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plungesponge · 41-45, M
There are some scientific theories behind this. For most of human existence, life was short and plagued with death, starvation, disease and violence. The loss of a parent signaled to a child that they were living in a high danger area, so they needed a different set of skills to survive. The best strategy was to have a lot of kids young, adopt more of a "every man for himself" attitude. And we generally see this reflected in single parent families. The kids are more restless, more wild, have a higher incidence of teen pregnancy. It's just one theory, but it does explain why it has such a large impact.