On the other hand a study by Damos and Sapsford point out that being a lone parent can take a variety of forms. Despite this in most cases lone parent families are headed by the mother who take prime emotional and often financial responsibility for their offspring. They also found that form talking to mothers that “periods of initial doubt and anxiety was often followed by feeling of increased self confidence and the enjoyment of independence and autonomy” (Haralambos and Holborn) Damos and Sapsford conclude that in many in many cases lone parenthood reflects the choice of at least some women. They reject the idea that ‘fatherless families’ are somehow dysfunctional and argue that this family structure is now both established and fully functional in Britain.
Sociologists such as Damos and Sapsford are in effect arguing that the concept of the ‘traditional family’ is increasingly irrelevant to a diverse society. Te contention is that society cannot return to some ‘golden age of the family’ rather political and economic changes are needed to provide tangible support for children as well as ensure that people in diverse family forms receive the respect and dignity every family deserves.
Main research methods and reasons
My sociological research methods would be questionnaires, collecting primary data from a representative sample. My designed questionnaire would include closed questions with a self-completion layout to produce quantitative data which would allow me to easily organise, classify and analyse the information collected.
My sample method would be opportunist as I would hand out my questionnaire to a group of single parents from a club such as ‘Gingerbread’ (a membership for single parent families). The national headquarters (London) would be approached to gain the name and address of two local clubs, one serving an inner city community and the other serving a suburban community.
Consent from the relevant ‘gatekeeper’ of each club would be gained by informing the club of the questionnaires aims and confidentiality of data. I would research the similarities and differences of 50 families from the two specific membership clubs. Ideally 25 families from each club ensuring that a stratified sample of female-headed families of working and middle class background is obtained. By comparing the information I received from each family, this would enable me to spot trends among the information I should collect. Parents were asked to complete the questionnaire with the researcher present to ensure a high response data and therefore generalise the data.
The questionnaire would be answered by the lone parents who head the families from my chosen single parent group. I would use a positivism methodological stance to keep the data reliable and verifiable. By keeping a distant relationship with those people I choose to study, the data I should collect would be less likely to be biased. By collecting facts rather than information on individual experiences I would be able to clearly display my findings in tables or charts more importantly be establishing possible links between such issues as parental employment, attendance at parental evenings and levels of children’s achievement I will be able to draw clear conclusions to my hypothesis.
This sociological method has an objective approach which would the volunteers I se to express their opinions without feeling pressured or being influenced by the researcher. The characteristics and behaviour of the researcher may also have an effect on the answers that the respondent gives, therefore it is important that the researcher acts in a professional manner to try to keep the information valid.
I would include a paragraph at the beginning of my questionnaire to explain the confidentiality of my research and to express my thanks to all the volunteers for giving up their time to complete the questionnaire and being willing to participate in my research.
Potential problems
The main problems of my research are ethical, practical and theoretical.
The ethical problems I could face are that the questions I se to gain research could trigger off stress or bad memories for the volunteer answering the questionnaire. Therefore it is important that the questions are designed to be sensitive and that I respect the confidentiality of the information I gather.
The practical problems I could face are the low response rates to the questionnaires. If I spent time designing the questionnaire and money producing it, then gained little response, this method could waste time and money. Crucially the reliability of data could be affected due to the effect of self-selected responses.
I may also have problems with the wording of the questions. I should make sure that I use simple, everyday language to avoid confusion about the meaning of each question and I must also make sure that the questions are not leading or too vague.
The sample could introduce bias because the composition of the two’ gingerbread’ clubs could be of only one or two types of single parents. For example there may be a lack of black single mothers if the club is held in a mainly ‘white’ area of the Northern City which is the focus of the research. Given this problem the findings will lack generalisability.
The theoretical problems I could face are based on the positivitist methodological option I choose to use. This option relies upon the closed questions used in the questionnaires and can therefore lack scope for the volunteers to express true feelings and record personal experiences that would reveal insight in to their lives as single parents. Finally interpretivist sociologists would suggest a major problem with the research design which would be the detachment between researcher and respondent. Given this ‘emotional distance’ it is likely that the volunteers may choose not to reveal certain things which could result in highly invalid data being collected.
