Social Support and Adjustment in Mothers with Young Children

Abstract

Social support in the lives of single, divorced, and manied mothers was explored using both qualitative and quantita- tive measures. The social support network was defined as the num- ber of people available to the mother for social support, while per- ceived support was examined through a self-report measure. The social support network was further broken down into both the type of support (emotional and instrumental) and the source of support (relative, non-relative, mother, and spouse). Additionally, the study examined the specific roles of network members in providing each type of support. Other dependent measures focused on depression, anxiety, and the overall adjustment to parenthood, as well as the relationship between spouse support and maternal adjustment in the manied sample. Married mothers differed significantly from single and divorced mothers in both qualitative and quantitative measures of support. Married mothers appeared to fare best, reporting larger social support networks and more perceived support, as well as less depression and anxiety. Manied, single, and divorced mothers re- ported similar patterns of emotional support, while the pattern of instrumental support was more complicated. Married and single mothers reported receiving significantly more instrumental support than divorced mothers. Both social support network and perceived support correlated highly with adjustment measures of depression, anxiety, and adjustment to parenthood. Emotional support correlated moderately well with depression, while instrumental support was not significantly correlated with adjustment measures.