Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Seaira Baker Topic Proposal
Seaira Baker Topic Proposal
Seaira Baker
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
02/16/2015
Topic Proposal: The Roll of a Parent
Introduction/Overview
I am interested in learning about what rolls each parent should have in a childs life. I
have learned that, because of psychological reasons, the father and mother both have a different
effect on children and I am interested in learning more about that. Many children in America do
not have both parents in their lives every day, and I want to know how that can either help or hurt
a child both in the present and the future. This topic interests me because many people I know as
well as myself have grown up without a mother, a father, or even without both parents to take
care of them. I will be questioning what rolls parents should have in a childs life.
It is hard to define the traditional family in this time, because every family is different.
There is not a known cause of this change, but an increased divorce rate from now compared to
ten years ago, is definitely a factor. Children who grow up with only one parent may be missing
out on a part of development. There are many studies identifying the importance of having both a
mom and a dad stating that each parent contributes to the growing process of children in a
different way.
I researched the different studies done to test how parental roles effect children. I mainly
did my research online and looked back into my psychology book from last semester as I
recalled learning about childhood development. I will use the library as my next resource and ask
Baker 2
a librarian for the best book options relating to my topic. Also my mom is a social worker with a
masters degree and has many books and her own knowledge relating to my topic of interest.
There are different opinions when it comes to the rolls of parents. Single mothers want to
feel independent and single fathers want to feel competent. These feeling can cause single
parents to believe they can raise a child on their own, which they may be capable of doing, but
what I want to know is what these children are missing out on. Studies suggest that without a
father, girls can have a more difficult time trusting future partners (American Psychological
Association). This is an example of what the research is trying to prove, and it is hard for single
parents to accept the fact that their children might be missing out on a part of development. It is
easy to see that children usually get upset when their parents get a divorce, and I think most
parents can agree that they see their children effected by the divorce itself or even the emotional
side of only having one parent, but what researchers are looking for are the long term effects of
not having both a mother and a father raising their child. This is why the topic can be argued
because the results can lead parents to think that they are not properly raising their child or
children even though that is not the intention of researchers of this topic. The major groups of
people contributing to this study are psychologists, and people who are involved in parenting
studies. They most likely have these conversations through parenting journals or books.
Baker 3
Next Steps
First, I am going to borrow a book from my mom. She has set aside the parenting books
she has for me to look through and chose the best one. I will then be going to the library to talk
to a librarian about more books relating to my topic. Also, I will look through the libraries
research page to find the more reliable and relevant research done on my topic. I am not sure
which journal I want to look at next, but I will make sure that it is credible, and that it has
answers to my questions. There is so much for me to learn about my topic, and I want to know
what the best researchers are doing to find any correlations and to answer the questions I have.