Low-income Single Mothers Research Articles

Women's Social Networks and Social Support Following Marital Separation

This research compared changes in the social networks and social support of 30 low-income single mothers who had been separated from their husbands for less than eight monlhs with 20 low- income manied women and 40 high-income manied women. All par- ticipants were interviewed three times over an 18-month period. The separated women reported smaller family netwotks (due to the absence of their husbands and their husbands' families) and more fluctuation in their friendship and professional networks. The separated women re- ported seeking and receiving social support at higher rates than both groups of married women at the initial interview, but this diminished greatly with the passage of time. While the separated women reported conflict with more network members than both groups of married women, they did not differ from the married women on satisfaction with several types of social support. Implications of this research for practie and for future research were discussed.

Moving beyond survival: coping behaviours of low-income single mothers.

The purposes of this study were to describe the psychosocial and environmental contexts affecting the lives of low-income, single mothers and to explore their everyday coping strategies. Nine mothers of preschool children participated in multiple, unstructured and semi-structured in-home interviews. Traumatic childhood experiences including death of a parent and abuse contributed to the mothers' depression and to their coping strategies for survival. The women used creative economic survival strategies such as bartering to meet their families' basic needs. Social isolation, downward social comparison, conflict avoidance, and self-reliance were the emotional self-protective survival strategies used. Strategies to move up economically and emotionally related to the women's desire for a better life for themselves and their families.

WORK COMMITMENT AND CONSTRAINT AMONG MOTHERS ON WORKFARE

This article reports the findings of a study of single mothers who are mandated to participate in workfare programs. It examines how low-income single mothers become involved in paid work and how the structures of their personal lives and their strategies of parenthood in low-income urban environments shape their economic action. Interviews with workfare participants show how single mothers view their economic field of action and how they interpret economic opportunities and make decisions about work in the context of their obligations and commitments to their children and their close kin. This study extends sociological perspectives on the relationship between work and family life to the study of women on welfare and addresses the shortcomings of poverty policy studies that ignore the family and neighborhood contexts of welfare mothers' economic activity.

A New Idea for Welfare Reform

This article analyzes several proposals to build work incentives into the U.S. welfare system. It concludes that the most cost effective way to do that is to offer a work subsidy to all low-income single parents—in other words, to simply pay them for working in the labor market. This conclusion is based on a model of the labor force participation behavior of low-income single mothers that the author developed with Robert Moffitt. Among the proposals evaluated in the article, besides the work subsidy, are proposals to reduce the rate that welfare benefits are reduced when welfare recipients work, to provide wage subsidies to low-wage workers, to expand the earned income tax credit, and to subsidize the fixed costs of working.

What is “appropriate practice” at home and in child care?: Low-income mothers' views on preparing their children for school

In this qualitative, longitudinal study, multiple interviews were conducted over 3 years with 14 low-income single mothers (4 White, 6 Black, and 4 Latino). The women talked about socialization goals for their preschoolaged children as well as their views concerning the role of mother and the role of child care providers in attaining those goals. A central objective for all mothers was preparing their children to succeed in school. Most of the women expected their child's provider to engage in didactic lessons aimed at teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills. However, they all viewed other teacher-structured activities as important (e.g., art, music, cooking, field trips, and book reading). Most did not see play as being related to learning, although they acknowledged the emotional and physical benefits of play. These women's views of learning were not entirely congruent with the constructivist position of many early childhood educators, nor were they narrowly defined solely in terms of academic skills. They were receptive to information from child care professionals and other “experts” when these perspectives furthered their own goals for their children. Their views about preschool learning were linked to other cultural models of childrearing including respecting authority, contributing to one's family or community, and differentially allocating responsibility for teaching to parents or to teachers.

Poverty and the Single Mother Family:

This article examines how recent changes in the struc- ture of the U.S. economy have contributed to the impoverishment of single mother families. The impacts of the disappearance of the manufacturing sector, the concurrent growth in service-oriented in- dustries, the decline in real wages, and the polarization of the income distribution are considered in the context of recent social welfare reforms that have focused on the employability and employment of low-income single mothers. These policies have encouraged single mothers to move toward welfare independence, but they have not ensured that these women can attain economic self-sufficiency through employment. The authors offer public policy recommenda- tions for responding to shifts in the economy, for helping single mothers move beyond the grasp of poverty, and for providing an

Low-Income Single Mothers: Myths and Realities

Most studies of single mothers have investigated women who sought clinical treatment and thus have concluded that these women are troubled. The study presented here explored the everyday functioning of 50 poor single mothers in the community from a strengths or adaptation viewpoint, using both qualitative and quantitative methods and three theoretical perspectives on the importance of experiences in adult life to development. It found that despite these women's personal and economic hardships, significant personal growth took place.

Socioenvironmental and individual correlates of psychological adjustment in low-income single mothers.

Relationships among psychological adjustment, levels of perceived and actual social support, and perceptions of childhood familial adversity were examined among 52 low-income single mothers of preschoolers. Women showing high levels of psychological adjustment tended to perceive their supports more positively, but often reported lower levels of support than their more distressed counterparts. However, perceptions of childhood familial adversity were found to be the most powerful predictors of psychological adjustment.

Childhood physical and sexual abuse: their relationship with depressive symptoms in adulthood.

The purposes of this study were to determine the prevalence of childhood physical and sexual abuse among 206 low-income single mothers and to examine the relationship of childhood abuse to current maternal depressive symptoms. Severe physical abuse was reported by 36 percent of the women. The prevalence of sexual abuse was 22 percent; more than one-half of these women were violently abused. High depressive symptoms were reported by 51 percent of the mothers. Both severe physical abuse and sexual abuse in childhood were associated with high depressive symptoms. Women who experienced violent sexual abuse were almost four and one-half times more likely to report high depressive symptoms, compared to the women who were not sexually abused. These findings provide further evidence that childhood abuse may have long-term consequences for women's mental health.

"Stop the World So I Can Get off for a While": Sources of Daily Stress in the Lives of Low-Income Single Mothers of Young Children

misbehavior. Stressful exchanges involving other adults were also frequently recorded, as were financial stressors. The diary records reveal substantial interand intraindividual variability in coping strategies and in the types of barriers that mothers faced in attempting to implement these strategies. Thus, the diaries provide a useful means of examining sources of perceived stress in the daily lives of these women.

A comparison of current food bank users, non-users and past users in a population of low income single mothers

This exploratory study was undertaken to determine which, if any, characteristics or food management behaviors differ between low income families that do or do not use a food bank for emergency food assistance. Seventy-three low income single mothers with young children were recruited through a door-to-door census and agreed to participate in a one-hour structured interview. Thirty-seven subjects were current users, 20 were non-users, and 16 were past users of the local food bank. Average income for all families was 81% of the 1989 federal poverty threshold for a family of three. Results demonstrated that current users, compared with non-users: 1) had larger households with older children; 2) purchased food more frequently in general and at a convenience store in particular; 3) were more likely to walk or take public transportation to the grocery store; 4) were less able to buy enough food with available resources; and 5) skipped meals (mothers and children) more often as a result of no food in the home. Past users were more likely to be divorced and more likely to be in school than current users. Past users were also more stigmatized by assistance program participation than current users. All three groups would turn to family first for emergency food assistance. More research is warranted, especially in the areas of: 1) frequency of food shopping and choice of shopping location related to purchase of adequate food supplies; 2) ages and number of children in the household and their effect on food security; and 3) longitudinal studies on the potential of future food bank use by non- and past users.