Introduction:The development of a child strongly depends on the family. Family is a very important factor that must be considered and understood when looking at the overall development of human beings (Lidz 1983). Traditionally, families consist of two parental figures of the opposite sex and their biological children. The number of traditional two-parent families has declined over the decades. These types of families are rapidly declining in modern society. Single parents raise a significantly higher percentage of children. In 2007, there were approximately 13.7 million single parents in the United States. Of these, approximately 84% of mothers had custody of their children and only 16% of custodial parents were fathers. More than half of all children worldwide spend at least some period of their childhood in a single-parent environment (Hernandez 1988), and custody of the child often belongs to the mother (Bumpass & Raley 1995). Researchers often promote the fact that children raised in single-parent families tend to be worse off than two-parent families, they argue that there is a degree of dysfunction within these families that sees children treated in a way that disrupts their emotional and cognitive development. This research, although widely supported (there is a large degree of research supporting the hypothesis that single-parent families have negative effects on child outcomes) has been shown to overlook variability within families characterized as “single-parent families” (Richards and Schmiege, 1993). This lack of attention to variability causes the results found to be unfairly generalized. The essay aims to address this problem by examining a series of different studies and evaluating...... half of the article ......mc/articles/PMC3074431/#!po=1.61290>18. Webster-Stratton C, Hammond M. Maternal depression and its relation to life stress, perceptions of child behavioral problems, parenting behaviors, and child conduct problems. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 1988;16:299–315.19. Wolf, Jennifer. “Statistics for Single Parents.” About.com Single Parents. About.com and Web Guide. 14 July 2013. .20. "Dysfunctional family". Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 9 December 2012. Web. 13 June 2013. .21. Wise, Sarah. “Family structure, child outcomes, and environmental mediators: A developmental overview in the study of diverse families.” Aifs.gov.au. Australian Institute of Family Studies, January 2003. Web. 12 July 2013. .