Single parent
In the United States, 83% of single parents are mothers. Among this percentage of single mothers: 45% of single mothers are currently divorced or separated, 1.7% are widowed, 34% of single mothers never have been married. Although decades ago, having a child outside of marriage and/or being a single mother was not prominent. Census information from 1960 tells us that in that year, only nine percent of children lived in single parent families. Today four out of every ten children are born to an unwed mother.
Incarceration of women in the United States
There is 6.7 percent of African American children whose parents are incarcerated, a rate that is seven and half times greater than that for white children, and Hispanic children experience parental incarceration at nearly three times the rate that white children do. Children feel the mother absences and experience disruption than their father. "Men are more likely to rely on their children mothers to care for the children during their incarceration than women can on the children father. 88 percent of father in prison report that their children are being cared for by their child mother while only 37 percent of inmate mothers say their child is being cared for by the child's father". Children in most cases stay with relatives such as grandparents and 10 percent in foster care, group home or social service agency. Children often feel stigma for having a parent in prison where they may feel the need to keep it a secret where they are not able to adjust. Most of the time these children are at risk to follow in the footsteps of their parents where they might become criminals by learning the behavior. Caregivers and teachers see the children of criminals fighting more and becoming aggressive leading them to have a higher risk of conviction.