Single parents in Alabama rising

To say Bertha Lee Bryant is good at time management would be an understatement. The 22-year-old UA junior is employed full-time at T-Mobile and has a full course load.

Add a 6-month-old son to the equation, and it's difficult to fathom how she does it all.

"Planning. A lot of planning," she said.

Bryant, an early childhood development major, is one of a growing number of single parents raising children in Alabama.

According to the 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 149,388 single female householders in Alabama raising children under the age of 18 - more than double the 73,882 single moms in 2000. The number of single fathers in Alabama is significantly lower at 33,361.

The most common challenges these parents face are financial. More than 46 percent of single mothers live in poverty, but only 20 percent of two-parent households are below the poverty level.

Bryant said she can relate to the struggle for financial stability. She typically goes to class in the morning and works during the afternoon. Her son Aaron stays with her mother, which Bryant said saves her about $110 per week for daycare.

Though Bryant's job pays her well, she said she has to budget well to make ends meet. Aaron's father does not pay child support, so most of the time her paycheck is the only income she has, Bryant said.

"You have to choose the baby over yourself," she said. "You always have to think where else the money could go."

John Lochman, psychology professor and Doddridge Saxon chair of clinical psychology at the University, said single-parent families tend to be in poverty because only one income is supporting the household as opposed to two in two-parent households.

In addition to low income, Lochman said other risk factors, such as age, are connected with single-parent families and poverty.

"Having an adolescent mother is a risk factor itself," he said. "[It has an] effect on a child's behavioral, cognitive, emotional and social development."

For children raised by single parents of all ages, Lochman said studies have shown they are more likely to engage in aggressive, antisocial and negative adolescent behavior.

"All risk factors likely affect the child because they disrupt parenting," he said, because single parents often adopt harsh and inconsistent parenting practices. Lochman said single parents often have higher stress levels than parents sharing child-rearing responsibilities with a spouse. For single mothers, maternal depression can be an issue and can lead to inconsistent parenting practices, he said.

Bryant said she has no lack of affection for her son. He has even made her more focused and studious, she said.

"He's the best thing that's ever happened to me," she said. "It's made me focus a whole lot more in school since I got pregnant and had him."

Haley Finlay, a junior majoring in advertising, grew up as the child of divorced parents. She went back and forth between two single parents, something that she said was not easy.

"I couldn't just focus on school and my teenage life," she said. "For the most part I was a pretty average student, an average kid. I just had emotional stuff going on."

Lochman said children of divorced parents have different issues than children raised by single parents. Emotional and behavioral problems are common, but often only immediately following the divorce, Lochman said.

"About one year after the divorce, most of those behavior and emotional areas of functioning come back to where they have been," he said.

Divorce affects younger children more than older ones, and reactions are more pronounced in boys than in girls, he said.

And if a child hasn't adjusted back to normal after a year, Lochman said outside assistance may be necessary.

"They probably need therapy at that point," Lochman said. "They have more unresolved issues they probably need help with."

If there are custody battles, Lochman said children are unlikely to recover well either.

Finlay said there was plenty of good that came out of her situation as well. Because of her experiences, she said, she is better able to take care of herself now and is more independent.

"It's one really important aspect of life [children with divorced parents] know about so much earlier than other people do," Finlay said. "Some people never know about that aspect."