In this article, based on empiric investigations and the study of documents from specialized public institutions, the authors analyze the extent, manifestations, causes and consequences of single-parent families in Arad County. As social entities with a high risk of social exclusion, the authors identify practical measures for intervention by public authorities in the sense of optimizing socialization, social work and balancing these families, especially their children, by taking into account both Romanian and European legislation in this field. Preventing the reproduction/increase in the number of single-parent families must rely on the complete knowledge of this social phenomenon, with the need to establish databases and map the dispersion of single-parent families within administrative-territorial units. The decrease in the number of families with a high social risk over time is the result of correlated and harmonized public policies, aimed at fighting poverty, discrimination, unemployment, lack of access to education, while ensuring the general background for economic development and prosperity. The study is determined by the fact that many times the parents and the children of single parent families find themselves in the situation of not being able to make ends meet, the lack of finances, education and proper housing making it impossible for them to live a decent life. By identifying, through specific scientific methods such as document analysis, interviews, case studies, the particular types of problems facing single parent families, we consider we will succeed in offering a strong basis to motivate decision makers to establish additional social protection measures that will contribute to the reduction of the causes that maintain this social category among vulnerable groups.