With one in four children living in a one-parent family, Oxfordshire single parents can now take stress-busting workshops to help them cope.

Nearly a quarter of children lived with just one parent last year - treble the proportion recorded in 1972, new statistics released yesterday revealed.

The figure has crept up from 21 per cent a decade ago, and 22 per cent in 2001, to 24 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Mums living in Oxfordshire and charity Parentline Plus said the new figures did not mean single-parent families were a sign of a failing society.

Parentline Plus runs the Horizons helpline for lone parents in Oxford and spokesman Angela Holland said: "We hear from thousands of lone parents every year - 46 per cent of calls to our 24-hour, free Parentline are from lone parents and our stress-busting workshops for lone parents in Oxfordshire are really popular."

Common problems include financial worries, isolation and loneliness and contact issues with former partners.

Ms Holland added: "The workshops enable lone parents to raise their concerns, talk them through with other parents and find ways to get through them."

Since 1971, the proportion of all people living in 'traditional' family households of couples with dependent children has fallen from 52 to 37 per cent.

Ms Holland said the rise in one-parent families was part of a larger shift away from the traditional family unit.

She said: "It really shows that families come in all shapes and sizes. And the demand for support services speaks for itself and shows how much parents want to do the very best for their children."

Mary Carmichael, 79, from Headington, Oxford, brought her four daughters Fiona, Patricia, Anna and Maggie up alone, after separating from her husband.

She said: "I think it was different then to what it is now. Back then it wasn't so common to be a one-parent family and sometimes the children were teased about it.

"It was sometimes a struggle to feed and clothe them all and, at one point, I suffered a breakdown and the children were taken into care for a time."

She added: "There wasn't a lot of support back then. But even though it is much more common now, and there is more support, I think it is still a hard thing to do."

Lone parent Louise Sherlock, 25, from Oxford - mother of Callum, two - said rather than feeling stigmatised for being a 'single mum' she was proud of the label.

"It's not always easy to be a single mum, I'm always worrying about money and making sure I've paid all my bills and mortgage. But like a lot of single mums I just get on with it and I think I'm doing a fab job," she said.

" I don't think I get looked down on because I'm a single mum.

"I think the increase is a sign of changing times but, personally, I am proud to be a single mum and I think one parent can definitely do as good a job as two."