ABSTRACT
The single-parent family is becoming increasingly common and the majority of such families are led by women. For some, this is a matter of choice, but for many it is the force of circumstance. Single-parent families are usually born out of the decay and collapse of a marriage, a time that is psychologically exhausting for all the participants. Occasionally they result from the death or imprisonment of the father, events that are, if anything, even more traumatic than divorce. Hence, for most single parents their earliest days of attempting to parent alone are coloured by anger, grief, and guilt because of the circumstances leading up to their parental isolation. Because the pattern of the divorce tends to mirror the pattern of the previous marriage, emotional difficulties and physical violence may continue long after the law says that a marriage is over, looming like a black cloud over the heads of single parents.
