Lone Parenthood sets out to explore the nature of the challenge that lone parents present to social policy and conventional thinking about families. It comprises contributions from a group of authors from a range of cultural backgrounds, drawing together a multi-disciplinary approach to the subject. A central theme of the book concerns the particular difficulties faced by lone parents bringing up their children without a partner in the household. While the authors recognize that individuals have entered lone parenthood through various routes, and that they have different ways of coping with the problems they may encounter, they also acknowledge that lone parents are united by their common experience of having to deal with their own lives and those of their children without the support of a partner and with limited support from the State.