

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement
Introduction
Task One
Statement of the Problem
Aims and Objectives
Task Two
Method of Investigation
Task Three
Questionnaire
Task Four
Procedure Used to Collect Data
Task Five and Six
Presentation and Explanation of Data
Task Seven
Interpretation of Data
Task Eight
Findings
Task Nine
Recommendations

Acknowledgement

Without the assistance of a number of people, the completion of this study would
not be possible, so I would like to thank all the respondents to the questionnaire for
their time, patience and co-operation during the course of this study. I would also
like to thank my mother for being my driving force throughout this study and a
special thanks goes out to my friend Andrea Powell who was there every step of the
way while we were issuing and recollecting the questionnaires and lastly I would like
to thank my teacher Miss. Tomlinson for providing me with the guidance in the
completion of this study.

Introduction

A single parent family is a situation in which only one parent is living

with his/her child or children. Unemployment refers to a situation where a
person is in the labour force, is capab;le and willing to work, but has not yet
found a job. The terms defined are the two key terms of the study and are
what this study will be based upon.
Single parent families are very prominent situations in Jamaican society
as, in many households there is only one parent this parent usually being the
mother, because one parent is missing for reason or the other. Like many
other communities similar to Beadles Drive, society view these areas as
ghettos (which I personally believe is a state of mind), the single parent
family is a highly dominant one. The main issue plaguing these families is
that a large number of these single parents are unemployed, so u may ask
two questions: Firstly, what are the effects of these situations on the family
as a whole? The answer to that question is that the effects are largely
negative. The next question you may ask is, how do these families cope with
the effects of unemployment? This is why I believe it is clause able to carry
out this study.
The community of Beadles Drive is located in St. Elizabeth just a two
minute drive to Santa Cruz. Sitting on 26 acres of land the community is

comprised of approximately 85 houses. I think that in order to gather

substantial information on the topic at hand a total of around 50-55 female
headed unemployed single parent households have to be visited (remember
that not all 85 households are female headed single parent unemployed).

I have been a member of the Beadles Drive community for almost five
years and over these years I have noticed that many of my friends and
people who I know are a part of single parent family households, with the
only parent in the family usually being the mother and majority of these
mothers are unemployed. From time to time these mothers do get jobs but
just stop working or get laid off for one reason or another. In this community
teen pregnancy and negligent fathers are also at a high rate, setting the
stage for the continuation of the trends of single parent households and
unemployment.

Problem Statement
What are the effects of unemployment female headed single parent families
of Beadles Drive?

Aims and Objectives

To explain the main cause of unemployment among these families

To determine the impact which these situations have on the child/ren

of these families
To identify the strategies used by these families to cope with
unemployment

Statement of the Method of Investigation

The instrument used to collect the data for this study was the questionnaire.
Being that this is a primary study the best method which I thought could be
used was the questionnaire as it has many advantages, such as: it does not
take a long time to complete, it is very convenient to the respondents as it
can be completed at any time and it is highly confidential as respondents
identities are not required.

Method of Data Collection

Beadles Drive sits on 26 acres of land, comprising of a total of 85
households. A total of 25 questionnaires would have been prepared for
distribution to supply substantial data for the study .Fortunately I was able to
print the projected 50 copies for the study and with aid from a friend I was
able to distribute all 50 copies of the questionnaire.
The respondents to the questionnaires were not picked in any particular
way; I just selected the women which I thought would be most cooperative in
the completion of the questionnaire. However at least seven questionnaires
were distributed on each terrace in the community and we ensured that the
questionnaires were issued evenly to women off different ages, we tried to at
least give a questionnaire to the age groups which were on question one of
the questionnaire. All the respondents selected were all at home when

vsited.It was projected that around 20 questionnaires would be returned as

some of these women would neglect these questionnaires, lose them for
some reason or the other, or just not complete them over the time allotted.
After the respondents were given one day in which to complete the
questionnaire from December 17th to December 18th, my friend and I
collected them on the 19th December 2010 of the 25 questionnaires 23 were
returned 3 more than was projected.

Description and Analyses of Data

The main cause of unemployment, as seen in figure 1 is that many of these
respondents did not finish school. This mainly because they got pregnant
while they were in school this represented by figure 3. This shows the ages of
respondents when they had their first child, of this 44% of the respondents
had their first child between the ages of 13-19(age of schooling), making
unfinished schooling the main cause of unemployment among these
individuals. The other causes making up the chart are that are they were not
able at a lack of higher education accounting for 33% of the chart, many of
these respondents originate from poor backgrounds so they were not able to

pursue their education at a higher level because of a lack of funds. The third
reason highlighted by the respondents is plain simple; some the respondents
just do not want to work. From my observation I have seen where some o
these respondents are comfortable with their lifestyle therefore resort to just
being lazy., the forth reason is Jamaican work system which I feel is no cause
but it makes up 10%manyof these respondents have the attitude of blaming
everything on the government and the organization of the society therefore
this is why you find these respondents blaming their unemployment on the
system. Lastly other reasons made up the remaining percentage of the chart.
(example located in presentation of data; description of figure 1)
All respondents highlighted that they still gain funds even though
they are unemployed.figure2 depicts the methods used by these
respondents to gain aid. Unfortunately most of these women depicted in the
pie chart, use the negative practice of gambling to gain money which is one
of the big negative effects of these single mothers being unemployed, as
while I was researching the topic at hand it came to my attention that
gambling often times lead to the loss of valuable funds needed to support
the family. Second to the gambling factor is that these respondents receive
aid both from family members locally and overseas. Locally accounted for
15% of the chart but overseas played a more significant role maybe because
of the exchange rate and other factors. The other methods may aid these
mothers to some extent but are not very dependable so the most viable
means of these mothers to support their families is to get employed. I

strongly believe that these aids play a factor in establishing why the majority
these respondents have been unemployed for over such a long period of
time. Table I depicts how long these respondents unemployed 35% of them
have been unemployed for over ten years and this is really an appalling
figure. Depicted in figure4 the very respondent unanimously highlighted that
the effect of their situation on the children is largely negative. with 58% of
the respondents stating that their child/ren are more negatively impacted by
unemployment, 29%say it gives their children a positive drive in a sense to
say that their children are viewing them as parents and saying that they will
not end up like their parents so it gives them a boost and they will strive to
survive in life. Thirdly 9 of the respondents stated that their situation had no
effect on their children as they see no changes in their childrens behavior;
ect. Lastly 4% of the respondents were unsure towards the relationship
between their situation and their children.
However based on my point of view I believe that the effects rightly stated
by a majority of the respondents that their situation definitely impacts their
children, clearly seen in table 2 majority of the respondents can only afford
to send the child/children to school three times for the week this is really
negative, if you calculate how many days this child would be absent from
school for the year he/she would be missing a lot of lessons, so this cannot
be good on the childs part.

Figure 3

Figure 3 is the representation of the percentage of the age respondents had their
first child. The age group 13-19 accounted for 44% of the chart, the age group 2026 made up 29% of the chart, the age group27-33 made up 27% of the chart and 34
and older did not account for any percentage of the chart.

Figure 4

Figure 4 represents the effect which unemployment has on the

children of these families. Respondents which said the effect of
unemployment on their children is largely negative accounted for 58%, the
positive effect gained 29% of the responses, while the respondents chose
responses of no effect and not sure 9% and 4% respectively.

Interpretation of Data
Of the respondents some of them refused to work but those were willing
to work; there were impediments which were blocking these respondents
from gaining employment. Of the respondents 44% were not able to gain
employment because they were unable to finish school. Based on the data
collected the root cause of these respondents being unable to finish school
was that many got pregnant while they were in school, as 44% of the
respondents had their first child between the ages of 13-19 years old.
As a result of being unable to gain employment, the respondents had to rely
and other sources to aid with the supply of basic needs (figure 2). The most
popular of these alternate sources was that these respondents chose to try
their luck with cash pot and other gambling mediums, which accounted for
40%. Family members living overseas was next best source, gaining 36%,
based on the data collected this is because the respondents believe that
they would be more than likely able to acquire the aid from this source and
that they would be more than likely able to acquire the aid from this source
and that they would acquire more funds from these sources being that it
would be foreign exchange. Rather than local family members who gained
20%.Fourth on the chart was to gain aid from churches and friends. Why this
was second lowest on the chart, based on observations done it was seen that
the majority of these friends are unemployed and majority of the
respondents do not want to go to the church for aid because they feel that
the church will offer them gods word rather than tangible aid meaning that

they (the church) would be more likely to tell them that God will supply their
needs rather than giving them some money or some food. Last on the chart
were other means of acquiring aid which was a mere 4%.

Findings
Conducting this study was no easy task, but it has brought to my attention a
few good and bad attitudes towards being employed in the community of
Beadle Drive Santa Cruz these include:
Firstly the effects of these unemployment situations affect both the
mothers and the children of these families it is not a one sided affair as is
clearly proven by the data. Especially in the children in their education,
Children are not responsible for themselves so therefore depending on what
little economic aid these families gain, determines how often children go to
school among other effects.
Secondly these effects are largely more negative than positive and this is
not just bad for these families but society as a whole as this can increase the
dependency ratio and halt the development of the country.
The next thing that I have found out is that these individuals have become so
caught up in the lifestyle of acquiring alternate aid, they have fallen into a
comfort zone and have become extremely lazy. This I believe is the cause of
such a high unemployment rate in the country as according to Encarta
Encyclopedia 2009the unemployment rate in Jamaica is in excess of 11%.

One other thing that I have found out is that in this situation children are
more vulnerable to the negative impacts rather than the positives, even the
majority of the respondents agreed that this is the case as seen in Figure 4.
As for the children which are the most vulnerable in these situations, Figure 4
shows how respondents believe that their situation affects their
child/children of these respondents 58% said that this is that most of the
respondents are wise and honest enough to know and admit that their
situation cannot be healthy for their child/childrens moral upbringing and
values.

Recommendation
In one of the previous sections of this study data was presented on a
question from the questionnaire, which asks respondents at what age they
got pregnant with their first child. Forty four percent of respondents stated
that they got pregnant between the ages of 13-19, this is usually the period
of time which these respondents are in High School, getting pregnant while
in school would force them to drop out of school and being unable to
complete their secondary education, therefore not able to finish school
accounted for a large percentage from data of a next question asked; What
do u think is your cause of unemployment.
Seeing that being unable to finish school is such a major cause of
unemployment among respondents my recommendation is to set up a
system which caters for young girls who get pregnant while they are still in
school, Implement a program especially for them something like a school or
class to reduce the problem from the main cause, so that they can still be
taught while they are pregnant and after they have given birth, because as
the data shows being unable to finish school because of early pregnancy was
the main cause of unemployment. You would have the school to either teach

these girls necessary the necessary skills needed for the working world or
you would get teachers to continue teaching them what they were being
taught in school so u would split them up by age group into different classes
for different classes for different stages of teaching. You would make this
class free of charge because remember a large amount of these respondents
do not have the financial aid to support a school. You would give the girls the
option to either go back to school after they have given birth or continue
with the school until they have finished the course.
You would however not just teach these girls academics but also how
to take care of their babies because many of them being their first child
would not know how to properly take care of baby .This school would indeed
be successful as I believe a significant portion of these girls would be willing
to go back to school and catch up back with their school life and the
opportunity of being a second chance at life would indeed motivate them to
attend school, I also believe it would be successful because these girls after
finishing the course would now be equipped with the necessary skills for life,
in order to acquire employment.

Table showing how many years respondents have been

unemployed and the percentage of respondents between the years
of unemployment
Years of Unemployment
Under 1 Year
2-5 Years
6-10 Years
Over 10 Years

Percentage of Respondents
17%
21%
27%
35%
Table 1

Table 1 is the length of unemployment among the respondents 17% of

the respondents have been unemployed under a year,21% have been
unemployed for 2-5 years,35% of the respondents have been unemployed
for 6-10 years and 27% of the respondents have been unemployed for over
10 years.

Table showing the percentage of how often respondents can

afford to give their child/children lunch money to attend school
Times per week respondents can
afford to give their child/children
lunch money to attend school
1 time per week
2 times per week
3 times per week
4 times per week
5 times per week

Percentage

3%
9%
55%
2%
31%
Table 2

Table 2 is showing how often respondents can afford to give their

child/children lunch money to attend school 3% of the respondents said they
could only afford it once per week,9% said two times per week,55% said
three times per week,2% said four times per week and 31% said five times
per week.

Presentation and Explanation of Data

Figure 1

Figure 1 depicts the reasons respondents are unemployed. It can be seen

that 44% did not finish school, 33% were hampered by a lack of higher
education, 10% blamed the Jamaican work system, 8% just desired not to
work and 5% of the respondents pointed out that there were other reasons
for their unemployment for example one respondent pointed out that she
was unable to seek employment because she had too many young children
to take care of therefore she had no time to work.

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the alternate sources of income for the respondents as a

result of them not being able to get a job. Cash pot and other gambling
mediums garnered 40%, Aid from family members living overseas gained
36%, Aid from local family members gained 20% and Aid from the church
gained 4%