User:Rhi96/draftarticle

This is my draft article. I have chosen to revise/extend an article with issues that I have identified. I have selected the 'choice' section from the single parent Wiki page. My action plan is located in my sandbox (User:Rhi96/sandbox).

Original Section:
‘Choice[edit | edit source]

Some individuals choose to become pregnant and parent on their own. Others choose to adopt. Typically referred to in the West as "Single Mothers by Choice" or "Choice Moms" though, fathers also (less commonly) may choose to become single parents through adoption or surrogacy. Many turn to single parenthood by choice after not finding the right person to raise children with, and for women, it often comes out of a desire to have biological children before it is too late to do so.’

Single Parents by Choice (SPC)
Individuals may choose to enter parenthood as a single person (without a life-partner/significant other). This option is available to both males and females, however it is a less common life-decision for men. Single individuals can become parents using a range of formal and informal methods. For females this can include natural or artificial insemination using a sperm donor or traditional or gestational surrogacy. Males can also use traditional or gestational surrogacy to become a single parent. In the cases of sperm donation and surrogacy, individuals can utilize formal agencies or engage with private parties without the intervention of a doctor or physician. The latter, however, can result in legal disputes if there is no biological connection and the child is not legally adopted by the intended parent. Additionally, both males and females may be eligible to adopt as a single person, but this is dependent on where the individual lives. Although single people may be eligible, the process can be harder/longer as agencies/governments typically favour joint applicants (couples). Although single women who carry an unplanned pregnancy to term and raise the child(ren) or become a single parent due to leaving a relationship are technically choosing to enter motherhood, these cases do not fit the generally recognised and accepted definition/understanding of single mother by choice (SMC) or choice mums. This is also the case for fathers who choose to raise their child as a single parent after an unplanned pregnancy. Single parents by choice take the initiative and deliberately plan to have a child, opposed to accepting the role of parent as a result of chance, or due to relationship breakdown.

Reasons
The reasons for an individual to intentionally become a single parent are complex and vary on a case by case basis. Research suggests that for women the most common reasons relate to age and career status. As women get older they may opt to become a single parent as they do not currently have a significant other but would like to have children before it is impossible for them to conceive or before it is unsafe to carry a child themselves. Similarly, women who are focused on their career may only choose to start a family once they have achieved certain goals and don’t necessarily need a partner to do this with. Males do not share the same social pressures or biological necessity to have children before a certain age, therefore their reasons for becoming a single father by choice (SFC) may differ. Studies suggests that men are likely to become SFCs out of fear of separation or divorce. Men and women have also reported their desire to have children being so strong that although they would have preferred to have a nuclear family dynamic (two parents), because they were unable to find a suitable life-partner they were willing to enter parenthood single.

Barriers
In many settings around the world, single people are only recently able to become parents using formal methods (i.e. IVF, surrogacy, adoption). Prior to this, and still in various geographical contexts, governments and fertility services enforced rules and regulations restricting both single men and single women from accessing assisted reproductive technology and entering the adoption process. For example, In Australia, legal barriers regarding single women’s access to assisted reproductive technology were removed in all states in 2010. In comparison, single Australian citizens are eligible to adopt Australian-born children, but would be ineligible as single applicants in most other countries if they wanted to adopt a child born overseas.

Characteristics
Single parenting itself can be financially difficult for most families, whether it is the result of relationship breakdown or death of a partner/spouse. Single parents by choice must also factor in expenses for adoption and fertility services, which can add substantially to financial stress. Consequently, SPCs are typically financially comfortable, have stable employment and share a higher level of education. Characteristically SMCs and SFCs also tend to be older, usually in their late-thirties to mid/late-forties when they first enter parenthood. This description does not define all cases, but research has consistently shown that SPCs, particularly SMCs, have focused on establishing a career to gain financial and employment security before choosing to become parents.

SPC Statistics
Exact statistics regarding the population of single parents by choice are hard to find as this is an emerging field and research is limited. Despite this, it is clear that in the Australian context the number of SMCs are increasing. Data from 2012 indicates that Monash IVF (Victoria’s largest fertility clinic) treated 418 single women. This was in the two years following legislation allowing single women access to fertility services being passed and introduced by the Victorian government. Additionally, there was a 15-20% increase in single women accessing services at Melbourne IVF. These statistics do not include conceptions where the donor is known to the woman, which makes up 15% of the SMC population.

Impacts on children
There is consistent research that suggest children from single-parent families/households are more likely to experience feelings of unhappiness, engage in anti-social behaviour and suffer from mental-illness than children two-parent households. These studies, however, only address the psychological well-being of children of divorce/relationship breakdown, rather than children of single parents by choice. These emotional and behavioural problems are largely related to elements of their parents’ relationship breakdown, opposed to single-parenthood itself. For example, financial hardships, sudden changes, feelings of rejection/abandonment and other repercussions of relationship breakdowns. Consequently, being a child of a single mother by choice can differ from being a child of a ‘traditional’ single parent in relation to the impacts felt/experienced by children.

In the case single parents by choice (SPC), the parent becomes the ‘gatekeeper’ of their child’s biological history. Depending on the activity of the child’s (other) biological parent(s), one child could potentially have multiple half-siblings along with extended biological families (i.e. grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.) which they are unaware of. Parents also face the task of explaining to their child why they only have one parent, and their children will face the task of having to explain this to others as well. Family dynamics are continuously changing, but two-parent families (including divorced/separated) are still considered the social norm.

Compared to children of two-parent families, children of SMCs are likely to experience similar levels of parenting quality. Similarly, research has shown there are no substantial differences between the psychological well-being of children from SMC and two-parent families. Although children living in two-parent households were found to receive double the hours of parental interaction than children from household headed by a single mother, compared to married mothers or fathers, single mothers reported a higher amount of daily positive interactions with their children. In relation to conflicts between mothers and their children, compared to two-parent families, there is a lower frequency of these conflicts for SMC families.