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Families andWork: The JugglingAct

benefitstheir children intellectually,aswell

astheability toprovidea multitudeof

sportsandother after-schoolactivities,

which benefit children’sdevelopment.

Thestoryonworkingparentsisnot

blackorwhite.Thereareadvantagesand

disadvantageswhenthereisafull-time

parentinthehome,aswellaswhenboth

parentsareintheworkplace.Whatis

importantishowafamilyworksoutthe

work-familydilemmasothatevery

memberof thefamilyderivesbenefit.

Single-Parent Families and Work

The number of single parents

continues to rise to the extent we are

seeing a change from a two-parent family

structure to a single-parent family

structure (Dunifon & Kowaleski-Jones,

2002).This shift is very prevalent in

African-American families,accounting for

over half of allAfrican-American families

(McCreary & Dancy,2004).InAfrican-

American families,the kinship support

common inAfrican-American culture

tends to mediate some of the

disadvantages for these families,which

may make them better off than their white

counterparts (Durr & Hill,2006).

Asiseasily imaginable,singleworking

parentsoften havea moredifficult time

balancingwork andfamily.Statistics

suggest singlemothers,in comparison to

their marriedcounterparts,tendtohave

lesseducation,bear children at younger

ages,andhavefewer financialresources

(Martin,2000).Thesesituationsall

complicatethework opportunitiessingle

parentsexperience.Children in single-

parent familiesnot only havefewer

financialresources,but alsohaveaccessto

only oneparent.Studieshaveshown single

workingmothersreport lesscontentment

with thetimethey havetodevotetotheir

children,andfeelthey havemademore

sacrificesin their family andpersonallives

for work thanemployedmarriedmothers

(Bianchi,Robinson, &Milkie,2006).

Bianchi alsofoundthat in contrast to

marriedmothers,whosetimespent doing

housework hasdecreasedby nearly half

sincethe1950s,theamount of housework

performedby singlemothershasremained

essentially unchanged,nearly equaltothat

of marriedmothers.Thisequatestoabout

Children can benefit from the multitude of sports and after-

school opportunities dual-career families can often provide.

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