‘My Dreams Were Buried With My Father’: Navigating Socio-Economic and Psychological Challenges and Coping Strategies of Single Parented Students

Abstract

Literature suggests that single parent households promote growing concern about how the family structure influence students’ academic performance. The present study was aimed at exploring and identifying the challenges and experiences of single parented students in Lahore. The qualitative data for the present study was collected from 14 participants of Government College University, Lahore who were single parented students. The participants of this study highlighted their educational challenges and experiences and how it affected their academic performance. The study findings indicated various challenges faced by single parented students. It was found that single parented students had quite different experiences in terms of difficulties faced by them as compared to students having both parents. Single parented students reported to had financial, social, psychological and emotional challenges and negative experiences like social stigmatization and bullying at different levels. However, the participants reported that they were able to deal with these challenges by adopting coping strategies such as involvement in sports activities, reading books, and doing part time jobs.