A Bibliometric Analysis of Scholarly Research on Single-Parent Families: Current Status And Trends (2000–2024)

In this study, it is aimed to analyze the academic studies on single-parent families in the Web of Science (WOS) database from a bibliometric perspective. Single-parent families have become increasingly common in line with changing social conditions. In this context, it is possible to state that the interest in single-parent family-oriented academic studies has also increased. This study aims to provide a systematic summary of previous academic studies on single-parent families with quantitative data through bibliometric analysis and to provide a perspective for researchers interested in this topic. In this direction, 4,491 studies were reached and analyzed in the 2000-2024 WOS database as a result of the search with the keywords “single parent”, “single parent families”, “single parenthood”, “single parents”, “single-parents families”, “single-parent family”. After explaining the general distribution of the studies, visualization was performed using VOSviewer software. According to the findings of the analysis, it was understood that the largest number of studies on single-parent families were published in 2022. It was determined that the majority of academic studies were in the category of “family studies” and the total number of citations received by the publications in this scope between 2000 and 2024 was 91,347. The highest number of citations was realized in 2022 with 10,173 citations. This study can be characterized as a guide for future studies by reflecting the scope and perspective of academic research on single-parent families. Keywords: Bibliometric analysis, single-parent families, academic trends, citation networks