Over the years researchers and different universities not only in America and Europe but all over the world are discussing about the debt conditions faced by single parents. Just as being a single parent is a rising trend all over the world, so is the debt condition of the single parents. Though the fact that single parents households have only a single source of income, there are several other socio-economic factors that leads to single parent debts.
It is therefore required to explore the financial hardship and its causes in single parents and to identify the multiple aspects of debt and poverty, two things that are most synonymous with single parents.
In the study conducted by the universities all over the world, almost all single parents described that they have to make very difficult compromises and sacrifices to afford food, clothing, heating, education and health care for them as well as their child or children. They often have to focus more on the resources to raise their children in a better way rather than their own health and entertainment.
It is also said by the single parents that they are constantly in an attempt to shield their children from poverty for which they have to skip their meals, give up medical attention and even forego their sleep. They have to work for extra hours and also had to take on multiple jobs.
All these means that the experiential impact of their financial stressors of different types are usually contained by the parent and are kept away from the child. All this is done with intent to raise their children in a better way.
Poverty related decision making
Many researchers conceptualize poverty theories in a different way and even go a step further to state that it has several negative traits that influenced in poverty related decision making.
- They are of the opinion that this leads to impertinence and impulsivity which are the primary factors that perpetuates poverty cycles.
- They also highlight that single parents usually make decisions with the primary focus on minimizing the impact of the different social and economic stressors on their children but this decision in turn make and increased impact on them as an individual.
- There are several psychological researchers who have identified and even proved with relevant data that parental self-sacrifice is a practice that is inculcated from the negative core belief. This is often associated with negative outcomes such as feelings of shame and lack of self-control.
The impact of self-sacrifice styles of decisions making and its consequences on factors such as long-term financial hardship and wellbeing is the primary concern of the researchers.
Poverty related decision models
In most of the times it is seen that single parents follow a poverty related decision model. However, the experts say that the poverty related decision-making models are not only useless but also dangerous as per the experts as it results in wrong decision making.
For example, a single parent struggling with multiple debts of small amount may choose to go for debt settlement for a high interest debt and carry on with the others as usual. What they do not understand is that they are helping their financial condition in no way. They still have to pay the smaller debts and at the same time save money on an escrow account to create the fund agreed for settlement of the high interest debt. This may make their financial situation even worse. Going by the debt settlement reviews they also substantiate their stance saying that the success rate of debt settlement is not very high.
Alternatively, the single parent could have opted for a debt consolidation in which all the debts, smaller as well as the high interest debts will be rolled up into one single debt of larger amount and lower interest. This will provide them with much more financial respite as they will now have to pay off a single monthly bill or lower amount instead of a multiple of bills of different amount that will be much higher that the debt consolidation loan.
Therefore, though self-sacrifice is a concept that plays a significant role in a family dynamics but be certainly avoided in family finance management theory.
The different concerns
The researchers are concerned for different issues in single parents finance management which is affected by different factors such as:
- High levels of stress
- Psychological distress
- Anxiety and depression
- Position of sole responsibility
- The financial concerns
- Irrational thoughts
- Physical and mental health issues
- Psychological difficulties
- Reliance on casual beliefs
- Reluctance to engage with psychological interventions and much more.
With so many and varied areas of concern, the self-regulation models is of not much help to examine the behavior and role of their beliefs in finance management. Their prototypical beliefs did not bridge the gap between their expected experience and their actual experience.
The experts suggests that all decisions should be made based on the expectations and experience, the timeline associated, the consequences, the identity, mental health conditions, legitimacy of their distress, role of negative self-beliefs and self-stigma on single parents.
Few researchers of the olden days also considered the role of social interactions and how it influenced the development of such prototypical beliefs. It also considered family dynamics and stigma that may develop prototypical beliefs and prevent the single parents from help-seeking.
Need for a conceptual framework
However, now it is required to have a more structured and conceptual framework to determine the impact of prejudice and discrimination by the selected social groups so as to know how the social factors and the social groups make a negative impact on the social and financial environment. This in turn leads to the poor mental, physical and financial health of the single parents.
It is for this reason the Meyer’s model was created to find the impact of the hostile social environments for gay, Lesbian, and bisexual people as well as the single parents. It showed how all are exposed to excess social stressors that affect wellbeing of children growing up in single parent households.