Abstract: This study reviews theories and studies on single mother parenting and its perceived effect on student’s academic performance. Many students in South Africa are raised by single parents, particularly women, and it seems to be a norm. This review presents what is already known about single mother parenting and student’s academic performance in order to identify the existing research gap that gave rise to the need for this study. This literature addresses the issues on the effect of single mother parenting on the academic performance of students in diverse context as well as ascertaining the effect of single mother parenting on student’s academic performance. The knowledge obtained from this exercise sheds more light on the study in selected high schools in Mangaung, Bloemfontein, South Africa.