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SINGLE MOTHERS:
A NEEDS ASSESSMENT

By

Deborah 1. Bybee

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS
Department of Psychology
1980

ABSTRACT

SINGLE MOTHERS:
A NEEDS ASSESSMENT

By
Deborah I. Bybee

The single-mother family is an increasingly common living unit
for both adults and children in our society. Although many writers
have speculated about the experiences, needs and problems of these
families, very little research information about them is available.

In this study, a heterogeneous group of 86 single mothers were inter-
viewed to assess their (1) needs and problems, (2) social support
mechanisms, (3) goals for the future, (4) service utilization patterns,
and (5) reactions to proposed programs. Tabulations of their responses
in these areas are presented and discussed. Additionally, several
situational and social support variables thought to mediate the amount
of stress involved in single motherhood were used to predict two
indices of successful functioning: depression and optimism. Results
of these multiple regression analyses are presented. Finally, social

policy and programming implications of the findings are discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My sincere thanks goes to my chairperson, Bill Davidson, for
continuing support, guidance, and patience throughout the lengthy
preparation of this volume. The contributions of committee members
Esther Fergus and Charles Johnson were also invaluable. Special
thanks should go to my initial chairperson, Bob Calsyn, and to
Lou Tornatzky, who provided much needed advice and encouragement
during the early stages of this project. My largest debt of
gratitude, however, is owed to the single mothers whose experiences
and perceptions are reported here. Without their willingness to
share their time and their wisdom, this study would truly have been

impossible.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION

Speculation and Research about
Single-Mother Families

Incidence of Single-Mother Families 2

Needs and Problems of Single-Mother
Families . . . . .

The Effects on Children: Father-
Absence Studies

Needs and Problems of Single Mothers:

Variables Mediating Adjustment to
Single Motherhood . . .
Justification for Research

II. METHOD

Sampling Procedure .
Interviewing Procedures
Interview Format
Analysis Strategy

III. RESULTS .

Needs Assessment Tabulations
Situational Variables
Problems Encountered.
Self-Definitions .
Social Interaction and Support
Goals for the Future .
Service Utilization .
Reactions to Proposed Programs

Willingness to Work on New Programs :

Correlates of Adjustment .
Prediction of Depression
Prediction of Optimism

iii

Page

22
30

4o
47

51

51
52
54
57

61
61

66
73
75
77
81
85
85
87

9O

Chapter
IV. DISCUSSION

Needs and Problems of Single Mothers
and Their Families . . .
Financial Problems . .
Child-Rearing Problems
Social Interaction .

Emotional Adjustment

Mediators of Adjustment

Implications for Program Development
Financial Support . .
Child Care
Social Support

REFERENCES .
APPENDICES .
Appendix A: Initial Contact Letter .

Appendix B: Survey Consent Form
Appendix C: Survey Questionnaire

iv

Page

Table
2-1
2-2

3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
3-7
3-8
3-9
3-10
3-11
3-12

3-13
3-14

LIST OF TABLES

Depression Scale Items and ItembTotal Correlations .
Optimism Scale Items and Item-Total Correlations
Tabulation of Occupational Status

Source of Income by Percentage of Total Income
Tabulation of Problems Encountered

Problem Area Rankings According to Degree of Concern
Ratings of Perceived Success in Dealing with Problem Areas
Tabulation of Chosen Role Descriptions .

Rankings of Sources of Emotional Support

Tabulations of Wished-for Changes

Tabulations of Goals for the Future .

Knowledge and Utilization of Single Mother Services
Tabulations of Endorsement of Proposed Programs .

Matrix of Intercorrelations Among Situational Variables
and Adjustment Indices . . . . . . . .

Significant Beta Weights for Prediction of Depression .

Significant Beta Weights for Prediction of Optimism

Page
58
60
63
64
67
71
72
74
76
78
80
82
86

88
90
91

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

In American society, the normal, accepted mechanism for rearing
and socializing children has long been the nuclear, two-parent family.
Fathers have been expected to support the family by working and to
represent the family in dealings with the outside world. Mothers have
been in charge of child care and housekeeping and have been expected
to assume these functions full-time, at least until their children have
reached school age. The family unit has been expected to be largely
self-sufficient in meeting the basic material and emotional needs of
its members.

As Keniston and the Carnegie Council on Children (l977) have
noted, however, this view of the family has changed dramatically in
recent years. Changes in economic conditions, demographic patterns,
and societal values and expectations have altered the structure of the
family to such an extent that fewer than 30% of American families with
children fit the described ideal (Keniston, l977).

Clearly, the two-parent home with an employed father and a
stay—at-home mother is no longer the typical American family. Yet
family theory and research have continued to focus on this idealized
structure, referring to it as "modal" despite the statistics. Society
at large has also continued to ignore these changes in family life:
the social institutions providing employment, education, child care,

financial assistance, and other family services have continued to

2
operate as though all families matched the ideal. Families with different
structures have been seen as inferior deviants who impose inconvenient
demands. Yet, as Keniston has observed, societal changes have made all
families more reliant upon outside institutions for fulfilling the
basic needs of family members.

The family headed by only one parent has become the most frequently
occurring alternative to the two-parent ideal. Almost 20% of American
families with children were of this form in 1979 (U.S. Bureau of the
Census). It has generally been assumed that single-parent families,
expecially those headed by women, are inadequate for meeting the needs of
both children and adults. Yet remarkably little is known about these
families. Most research has focused on the presumably negative effects
of father-absence on children (Herzog and Sudia, l97l) or on the psycho-
logical traits of young unwed mothers (Curtis, l974; Pierce, 1970; Signell,
1969). Some of the literature on post-divorce adjustment (Bohannon, T970;
Goode, l956) has offered some insight into the problems and difficulties
faced by divorced women, but very little of such research has dealt
directly with single motherhood. Nearly all of the literature on single-
mother families has been theoretical or speculative and has had little
grounding in data. As Burgess (l970) has observed, the dearth of research
information about these families has allowed assumptions about their
inadequacies to grow, untested:

Because of the vicious practice of making over-generalizations,...

the single parent family has been categorized and labeled as

"disorganized," "unstable," "undesirable," or "broken," regard-

less of the condition of its existence. (p. 140)

With only one adult to provide material and emotional support,

the single-parent family has been assumed to need more outside support

than the traditional two-parent family. Practical services for these

3
families, however, have been largely limited to minimal financial
assistance from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) or
Social Security and limited types of social opportunities from
organizations like Parents Without Partners. Other social work or
counseling services have been offered in some communities, but they
have often been based on untested assumptions about the inadequacies of
the single-parent family and have reflected society's negative attitudes
toward deviant family structures, as the following writers have observed:

We have permitted the social provisions for unmarried parents

to carry out society's wish to punish....We consider our

programs to be practical services...however, they are organized,

located, and operated in a way that reinforces the notion

that their task is twofold. One is to help; the other to

maintain and at times increase feelings of guilt. (Lewis, 1968,

p. 588) _

If there is any underlying rationale for the way systems of

such services [for the single-parent family] are organized—-

which is debatable--it is that these services are predicated

' not upon situational needs of clienteles, but rather upon
assumptions of their underlying pathology. (Billingsley and

Giovannoni, l97l, p. 366) .

The limitations of the services which society has offered to
single-parent families have been partly a function of the lack of
information about this type of family. Assumptions about pathology
and inferiority have allowed services to remain fragmented, value-laden,
and inadequate. Research into the real perceptions, experiences,
and needs of single-parent families themselves is needed if present
services are to become more relevant to the problems of these families

and if new programs are to address their real concerns.

4
Speculation and Research about Single-Mother Families
Incidence of Single-Mother Families

One of the most fundamental changes in the picture of American
family life in this century has been the dramatic increase in the
number of single-parent families. In the period from l940 to l975, the
number of single-parent families doubled from 3.5 to 7.2 million
(McEaddy, l976). In l979, the U.S. Bureau of the Census reported that
l9% of all families with children--one in five--were headed by a single
parent. Despite a recent steady increase in the number of fathers
assuming custody of their children after divorce or separation, over
90% of these families were female-headed.

The majority of single-parent families have resulted from the
divorce or separation of the parents. In l974, 47% of all single
mothers were divorced or separated, while 37% were widowed and l3%
had never married (Ross and Sawhill, 1975).

The number of children involved in single-mother families has
also increased. Between 1960 and l970, the number of children living
with one parent increased l2 times as fast as the number of children
in two-parent families (Ross and Sawhill, l975). In l970. one child
in ten lived in a female-headed home. By 1975, one in seven children,
a total of nine million, were in single-mother families. One fourth
of these children were under the age of six (McEaddy, l976).

Of course, single-parent families are not permanent units for
many of the people involved. Click and Norton (l973) have estimated
that one third of all divorced people remarry within two years of the
final decree, and Kessler (l975) has estimated that an additional third
remarry within five years. Unmarried and widowed parents also marry,

although at slower rates (Carter and Glick, l976).

5

As Ross and Sawhill (1975) have noted, cross-sectional census
reports are inadequate in assessing the total number of families which
have experienced female-headship. They have estimated that the flow into
single mother status is actually four to five times greater than the
net increases for any given year. Viewed in dynamic rather than static
terms, the number of pepple who have been involved in single-parent
families is much larger. Using the dynamic perspective, Bane (1976) has
predicted that 40% of all children born in the seventies will spend
part of their lives in one-parent families, most often with their mothers.

Although the majority of single mothers are white, a higher \
percentage of black families are female-headed. In 1979, 45% of all
black families with children were female-headed, up from 21% in 1960.
In comparison, 13% of all white families were female-headed in 1979,
up from 6% in 1960 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1979). In 1974, 38%
of all black children lived in single-mother families, while only 10%
of white children were in single-mother homes (Carter and Glick. 1976).

The higher proportion of single-mother families among nonwhite
populations has been attributed to several factors, as discussed by
Ross and Sawhill (l975). Nonwhite families have shown a slightly higher
divorce rate and a separation rate which is 1.5 times higher than the
white rate. (This has generally been traced to the cost of obtaining a
legal divorce; the racial differences have disappeared when socioeconomic
status has been controlled.) Nonwhite women have also been twice as
likely to experience the death of a spouse and 13 times as likely to
have and keep a child while single. Remarriage rates have also been
lower among nonwhite women.

The dramatic increase in single-parent families among both white

and nonwhite populations has been linked to a number of factors related

6
to the widely-assumed breakdown of the American family. The most
frequently cited has been the rising divorce rate. The U.S. Bureau of
the Census (1979) listed the 1979 divorce rate at 5.1 per 1,000 persons
(up from 2 per 1,000 in 1940) and estimated that the proportion of
marriages ending in divorce was close to 40%. The percentage of women
divorced by their early thirties more than doubled from 6.3% in 1940 to
15.8% in 1970 (Ross and Sawhill, 1975). Glick and Norton (1973) have
predicted that 25% to 30% of women currently in their late twenties to
early thirties will end their first marriages in divorce.

The proportion of divorces involving children has also increased.
Carter and Glick (1976) have reported that the percentage of divorces
involving children under 18 rose from 45.5% in 1953 to 62.1% in 1966.

The average number of children per divorce rose from .85 in 1953 to
1.34 in 1966 (Bernard, 1970). The annual number of children involved
in divorce tripled in the twenty-year period from 1956 to 1976, from
361,000 to 1,117,000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1979).

The number of unmarried women who have and raise children outside
of marriage has risen, too. Between 1960 and 1975, the number of unmarried
mothers doubled (McEaddy, l976). Glick (1976) has estimated that one
million single women set up households with their babies each year.

While rising divorce and illegitimacy rates have been credited
with the bulk of the increase in single-parent households, other popu-
lation changes may be more basic to understanding the statistics. Two
base rate projection studies have provided analyses of the demographic
components which account for the increase in female-headed households
between 1960 and 1970. Outright (1974) found that changes in the
probability that a single mother would set up a separate household

rather than move in with relatives accounted for the largest portion of

7
the increase (36%). The increased population of women at risk accounted
for an additional 17%, while the increases in illegitimacy and marital
instability accounted for only 13% and 3%, respectively.

In a similar study, Ross and Sawhill (1975) projected on
different base rates for white and nonwhite populations. Factors
accounting for the increase among white families included the increased
population of women at risk (25%), increased marital disruption (23%),
general increase in the birthrate (20%), increased probability of
setting up separate households (10%), and increased illegitimacy rate
(9%). The increase among nonwhite families was explained by increase
in the birthrate (24%), increased illegitimacy (21%), increased popula-
tion at risk (16%), increased marital disruption (15%), and higher
probability of setting up separate households (8%).

Base rate projection studies of this type are open to a variety
of methodological criticisms. First, they are dependent for their
validity on the accuracy of the rates included in the projection equations.
While census estimates are assumed to have a high degree of validity,
they are less accurate for nonwhite, low income, and highly transient
groups. Single mother households often fall into these classifications.
Additionally, two of the variables included in the equations--i11egitimacy
rates and separation/divorce rates--are not based upon census data but
are retrieved from court and health department records. Illegitimacy
and separation rates, in particular, are difficult to determine, given
the negative social meaning attached to these phenomena.

The projection equations, themselves, are open to several
interpretations. Since the variables included are correlated, the
percentage of the increase accounted for by each will depend on the

order in which they were entered into the equation. It should also be

8
noted that neither study was able to account for 100% of the increase
in female-headed households. Cutright's equation accounted for only
69% of the increase, while Ross and Sawhill improved the prediction to
83% - 87% by including race as a moderator variable.

While both studies have methodological limitations which bring
into question the actual percentages attributed to various components
of the increase, they do seem useful in drawing attention to underlying
demographic trends which havecontributed to the increase in the
number of single-mother families. This demographic perspective departs
substantially from the common view of the single parent as a symptom
of a dying family institution.

Regardless of the reasons, single-parent families have become
an increasingly common type of living unit for adults and children in
this society. The single-parent family is obviously different in
structure and composition from the modal two-parent family. The
singleemgthgg_family is doubly deviant in being headed by a female.
These structural differences have generally been thought to produce
functional differences in the development of family members and in V
the needs and problems experienced by the family unit. The literature
contains much speculation and some research about the experiences of
the female-headed family, the nature of the effects of these experiences
on the development of "fatherless" children, and the adjustment of the
single mother herself. This literature will be explored in the following
sections: (1) The Needs and Problems of Single-Mother Families,

(2) The Effects on Children: Father-Absence Studies, (3) The Needs and
Problems of Single Mothers, and (4) Variables Mediating the Adjustment
of Single Mothers.

9
Needs and Problems of Single-Mother Families

Although there has been little formal research into the
experiences of single-mother families, it has been widely assumed that
they have a variety of needs and problems which differ both qualitativelv
and quantitatively from those of the tweeparent family. With only one
parent present, it has been presumed that they have fewer internal
resources to deal with dailv needs. especially those which are generally
the responsibility of the male adult in the two-parent family.

Poverty. Poverty, one of the most basic problems of many
single—mother families, has been widely documented. In 1974, the median
income for female-headed families was $6,400, less than half the median
income for male-headed families (Mc Eaddy, 1976). Forty-five percent
of the families under the official poverty level in 1973 were female-
headed, although they constituted only 12% of the number of families
(Bernstein and Meezan, 1975). In 1975, one in three single-mother
families had incomes below the povertv line; one in eight male-headed
families had incomes that low (McEaddy, 1976). Using one-half the
median income of all U.S. families ($7,373 in 1974), a more realistic
index of poverty, over 60% of single-mother families could be labeled
"poor" in 1974 (Characteristics of the Population, 1977).

The high incidence of povertv among single-mother families
has been attributed to a number of factors. One is the loss of income
from a male breadwinner following divorce or separation. Although it has
Generally been assumed that an estranged father is required to contribute
to the support of his children, research has shown that this is often
not the case. Brandwein, Brown, and Fox (1974) reported that, among a
nationwide sample of judges. the majority awarded less than 35% of a

father's earnings to his wife and children in the form of child support

O

10

payments. Moreover, the authors cited a 1972 report of the Citizen's
Advisory Council on the Status of Women as finding that only 38% of all
fathers ordered to pay support were in full compliance one year after
the court order; 42% were making no payments at all. After four years
the number making no contribution to their children's support rose to
67%. A more recent study by Jones. Gordon, and Sawhill (1976) found
that only 3% of single mothers with children under 18 were receiving
enough alimony and child support to be at or above the official povertv
line. Sixty-one percent were receiving no payments at all.

Althouqh single mothers have the leaal right to court assistance
in obtaining court-ordered child support payments, this aid has often
been ineffective. The Uniform Desertion and Non-support Act, in use in
most states, has allowed criminal complaint against a non-supporting
parent only if the family is "in destitute or necessitous circumstances."
Non-supporting fathers have rarelv been prosecuted under these conditions
(Brandwein. gt_§l, 1974). A

Thus, while some single-mother families have lived in continuing
poverty, many others have suffered a downward shift in socioeconomic
status as a consequence of becoming female-headed. Smith (1978)
documented this shift in a panel studv comparing families in transition
to female-headship with ongoing one-parent and two-parent families.
Kriesberg (1970) and Winston and Forsher (1971) provided corroboration
for this point by examining the income levels of the estranged fathers
of children receiving benefits from AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent
Children). In both studies, it was found that the distribution of
fathers'income and occupation levels were parallel to those of the
general population; the poverty of the single-mother families was

apparently not related to their income levels during marriage.

11

It has sometimes been assumed that relatives provide significant
financial support to single-mother families. Such help has apparently
been frequent, although it has not been universal and may not have been
particularly substantial. Bernard (1964) found that less than one third
of his low-income sample of divorced mothers received any financial
help from their families. Sauber and Corrigan (1970) reported that the
extent of support from relatives decreased with time: 40% of their sample
of unmarried mothers listed their families as a source of financial
support in the first few months after the birth of their children; after
18 months, this proportion had decreased to 20%, and after six years it
had dropped to 2%.

For most single-mother families, the primary source of financial
support is the mother's income. McEaddy (1976) reported that, in 1975,
54% of all children in single-mother families had mothers who were
working full time. Two-thirds of the single mothers with only one child
were employed, while one-third of those with five or more children worked.
An additional group of single mothers worked part-time or intermittently.
In 1969, 70% of all female family heads were working, although only 30%
held full-time jobs for the entire year (Stein, 1970).

Having a mother who works reduces the poverty of the single-
mother family somewhat, although not as much as might be expected. In
1973, when the median income of all single-mother families was $4,729,
the median income of families in which the female head was employed was
$6,193 (Carter and Glick, 1976). In that same year, however, the median
income for two-parent families was $13,909, over twice that for the
employed female-headed family.

The disparity in median incomes might be attributable to the

possibility of two wage-earners in the two-parent family and the potential

12
for only one breadwinner in the single-parent family. Indeed. in 1974,
both parents were employed in nearly 50% of two-parent families (Keniston,
1977). However, the second income in many two-parent families was
apparently not very substantial. The median family income of two-earner
families was $16,928 in 1974; the median for one-worker. two-parent
families was $12,028, still well over the median for single-mother
families (Keniston, 1977).

Other factors have also contributed to this difference between
one- and two-parent family incomes. One has been the fact that female
workers earn less, overall, than male workers. In 1974, the average
full-time female worker received only 57% of the earnings of the average
male worker (Money Income, 1977). Moreover, women have continued to
earn substantially less than men in all occupational groups and at all
educational levels (Keniston, 1977). Additionally, unemployment rates
have been higher for women than for men (Keniston, 1977).

Single mothers have been handicapped in the job market by other
factors in addition to their being women. Stein (1970) reported that,
in 1969, 70% of all poor female familv heads had not completed high
school; 33% had not finished grade school. Moreover. many lacked job
skills and experience. having spent their adult lives maintaining house-
holds and raising children. As noted earlier, nearly 20% of single
mothers are nonwhite and have faced racial as well as sexual discrimination
in finding well-paving employment. In addition, single mothers may face
another tvpe of job discrimination. It has been speculated (Oldham, 1971)
that employers have often been reluctant to hire single mothers,
especially those with young children, for fear that their family respon-

sibilities will interfere with their work.

l3

Child Care. This last type of job discrimination may actually

 

have been based in practical reality. The lack of child care facilities
for working parents in this country has been well documented (Keniston,
1977). As Brandwein, Brown, and Fox (1974) have noted, the employment
world has continued to operate on the assumption of a working husband
with a wife at home to care for the children. This assumption, however,
has become increasingly untenable: in 1975, less than one-third of
American families fit this ideal (Keniston, 1977).

The single mother who works has been particularly disadvantaged
by inadequate child-care facilities. With only one parent, the single-
mother family has usually been totally dependent upon her income for
financial support. Child care during working hours has thus been a
necessity for the familv's economic survival. While public schools have
constituted a substantial source of day care for school-age children,
other facilities have been necessary for younger children. In 1975.

25% of single mothers had children under age six (McEaddy, 1976).
Stein (1970) found that, in 1969, 47% of single mothers with pre-school
children were working and, presumably, requiring child care.

In addition to routine care for young children during working
hours. single mothers have a particular need for contingency care and
for care for school-age children during non-school hours. The single
mother who is her familv's sole source of support can rarelv afford to
take time off from work when her child is sick or when other crises occur.
Nor can she be late to work in order to see her children off to school
or leave work early to care for them after school. As Brandwein, Brown,
and Fox (1974) have mentioned, schools which have not made provisions

for supervision during lunch hours have put an additional child care

l4
burden on the single-mother family. These child care problems are common
to all families with working mothers but are particularly serious for
the single-mother family, which has fewer adult members to share in
child-care tasks and to provide emergency care during crises (Women in
Transition, 1975).

The high cost of child care has also been well-documented
(Keniston, 1977). Day-care and babysitting expenses further reduce the
disposable income available to single-mother families and add to their
function poverty. Thus. not only have single-mother families had lower
incomes than two-parent families, but they may also have had higher
expenses. Indeed, Berkman (1969) found that 41% of the single mothers
in his sample reported that their incomes were inadequate, while only
7% of the married mothers saw their incomes as inadequate. This
difference was thought to be greater than could be accounted for by
objective differences in income levels.

In addition to the issues of cost and availability, the quality
of child care facilities has been reported to be a major concern among
single mothers. Sauber and Corrigan (1970), in their longitudinal
study of unmarried mothers in New York City, found that 26% of the mothers
who had quit their jobs during the first six years following birth
listed inadequate child care as a major reason; 59% of the women who
had not worked since becoming mothers listed concern with the quality of
child care as the reason for their unemployment. Similarly, Hedges and
Barnett (1972) found that 40% of the non-working AFDC mothers in their
sample felt that their children would be inadequately cared for if they

went to work.

15

Financial Assistance. For single mothers who do not work
(whether out of concern for their children's welfare, inability to find
a job, or whatever reason), the major source of income has been transfer
payments from a governmental program. most often Social Security for
widows and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) for mothers
who are divorced, separated, or never-married. The problems associated
with the AFDC program have been widely acknowledged (for example. Keniston,
1977). Benefits have varied widely from state to state, as have eligi-
bility guidelines and application procedures. In general, the level of
support has been very low, and the costs, interms of family dignity
and stigma. have been high. Bernard (1964) has made an interesting
observation that the difference in level of benefits between the Social
Security program and AFDC may reflect society's basic differential
valuation of widowhood (a "legitimate" loss of a husband) as opposed to
divorce or unwed motherhood ("illegitimate" positions attributed to
personal failure or immorality).

Housing. For the majority of single-mother families, both those
whose mothers work and those dependent on transfer income, poverty has
been a major/problem. Other difficulties associated with poverty may
have been more prevalent among female-headed families. Housing, for
example, has been mentioned by several writers as a particular problem
for single-mother families. Berkman (1969) found that 27% of the single-
mother families in his random sample of households were living in
poverty areas, compared with 9% of the two-parent families. Carter and
Glick (1970) reported that lowered income following divorce or separation
usually forces single-mother families to move to poorer neighborhoods.
Smith (1978) also found this pattern in his panel study comparing

families in transition to female headship with ongoing one- and two-

16

parent families, adding that the female-headed families often moved out
of owner-occupied houses and into rented units following separation.

These moves to poorer housing may have been caused by other
factors in addition to lowered income. Several authors have suggested
that single mothers, especially those receiving AFDC payments, may be
the victims of discrimination by landlords and financial institutions
(Brandwein, Brown, and Fox, 1974: Women in Transition, 1975). Single
mothers have often had no credit ratings in their own names, and the fact
of their divorce. separation, or unmarried motherhood may have been
considered evidence of their instability and poor credit risk by banks
and other lending agencies (Women in Transition, 1975). Thus, single
mothers may have been forced to pay more for poorer housing than two-
parent families of comparable income levels (Brandwein, et_al, 1974).
Brandwein, Fox, and Brown have also made the observation that housing and
land-use patterns in most communities limit development to units designed
for nuclear families, precluding extended-familiy housing or multi-
family units which might be viable alternatives for single-parent
families.

Single-mother families have also been found to move more
frequently than two-parent families (Carter and Glick, 1970; Pearlin
and Johnson, 1977; Sauber and Corrigan, 1970; Smith, 1978). Although
some of this greater mobility may have been related to the lower incomes
of female-headed families, Carter and Glick have suggested that it may
also relate to strained relations between single-mother families and
their neighbors. There may be some evidence for this assertion:
Proctor (1968) found that many of the two—parent families in the Harvard

Study of Successful Families sample reported carefully avoiding

17

contact with fbroken" families, and Marsden (1969) found that two-parent
families often limited their children's contact with children from
single-mother homes and generally showed less respect for the property
of single-mother families.

A Resource-Availability Perspective of the One-Parent Family.
Glasser and Navarre (1965) have developed an interesting "structural
analysis" of the one-parent family which offers an explanation for some
of the evidence of societal stigma and discrimination against single-
mother families. Their analysis rests on a resource perspective of the
family unit and makes the initial assumption that men in our society have
more resources at their disposal than do women. Since families derive
their social status from the amount of resources controlled by the
family's head, female-headed families are inherently lower in social
status than families headed by men. Moreover, female family heads must
assume some tasks traditionally assumed by men (breadwinner, family
advocate, etc.) and must often delegate some "female" tasks (child care,
housekeeping, etc.) to others. This behavior is seen as inappropriate
to the female sex-role and further lowers the single mother's status,
and that of her family, in the eyes of society. Operating from this
position of lower status, the single mother is less effective in
obtaining resources for her family (money, services, respect), a handicap
which lowers her family's status even further. Although this analysis
may be somewhat overstated, it does seem to offer a useful framework for
understanding some of the single-mother family's experiences in society.

This structural perspective has interesting implications for
examining the internal experiences of the single-mother family as well.

Glasser and Navarre have noted that fewer adult resources are available

18
within the one-parent family, not only because of a shortage of adult
members but also because of the amount of adult energy consumed in
obtaining resources from the outside world. The single mother must
assume all the responsibilities which in the two-parent family are
shared by two adults. According to Glasser and Navarre, this shortage
of resources necessitates some modification of the family's activities:

A permanent adjustment [to single parenthood] then must

involve a reduction in the tasks performed and/or a.

reduction in the adequacy of performance, or external

assistance. (p. 100)

Scattered research findings have provided some evidence that
single-mother families may have slightly different priorities for
family activities. Nye (1957), for instance, found that single
mother's homes were less well-kept than homes of married mothers,
apparently reflecting that housekeeping was a lower priority for
single mothers. Kriesberg (1970), in his study of low-income families
in public housing projects, found that single mothers expected their
children to attain self-sufficience in several personal and household
tasks at a slightly earlier age than married mothers, presumably to
ease the household and child-care burdens of the mother. Smith (1978)
and Pearlin and Johnson (1977) also reported that one-parent families
were consistently less involved in community activities than two-
parent families, perhaps reflecting their lack of time for non-
essential activities.

Glasser and Navarre concluded their analysis of one-parent
family structures by warning of the dangers they saw as inherent in
family units headed by only one adult. First, they noted that the one-
parent family has no reserves upon which to call in times of crisis
such as the parent's illness or incapacitation; such emergencies

could result in the temporary or permanent dissolution of the family

19
unit. Second, they characterized the one-parent family as less stable
affectionally than the two-parent family. Members of the one-parent
family, having fewer alternate sources of emotional support (fewer
potential affectional dyads) may be less likely to display negative
emotions out of fear of alienating their source of affection. Thus,
a single mother may be reluctant to punish her children for fear that
she will lose them as her source of affection. Similarly, children may
be fearful of angering their mother for fear that they will lose their
only source of love and affection. Related to this concern is the
possibility that single mother, having no adult support available in the
family, may expect their children to fill emotional needs that they are
incapable of meeting. Finally, the authors warned that children in
one-parent families may develop a less balanced view of the world than
children in two-parent families. The child in the single-mother family,
for instance, may receive only a female perception of the world and may
expect women to be constant sources of power and affection, since
they have not seen men acting in these roles.

Glasser and Navarre's warnings about the emotional dangers to
children in single-mother families seem much overstated, ignoring the many
opportunities which both mothers and children have for interacting with
and observing the world outside the immediate family. Although research
into family interactions in one-parent homes has been scant, and there
has been no formal testing of Glasser and Navarre's hypotheses, there
seems to be little evidence for the kinds of patterns implied by these
warnings. One study which addressed child-rearing values and practices
(Kriesberg, 1970) found few differences between married and single mothers

in low-income housing projects. No differences were found in mothers'

20
values regarding obedience gs, autonomy in their children, in their
use of denying gs, reasoning tactics, in their use of spanking, in
the mothers' aspirations for their children, or in their behaviors
related to encouraging their children in school. Single mothers were
found to be slightly more restrictive of their children's behavior
and to spend slightly less time engaged in leisure-time activities with
their children outside the home. Kriesberg attributed these differences
to the single mother's practical concerns about her children's safety
and to her lack of time and money for recreational activities in
general.

Summa y. Research into the needs and problems of single-
mother families has been sparse and extremely scattered. The poverty
of many female-headed families has apparently been well documented,
although the income levels of these families may have been somewhat
underestimated. Income data is most subject to under-reporting among
groups who are employed part time or intermittently, since such jobs
are often not covered by Social Security or other federal reporting
requirements. As Stein (1970) has found, many single mothers have
worked under these conditions. Informal sources of help from relatives,
ex-husbands, and others may also have been underestimated, since
these income transfers are often unofficial and undocumented.
Additionally. the income-level requirements for AFDC assistance may
have contributed to deliberate under-reporting of employment earnings
among mothers receiving governmental assistance. The size of the
discrepancy in income between single-mother families and two-parent
families, however, has appeared to be consistently much larger than

could be explained by these sources of error.

21

Evidence for other types of problems has been less conclusive.
The existence of discrimination in employmeht, housing, and credit
has remained a Speculation, extremely difficult to demonstrate.
Similarly, evidence that single-mother families have been the object
of social stigma has come from widely scattered attitude surveys among
biased samples of respondents. Much of this evidence, published in the
late sixties to early seventies, may have become outdated in light of
the rapid increase in the number of single-mother families and possible
attitude changes which have occurred over the last ten years.

The assumption that single-mother families have special needs for
external resources in the form of child care, financial aid, house-
keeping assistance, and social support has also remained a Speculation.
These needs have been often mentioned in the literature, and their
presumed universality has provided the basis for Glasser and Navarre's
(1965) resource availability persoective. Still, research into the
real nature and distribution of these needs among single-mother families
has been virtually nonexistent.

Most of the research evidence reported in this section has
been gleaned from tangential studies undertaken for reasons other than
the study of single-mother families. Thus, many of the samples have
been biased, the measurement instruments limited, and the designs of
the studies impossible to evaluate. The conclusions drawn from this
evidence should thus be seen as highly tentative and Speculative;

they provide questions for further research, not answers.

22

The Effects on Children: Father-Absence Studies

The most widely investigated aspect of the single-mother family
has been the effect pf father-absence on the development of children
in female«headed households. Results of various studies in this area
have been used as evidence for the popular belief that single-mother
families are inadequate for their major task--rearing and socializing
children. For example, studies showing a relationship between father-
absence and delinquency or antisocial behavior (Glueck and Glueck, 1951;
Gregory, 1965; Hoffman, 1970; Mischel, 1961; Siegman, 1966) have been
used to blame the single-mother family for contributing to juvenile
crime. Differences between father~absent and father-present boys in
their patterns of aggression (Bach, 1946; Sears, 1951), dependency
(McCord, McCord, and Thurber, 1962), and other gender-linked behaviors
(Biller, 1968; Biller, 1969; Lynn and Sawrey, 1959; Santrock, 1970)
have been cited as evidence for inadequate development of appropriate
sex-role identities in boys from single-mother families. The single-
mother family has also been blamed for causing "disrupted heterosexual
behavior" and "inappropriately assertive behavior with male peers and
adults" in its female children (Hetherington and Deur, 1971, p. 238).
More general types of psychological damage. such as childhood emotional
disturbance (Pedersen, 1966) and adult neuroticism (Madow and Hardy,
1947) have also been attributed to the single-mother family. Additionally,
studies showing differences in school performance measures. from drop-
out rates (Gregory, 1965) to college entrance exam scores (Sutton-Smith.
Rosenberg, and Landy, 1968), have contributed to the belief that the
female-headed family is inadequate in fostering educational achievement
in its children. A superficial glance at the research literature could

lead one to attribute many of our society's ills--even attrition from

23

the Peace Corps (Suedfeld, 1967)--to the inadequacies of the single—mother
family. A more thorough examination of these results, however, has
produced different conclusions.

The bulk of the research on father-absence is serously flawed
by methodological difficulties. The most basic problem is inherent in
all investigations of differences among naturally-occurring groups.
Children have never been placed in female-headed homes on a random
basis. Their position in single-mother families has been correlated with
a number of other factors which have implications for their development.
As noted above, nonwhite children have been more likely to live in
single-mother families than have white children. The probability that
a family will be female-headed has also been related to the parents'
age. socioeconomic status, religion, values. personalities, and numerous
other characteristics. A large number of these factors have inevitably
been confounded in any study comparing children from one-parent and
two-parent homes.

Despite this basic, inescapable limitation, it should be possible
to sort out some of the confounding factors by matching comparison
groups on variables known to be correlated with the developmental
outcome of interest. Unfortunately, few of the studies of father-
absence have controlled the effects of extraneous variables known to
be confounded with family type. Herzog and Sudia, in their 1971
review of 400 father-absence studies. found only 14 in which the inves-
tigators had made a serious attempt to match the comparison groups on
any. meaningful criteria.

The results of the few available studies which have used
matched comparison groups have suggested a much more optimistic view

of the single-mother family. With race and socioeconomic class

24

controlled, for example, apparent differences in children's school
performance (Hanusheck, 1972), adult educational level and socioeconomic
status (Duncan, Featherman, and Duncan, 1972; Kriesberg, 1970), and
adult marital status (Duncan and Duncan, 1969; Kriesberg, 1970) have
not been supported. Controlling for race and SES in investigating other
differences popularly attributed to the single—mother family could lead
to additonal modifications of the assumptions of father-absence, as
could examination of other correlates which are potentially confounded
with family type.

No amount of post-hoc matching of comparison groups can solve
a basic logical problem which is closely related to the methodological
issue of confounded variables. Although most of the father-absence
literature has purported to make statements about causes (father-
absence) and effects (developmental differences), the research designs
employed have been only associational. Virtually all of the research to
date has been cross-sectional: a group of children (or adults) from
female-headed families has been compared at one time-point with another
group (perhaps matched on some criteria) from two-parent families.
Resulting differences have been said to be the "effects" of father-
absence. The basic logical component of causality--that an effect be
preceded by its cause--has not been present in these designs. It is
conceivable that the difference labeled as an effect may have indeed
"caused" or preceded the difference seen as the cause: a child's
delinquent behavior could have preceded and contributed to his parents'
separation. Or both "cause" and "effect" could have been concurrent
effects of some other causal agent: both a child's delinquent behavior
and his parents' separation could have been consequences of his father's

antisocial behavior. These alternative explanations cannot be ruled

25
out without the use of careful longitudinal research which examines the
single-mother family as a process rather than a status. Although such
longitudinal investigations of family processes have been advocated
by numerous reviewers (Herzog and Sudia, 1971; Ross and Sawhill, 1975;
Walters and Stinnett, 1971), none has yet been undertaken.

In addition to flaws in logic and design, father-absence research
has been limited by imprecise definitions of the concepts under
investigation. A variety of types of families have been labeled
"father-absent." Some of the most oft-cited evidence for the negative
effects of single-mother families has actually come from studies of
temporary father-absence due to military service (Carlsmith, 1964;

Lynn and Sawrey, 1959; Pedersen, 1966). While the authors of these
studies have described their samples, they have failed to limit their
conclusions to similar types of family situations. Additionally, the
"reconstituted" family resulting from remarriage of a single parent

has been variously defined as father-absent or father-present in different
studies. Families with fathers who are temporarily, "legitimately“

absent and those which include stepfathers are obviously different

in composition from the family in which the mother is the only parent.
Failure to distinguish among these different family types has contri-
buted to the confusion in this area of research.

Variations within family types have received attention from
some researchers. The effects of family conflict on children in two-
parent homes have been examined in a number of studies, some of which
have included one-parent homes in comparison groups. Nye (1957) first
found that boys in “unhappy intact" homes reported more delinquent
behavior, more family adjustment problems, and more psychosomatic

complaints than boys in "broken" homes. Similarly, McCord, McCord,

26
and Thurber (1962) found higher delinquency rates among children from
"conflicted intact" than among those in "broken" homes, and Landis (1962)
found no significant differences in dating histories or self-evaluations
between adolescents in divorced and "unhappy intact" families. Although
these studies found children in homes defined as "happy or nonconflicted
and intact" to be better off than those in either "unhappy intact" or
"broken" families, Russell (1967) failed to find differences in educational
achievement among any of the three types, and Burchinal (1964) found
no differences in school grade-point average, school participation,
number of friends, or personality characteristics.

Similar comparisons have been made between children whose
fathers are absent and those whose fathers are present but differ in
their degree of involvement with their children. Blanchard and Biller
(1969) found no differences in educational achievement between third
graders from single-mother homes and those from two-parent homes in which
the father interacted infrequently with his children. Children with
highly involved fathers, however, showed significantly higher achievement
scores. Aldous (1972), on the other hand, found that most fathers
engaged in virtually no interactions with their young children and
_conc1uded that father-absence had little effect upon the development of
children's sex-role perceptions.

Although some research has begun to acknowledge the wide
variation in interaction patterns among different two-parent families,
little attention has been paid to similar variations among single-mother
households. When father-absent children have been compared as a
homogeneous group with two-parent children from "happy“ gs, "unhappy“
or "father involved" gs, "uninvolved" homes, it is not surprising that

single-mother children have shown up in the middle of the continuum.

27
Single-mother families also differ in amount of conflict and degree of
parental involvement with their children. Indeed. Koof (1970) and
Westman, Cline, Swift, and Kramer (1971) have concluded that these
variables are the most significant predictors of emotional adjustment
and educational achievement for children in single-mother families.
More meaningful research into the effects of father-absence would
result from recognizing the heterogeneity of single-parent as well as
two-parent families.

Just as variations within single-mother families have not been
addressed in the father-absence literature, neither have a variety of
conditions and experiences which often accompany single-motherhood in
this society. One of these has been poverty. For a variety of reasons
discussed in the previous section, female-headed households have had
lower incomes than those headed by men. Moreover, single-mother families
have often experienced a radical downward mobility in socioeconomic
status following the departure of the male parent. Willie (1967)
concluded that a substantial amount of the apparent correlation between
father-absence and juvenile delinquency could be accounted for by the
move to lower economic status and poorer housing following divorce or
separation.

An additional concomittant of single-motherhood may have been
social stigma. As Brandwein, Brown, and Fox (1974) have asserted, the
single-mother family has been expected to be inadequate in rearing
children; its children have been expected to have confused sex-roles,
to lack discipline, and to be unhappy and distraught. These expectations
have worked to invalidate some of the dependent measures used in father-
absence research. As Herzog and Sudia (1968) have noted, delinquency

rates, in particular, have been subject to this bias: fatherless children

28
have been thought to be more in need of help or restraint and so have
been more likely to be apprehended and institutionalized than have other
children, regardless of their level of delinquent behavior (Arnold, 1971).
In a similar manner, children from single-mother homes have shown up
more often in school psychologists' offices and child guidance clinics.
Differences in rates of referral to these agencies may have revealed
more about society's attitudes toward the single-mother family than
about the ability of the single mother to socialize her children.

Many of the shortcomings of the father-absence literature have
been acknowledged by researchers and reviewers in the area. The limita-
tions have often been forgotten, however, when conclusions about single-
mother families have been drawn. Hetherington and Deur (1971), for
example, listed several serious methodological problems in their
review of the father-absenct literature but then went on to selectively
describe studies which discovered negative father-absence effects and
to draw the following conclusions:

Father absence appears to be associated with a wide

range of disruptions in social and cognitive develooment

in children....Further research might focus on factors

which can ameliorate the harmful consequences of

paternal separation. (p. 244)

Herzog and Sudia. (1971), however, drew different conclusions. In
their review of 400 studies of father-absence, 14 were judged to be
"reasonably sound" in methodology. Of these, seven reported adverse
effects and seven found no effects attributable to fatherlessness.

The reviewers also noted that, when differences were found, they were
generally significant only in a statistical sense, nOt a practical one.
A rewording of Gregory's (1965) report of significant differences in

delinquency rates, for instance, showed that 98% of the boys in two-

parent homes and 97% of the boys in single-mother homes were nondelinquent.

29
Differences of such magnitude have hardly warranted the strong
conclusions which have been drawn about them. Herzog and Sudia (1968)
drew the following conclusions:

Existing data do not permit a decisive answer to

Questions about the effects on children of father-

lessness....If all the confounding factors...cou1d be

controlled, children in fatherless homes might be

classified as somewhat worse off than children in

two-parent homes with regard to some (though by no

means all) of the variables investigated; but the

statistical differences would probably be far less

dramatic than is generally assumed, and might be

negligible. Even if some differences were statistically

significant, we would expect their practical importance

to be dwarfed by other variables. (p. 181)

Billingsley and Giovannoni (1971) made similar observations:

It does not appear that either the ill effects of

fatherlessness or the processes by which these

effects are rendered have been sufficiently

demonstrated for any definitive statements about

the matter to be made. (p. 371)

Both reviewers went on to conclude that the question of dele-
terious effects caused by father-absence may be irrelevant and overly
simplistic. The selective generalization and exaggeration of the
reported effects have largely served to further stigmatize the single-
mother family and to increase the single-mother's guilt about her
children's plight. Both Herzog and Sudia (1971) and Billingsley
and Giovannoni (1971) have suggested that the research question be
rephrased to focus upon processes and experiences within the single-
,mother family, factors which contribute to the health and well-being
of "fatherless" children, and needs of the one-parent family which the

larger society could help to meet.

30
Needs and Problems of Single Mothers

As the absence of a father in the single-mother home has been
assumed to produce deleterious effects on children, so too has the
shortage of parents been thought to place extra demands on the single
mother herself. The role of single parent-~being solely responsible
for supporting and rearing one's children-~has seemed almost certain
to produce stress and anxiety. Clayton (1971), herself a single parent,
summarized some of the single mother's concerns:

The single mother is left with all of the responsibilities

of providing emotional and practical guidelines for the

child while having to cope with home care and maintenance

functions many of which previously were within the juris-

diction of the husband-father, as well as in the majority

of cases holding an outside job in order to augment

available finances or to provide complete support for the

family. In addition she must deal with her own emotional

needs for adult companionship and begin to re-establish
herself as an individual. For many this situation brings
about a crisis in identity that is difficult to resolve.

(p. 327)

Stress. Evidence that single mothers experience more stress than
the population at large has been found in a number of studies.
Berkman (1969), in a survey of 2.000 California households, found
that single mothers reported significantly more chronic health
problems, functional disabilities, and physical conditions which
were "seriously bothersome," as well as significantly poorer evaluations
of their health status than married mothers. Moreover, these
differences remained within most subgroups when equated on socio-
economic status. Berkman also found significant differences between
married and single mothers on measures of general "morale" (life-
satisfaction), anomie, "ego resiliency." and "neurotic traits."

Additionally, trends toward morbidity differences between married and

single mothers remained when these personality variables were controlled,

31
although the differences were nonsignificant. The author interpreted
these trends as indicating that the stress of single motherhood has
some additional, although small, contribution to physical morbidity
above its apparent effects on emotional health.

Pearlin and Johnson (1977) found that depression was also more
widespread among single parents than among parents with spouses.
Separated parents appeared to have the highest rates of depression,
followed by widowed, divorced, never-married and married parents, in
that order. Moreover, the difference in depression scores between
married and single parents increased with the number of children and
with decreasing ages of the youngest child. In other words, increasing
parental responsibilities appeared to have a stronger relationship
with depression among unmarried parents than among married parents.

Other studies have examined physical and emotional health
problems among divorced populations, a large number of whom are single
mothers. Renne (1971), in a survey of 4,000 urban Californians, found
higher rates of physical disability, chronic illness, neurosis, and
depression among divorced peoole than among the happily remarried.
However, unhappily married and separated people appeared to be in poorer
health than either group. In comparison with all married people
(happy and unhappy). the divorced and separated groups scored signifi-
cantly lower. Similarly, Carter and Glick (1976) and Rico-Valasco
and Mynko (1973) found that suicide rates were 2 to 3.5 times higher
among divorced as compared to married women. Carter and Glick also
found that cirrhosis of the liver resulting in death (presumably
caused by alcoholism) was 2.8 times more prevalent among divorced than
married women. Gurin, Veroff, and Field (1960) found that 40% of the

separated and divorced women in the sample surveyed by the Joint

32
Commission on Mental Illness and Health reported seeking professional
help for emotional problems following their separations; an additional
20% did not seek help but felt they could have used it.

Sauber and Corrigan (1970) found similar differences in their
six-year follow-up of never-married mothers. Thirty-eight percent of
the mothers who were separated or divorced were classified as
"impaired" according to their scores on a mental health scale. Thirty-
four percent of the never-married group were rated as impaired, while
only nineteen percent of the married group were considered impaired.

These studies reporting group differences between married
and single parents on physical and emotional health variables are subject
to the same criticisms discussed in regard to the father-absence
literature. First, marital status has been confounded with a variety
of other variables which are correlated with physical and emotional
health. Although Berkman (1969) found that differences remained with
socioeconomic status controlled, other potentially confounding variables
have not been investigated. Second, the heterogeneity of single-parent
households has not been recognized. Comparisons with "happily married"
and "unhappily married" individuals has resulted in the predictable
middle-of-the-continuum position for the divorced parent. Additionally,
the validity of the measurement instruments used in these studies has
not been reported. The validity of rating and self-evaluation instru-
ments for assessing single-parent populations may be particularly
questionable.

The most serious limitation, as discussed in relation to the
father-absence literature, is that such studies of differences among

non-random groups cannot be interpreted causally. It is unknown whether

33
the physical and emotional health conditions preceded and contributed
to the marital status of the divorcees and single mothers studied
or whether their status indeed produced such problems.

The one panel study which was available (Smith, 1978) provided
some evidence for the latter interpretation. In comparing families in
transition to one-parent status with ongoing one- and two-parent families,
Smith found that, over the transition period, parents showed signifi-
cantly lowered scores on measures of personal integration and trust
plus greater feelings of loss of control over their lives. Moreover,
the scores of the transition group were significantly lower at the
second time-period than those of either group of ongoing family units.
This would indicate that the period immediately following the transition
into single-parenthood may be the most stressful for single mothers.

Goode, in his 1956 study of divorced mothers, also noted this
point and observed that the time immediately following separation, not
the time of the final divorce decree, was the period of most stress
among his sample. He concluded that the drastic changes in living
conditions and relationships after separation were the primary causes
of this stress. Goode also found that divorce and single motherhood
were not universally traumatic experiences. Thirty—seven percent of the
women surveyed were classified as "low trauma" in terms of the problems
and coping behaviors they reported.

While stress may not be universal among single mothers, and the
ultimate causal direction of the stress/family status relationship has
not been sorted out, there is evidence to support the contention that.
many single mothers experience a high level of stress. Many writers

have speculated about the features of single motherhood which may produce

34
or contribute to this stress. although research into this question has

been virtually nonexistent.

Change in Livigg Conditions. One of the most frequently mentioned

 

stressors has been the radical change in living conditions which the
single-mother family has usually experienced. As discussed earlier,

the transition to single mother status has often been accompanied by
lowered family income and has frequently involved a change of residence,
most often into smaller quarters in a poorer neighborhood. Glasser and
Navarre (1965) have observed that rapid changes in socioeconomic status,
particularly downward shifts, have often been associated with anomie;
and Weissman and Paykel (1972) have found that moving, especially to
poorer neighborhoods, has been correlated with depression among women.
Thus these basic changes in living conditions may contribute to the
stress apparently experienced by many single mothers, especially during
the transition to single parent status.

Assumption of New Family Responsibilities. Single mothers must

 

also assume new roles and responsibilities as family heads. In many
instances they must find jobs, handle family finances, represent the
family in interactions with the outside world. and assume all responsi-
bility for the functioning of the household. For many women, these
are roles and responsibilities which have previously been filled by
husbands or fathers. They may have little training or experience in
job-hunting, computing taxes, dealing with lawyers, or fixing leaky
faucets. Suddenly becoming responsible for all these tasks might
be assumed to be stressful to the single mother (Women in Transition,
1975).

In addition to these new roles, the single mother must fulfill

all the responsibilities of child-rearing and housekeeping for her

35

family. In effect, the single mother must do all the tasks which, in
the two-parent family. are divided between two adults. Ilgenfritz (1971)
observed that lack of time and energy plus continual exhaustion are
frequent complaints among single mothers.

The single mother is often the sole source of emotional as
well as physical support for her children. She usually has no other
adult in the home to give advice, reassurance, or relief from her
child-rearing role. Schlesinger (1975) reported that the strain of
coping with the demands of young children with no relief from another
adult was a frequently-reported problem among Canadian single parents.
Ilgenfritz (1971) also noted that single mothers worry about what
will happen to their children if they get sick or become incapacitated.

Concern about Children. Other authors have mentioned that

 

single mothers report feeling guilty about their children. They

may feel responsible for their children's adjustment problems following
a divorce or separation (Hunt, 1966; Ilgenfritz, 1971); they may feel
guilty for depriving their children of the benefits of a “normal"
family life (Women in Transition, 1975); and they may feel guilt about
discrimination against their children from other children, parents, and
schools (Hunt, 1966; Schlesinger, 1975). Additionally, single mothers
who work may feel they are neglecting their children by leaving them
with babysitters (Schlesinger, 1975).

Other child development issues have been mentioned as worrisome
to single mothers. Biller and Smith (1972) reported that the AFDC
mothers in their support group voiced particular interest in learning
about the effects of father-absence on children in single-mother
families. Similarly, Ilgenfritz (1971) noted that concern about

providing male models for their children and worry about their children's

36
feelings toward marriage were common among single mothers. Hunt (1966)
and Ilgenfritz (1971) also found that single mothers worried about
dealing with their children during adolescence, particularly in regard
to sex education for male children.

As Burgess (1970) observed, society has contributed to the
single mother's anxiety over the develooment of her children by presenting
the message that it is impossible to raise normal, healthy children
outside the two-parent family. Selective overgeneralizations of the
father-absence literature have often been used as evidence of this
impossibility, causing guilt and frustration among women who have no
choice but to raise their children alone.

Goode (1956), in his early study of divorced mothers. found
evidence of these concerns, but such negative feelings were not
unanimous. Thirty-one percent of the women in his sample thought that
their children were better off in a single-mother family than in the
previous two—parent home. Twenty-seven percent voiced concerns about
the lack of a male model for their children, while only nine percent
thought that the single-mother family was bad for their children.

The remainder thought that the type of family had no effect on their
children's development.

Assumption of New Social Roles. In addition to added roles
within her family and increased responsibilities for her children,
the single mother must assume a new status in society at large.
Goode(l956), Hunt (1966), and Kessler (1975) have all observed that
society has lacked institutionalized norms for the status of single
motherhood. Without prescribed role-behaviors, these authors have
contended, interactions between single mothers and the rest of

society have been strained. Hunt (1966) has theorized that this

37
strain has led to the development of a “world of the formerly married,"
a relatively closed subculture with its own norms and rules for social
behavior. According to Hunt, divorce or separation usually leads to
a breakdown of an individual's social network. Friends may have taken
the former spouse's side in relation to the divorce or they may feel
uncomfortable relating to one partner without the presence of the other.
A spouseless individual may represent a sexual threat to existing marriages
or may simply be awkward in social activities involving couples.
Hunt has also theorized that the existence of a divorce or separation
in a social network may be threatening to couples who fear marital
problems of their own. Additionally, friends may begin to drift away
following a divorce because of fewer shared interests and common types
of experiences. Hunt has contended that formerly married people begin
to drift into new social circles with other divorced or separated
members and, because of their unique experiences and situations,
develop social norms which differ from those of society at large.

The loss of friends following divorce or separation has been
mentioned by a number of authors as a particular problem for single
mothers (Brandwein, Brown, and Fox, 1974; Clayton, 1971; Kessler, 1975;
Miller, 1970; Women in Transition, 1975). Goode (1956), however, found
that this was not a universal experience: among his sample, 52%
listed their most active friends as having continued through the divorce.
Moreover, Goode found little support for the existence of a "formerly
married subculture": 64% reported having no divorced or divorcing friends.
Goode's sample, however, were surveyed within three years after divorce;
it is possible that a major change in social network could require a

longer lapse of time.

38

It is also possible that Hunt's theory of a subculture of the
formerly married does not apply among single mothers. The situation of
a single mother with family and household resoonsibilities may limit
her opportunities to develop new relationships or enter new social
networks. There is some evidence for this contention. Pearlin and
Johnson (1977) reported that unmarried parents in their sample of
households indicated significantly greater social isolation (fewer
close friends and fewer voluntary organization affiliations) than either
single people or married parents. Similarly, Marsden (1969) and
Kriesberg (1970) found that single mothers reported going out socially
significantly less frequently than married mothers. Goode (1956)
also found a fairly low frequency of dating among his sample of divorced
mothers: 48% said they never dated, while only 38% reported dating
more frequently than once or twice per month. Schlesinger (1975)
listed social isolation as the problem most frequently mentioned by
Canadian single parents.

Several factors may contribute to greater social isolation
among single mothers. Hunt (1966), Kessler (1975), and Brandwein,
Brown, and Fox (1974) have noted that single mothers may be victims of
social stigma and discrimination. Divorced, separated, or never-
married mothers may be seen as unstable, inferior, or immoral by some
members of society and even by their own relatives (Women in Transition,
1971). Clayton (1971) has observed that most social activities are
generally oriented toward couples, two-parent families, or childless
individuals and so exclude single mothers. Ilgenfritz (1971) has
reported that many divorced mothers voice fears about adapting to
their new single status in social situations, especially dating.

The single mother may also have difficulty in coping with her children's

39
reactions to her new relationships with men (Ilgenfritz, 1971;
‘Women in Transition, 1971). Marsden (1969), however, stressed primarily
practical problems, such as lack of money and the difficulty of
finding child care, as reasons for the single mother's lack of social
activity.

All authors agreed that loss of friends and continued social
isolation compound the stress experienced by the single mother. The
isolated single mother may not have adequate Opportunities to learn
and practice the skills necessary for adapting to her new role as an
independent adult (Hunt, 1966). Additionally, she may suffer a drop in
self-esteem without social confirmation that she is indeed an attractive
and worthwhile person (Ilgenfritz, 1971). Finally. in the absence of
support and reassurance from other parents, she may develop unrealistic
doubts about her ability to help her children through various develop-
mental crises (Glasser and Navarre, 1965).

Summa g. The accumulated results of several cross-sectional
surveys and one panel studv have provided evidence for the contention
that single mothers experience a greater level of stress than the
general population. The causal factors involved have not been fully
explored, but the panel study findings of greater disruption following
separation have tended to support the notion that features of single
motherhood itself produce or contribute to this stress. Several writers
have speculated about the features of single motherhood which could be
stressful, although there has been almost no research in this area.

Only one study, Goode's 1956 survey of divorced mothers, has systematically
addressed the behaviors and perceptions of single mothers in their

daily lives. Interestingly, he found substantial variation among

40
his sample on most of the questions asked. He noted that single mother-
hood did not appear as universally stressful, isolating, and bleak as
most other authors have presumed. These apparent variations in stress
level have raised the issue of variables which may mediate adjustment
to single motherhood, an area which will be considered in the next
section.

Variables Mediating Adjustment to Single Motherhood

 

Little formalized research has addressed the situational variables
which may contribute to a single mother's ability to cope successfully
with her lifestyle, although such investigation has been advocated by
a number of writers (Billingsley and Giovannoni, 1971; Burgess, 1970;
Herzog and Sudia, 1968; Sprey, 1967). Scattered correlations and
observations from a variety of sources, however, have indicated some
types of variables which may have some relationship to adjustment.

Demographic Variables. In several studies, demographic and

 

family variables have been found to be related to adjustment. Pearlin
and Johnson (1977) found that increasing numbers and decreasing ages of 4
children were both predictive of depression in single parents. In
addition, age and number of children were significantly related to
differences in depression between married and single parents: depression
differences between single and married parents became increasingly
larger as the number of children increased and their ages decreased.
The authors interpreted this trend as indicating that single parents
were more vulnerable to the stress caused by the increased parental
responsibilities of several young children.

Goode (1956) also found that divorced mothers with two or more

children were more likely to be classified as "high trauma" in terms

41
of their reports of problem situations and coping behaviors. However,
he also found that problems with child care facilities were more prevalent
among mothers with older children, presumably because of the lack of
part-day services for school—age children.

Age of the mother was also correlated with degree of trauma in
Goode's (1956) study. Older mothers were found to have fewer friends,
to report less frequent dating, and to be more often classified as
having experienced "high trauma.“ Similarly, the mother's education was
positively predictive of having more friends, dating more frequently,
and experiencing lower trauma.

Social class background has also been thought to relate to the
adjustment of the single mother. Kessler (l975) theorized that divorced
or unmarried motherhood would be harder on middle-class women, assuming
that family structures have been more value-tied in this class. Indeed,
Goode (1956) found that divorced mothers whose ex-husbands had middle-
or upper-class occupations were slightly more likely to be classified as
having experienced "high trauma." Women with rural backgrounds were also
more likely to experience trauma. The degree to which this relationship
would hold up in the 1970's, after considerable change in middle-class
divorce rates, however, may be questionable.

For similar reasons, race has been thought to relate to ease of
adjustment to single motherhood. However, Gibbs, Ewer, and Bahr (1975)
found few differences between low-income black and white mothers in their
attitudes toward illegitimacy or single motherhood. Black women did,
however, show less positive attitudes toward marriage and married

child-rearing.

42

The authors of Women in Transition (1975) have presented an

 

interesting breakdown of the different types of problems which single
mothers from different social backgrounds may experience. They observed
that the middle-class mother with her own independent claim to middle-
class status (education, professional skills, etc.) may not experience
financial problems; however, she may have more emotional difficulties
in adjusting to her status because of the stronger two-parent expectations
of her social background. The middle-class mother who was dependent
upon her ex-husband or her father for her class status (having low
education or occupational status of her own) may experience middle-
class emotional difficulties plus rapid downward mobility and employment
and financial problems. The lower-class single mother may have
fewer1emotional adjustment problems, but she must contend with "core
poverty'I problems such as unemployment, discrimination, and degrading
services.

Schlesinger (1975) provided a similar continuum of the needs
and problems of single mothers from various marital backgrounds. He
contended that the never-married mother may experience the greatest
difficulty in adjusting, since she faces the most social stigma and
discrimination and is also more likely to be poor and lacking in education
and job skills. The mother who is separated occupies an ambiguous social
status, being neither married nor single, and is generally in the midst of
the trauma of transition between these two positions. The divorced
mother faces social discrimination and financial problems plus the
difficulties of her children's adjustment to a new living situation. The
widowed mother may receive more emotional and financial support from
friends and relatives, but she must deal with the shock and grief over

her husband's death in addition to adjusting to a new style of life.

43

Both presentations have underscored the observation that the
adjustment experiences of various single mothers are qualitatively
different and may not be easily distinguishable in terms of amount of
difficulty. Some situational factors, however, have been found to act
as mediators in overall adjustment to the various types of life-changes
which single motherhood entails.

Financial Security, One of these factors is financial security.
Berkman (1969) found that financial status was negatively associated with
physical morbidity among single mothers and that it accounted for a
large portion of the difference in health status between married and
single mothers. Similarly, Pearlin and Johnson (1977) found that
"economic stress" (self-reported income inadequacy) was correlated with
depression among their sample of single parents. Additionally, the
authors concluded that single parents were more vulnerable to the effects
of economic stress: depression differences between married and single
parents were nonsignificant at low levels of economic stress but
became quite large at high levels of economic stress. Goode (1956)
also found that financial security was positively related to adjustment
in his sample of divorced mothers. Both full-time employment and
dependable child-support payments were predictive of reports of "low
trauma" in adjustment to single motherhood. ‘

Social Support. Social support has also been observed as a

 

correlate of adjustment. Pearlin and Johnson (1977) reported that
social isolation was predictive of depression among their sample of
single parents. It was also predictive of differences between married
and single parents, indicating, according to the authors, a greater

vulnerability to social isolation among single parents.

44

Bernard (1964), in his interview study of a small sample of
poor single mothers, observed that having a source of emotional support
appeared to be related to higher morale:

The strongest impression is that the feeling of personal

adequacy, of coping, depended on support from family, friends,

and community institutions. Supplemental assistance, such as
money or clothing, was vital, but having people who could

give advice, encouragement, and understanding was even more

central to the respondent's morale. With this kind of support

women were able to use the money they had in effective and
fruitful ways. Without it, ...[the single mothers] seemed

to feel isolated, depressed, and worn out with the struggle

to maintain their families. (pp. 37-38)

Goode (1956) found similar relationships between social support
and adjustment. Having opportunities to date and develop new relationships
was a major predictor of membership in the "low trauma" group, while
infrequent dating and having few opportunities to meet new people
predicted "high trauma." Having experienced discrimination as a result
of single motherhood was also associated with higher trauma, as was
having a reference group which disapproved of divorce and single mother-
hood. Goode found some evidence that support from other single mothers
was related to adjustment: a higher percentage of women in the "low
trauma" group reported having friends who were divorced or divorcing
mothers.

Although researchers have reported relationships between
adjustment to single motherhood and potential mediating variables such
as financial security and social support, these conclusions have been
limited by methodological difficulties. First, these studies have all
been cross-sectional and correlational. It has been impossible to
determine, for example, whether lack of social support has caused

stress or poor adjustment among some single mothers or whether stress and

social isolation have both been caused by other personality or situational

45
factors. Second, the Operational definitions of two of the concepts--
level of social support and degree of adjustment--have varied widely
across the studies. Neither the validity of the instruments used to
measure these concepts nor their appropriateness for single-mother
populations have been reported or discussed. Finally, the samples
surveyed by at least two of these researchers were seriously limited.
Both Bernard's (1964) and Goode's (1956) samples were small and included
primarily poor, urban, divorced women; the experiences and behaviors
reported by these women may not be representative of single mothers
in the seventies.

Utilization of Services for Single Mothers. Regardless of the
quality of the research, the presumed relationship between social support
and adjustment has been the basis for the few services which have been
developed for single mothers. Parents Without Partners, the most
widely known support organization for single parents, has as its stated
goals the sharing of information about single-parent child-rearing,
the provision of opportunities for family activities for single parents
and their children, and the development of a social network among single
parents themselves (Clayton, 1971; Gould, 1968). Weiss (l973b), in a
participant-observational study of one chapter of Parents Without
Partners, found that the majority of its members had joined in order
to meet other single parents and to find a social community where they
wouldn't feel out of place.

Parents Without Partners has been widely criticized, however.

An official of the organization (Clayton, 1971) has admitted that it
serves primarily white, middle-aged, middle-class divorced and widowed
members, the majority of whom are women. She has also hinted that poor

people and parents who have never married have not been encouraged to

46
join. Weiss (l973b) observed that half the people who attended one
meeting of the organization never returned, most citing as a reason
their negative assessment of the members. Ilgenfritz (1971) also reported
dissatisfaction among single mothers with the organization's expectations
that members date each other.

Regardless of these criticisms, the mutual support philosophy
of Parents Without Partners has been adapted to other types of support
groups for single mothers. Although the effects of membership in these
formalized groups have not been evaluated, two authors (Biller and Smith,
1972; Ilgenfritz, 1971) have reported impressionistic observations of
increased self-confidence, improved social skills, and improved morale
among members of small single-mother support groups.

In addition to social support, single parents have suggested
other types of services which might aid them in adjusting to single-
parenthood. Schlesinger (1973; 1975) reported that an informal Canadian
assessment of services needed by one-parent families found two basic
suggestions. This study listed increased availability of Big Brother/
Big Sister-type programs as the most-needed service, followed by classes
to teach child-rearing and other survival skills to single parents.

Guyatt (1971), in another assessment of Canadian single parents,
found that better provisions for financial support, followed by improved
child-care facilities were the most frequently-voiced needs. She also
found that single parents were concerned that services for them be
integrated into other services for families in general so as to avoid
further stigma and isolation. She concluded that the needs voiced
by single parents were generally the same as those experienced by all

families, differing only in intensity and magnitude.

47

Summarg. Systematic research into the factors which mediate
adjustment to single motherhood has been extremely scarce. Widely
scattered studies have provided some evidence that variables such as
number and age of children, financial status, and level of social support
account for some portion of the variance in adjustment. However, the
effects of other factors, such as the utilization of services designed
to ease adjustment to single motherhood, have not been examined.
Additionally, the combined contributions of these potential mediators
have not been examined in a multivariate context. Socioeconomic
factors, family characteristics, and social involvement have been
confounded in the bivariate studies described above. A systematic
examination of the relative contributions of potential mediating
variables could provide better information about adjustment differences
among single-mother families. Although such an investigation would not
solve the causal dilemmas inherent in correlational research, it could
provide useful hypotheses about the types of services which could aid
these families.

Justification for Research

Several conclusions can be drawn from the available research.
(1) A large and increasing percentage of our population of women and
children are involved in single-mother families or will be at some point
in their lives. (2) These families differ from the modal two-parent
family in structure and composition and may be different in other
characteristics as well. There is strong evidence that single-mother
families are more often poor. Other functional differences have been
assumed to exist, but research evidence has been scarce. (3) Although a

large body of father-absence research has developed, the logical and

48
methodological problems in this area have seriously limited the conclusions
which can be drawn. Overall, there seems to be little support for the
popular assumption that single-mother families produce pathological
children. (4) There is some evidence that the responsibilities of single
motherhood are stressful and that they require considerable adjustment
on a woman's part. Although many features of the single mother's
life intuitively appear to be stress-producing, little is known about
the actual experiences of women in this role. (5) There appear to be
variations among single-mother families in level of functioning or
degree of adjustment. However, little is known about the nature of
these differences or about the variables which contribute to them.

In short, little is known about single mothers or their families.
Billingsley and Giovannoni (1971) have attributed this lack of knowledge
to research traditions which have focused attention on developing
general "laws" about human behavior and institutions:

The ignorance concerning one-parent families...is attributable

to another phenomenon common among social and behavioral

scientists: an overriding interest in the modal and neglect

of the deviant....Most typically, investigations about the

deviant have been pursued not in an effort to gain information

about its phenomena but rather to further enlightenment

about the modal. (p. 364)

Brandwein, Brown, and Fox (1974) have noted that this ignorance
has, in many ways, contributed to the problems of single-mother families:

Women single parents remain victimized by the current distortions

and inadequacies of the data, both in their interactions within

their families and in the larger society. Present assumptions
about and treatment of single-parent families are based upon
insufficient and often incomplete information. At best present
practice and policies are based on ignorance; at worst, upon
misleading and biased half-truths reflecting the general

discrimination faced by women in our society. (p. 513)

A number of writers have stressed the need for information about

the experiences, problems, coping mechanisms, and needs of single-mother

49
families (Brandwein, Brown, and Fox, 1974; Billingsley and Giovannoni,
1971; Burgess, 1970; Herzog and Sudia, 1968). Rose and Price-Bonham
(1973) have specifically noted the need to replicate Goode's (1956) study
of divorced mothers. Although it was done nearly twenty-five years ago,
when attitudes toward divorce and single motherhood were much different,
this study still stands as the only systematic investigation of the
experiences and perceptions of single mothers.

In addition to a general need for more information, Billingsley
and Giovannoni (1971) have stressed the need for a change in research
focus away from "the unfortunate preoccupation...with the one-parent
family as a form of social pathology rather than as a form of family
life" (p. 372). These authors, as well as others (Burgess, 1970;

Herzog and Sudia, 1968; Sprey, 1967) have advocated that research

into differences among single-mother families, research aimed at
discovering conditions most favorable to the successful functioning of
these families, be given a high priority.

In line with the previous recommendations for research, the
present study has been designed to gain information about the
experiences of a heterogeneous group of single mothers. The primary
purpose of the research is to document the women's perceptions of their
problems, needs, sources of support, and reactions to services, both
existing and proposed. It is hoped that the information gained in this
assessment will be of use in determining service needs and priorities
for the development of programs to aid single mothers and their families.

A second purpose is to examine the relationships between indices
of adjustment to single motherhood and some of the situational and social
support variables mentioned in the literature as possible mediators of

the amount of stress involved in the single-mother role. It is therefore

50
hypothesized that indices of adjustment will show relationships with
the following variables: (1) mother's age; (2) mother's employment
status; (3) mother's educational status; (4) length of time spent as
a single mother; (5) income; (6) receipt of AFDC support; (7) number
of children in the home; (8) age of youngest child; (9) frequency of
children's contact with their father; (10) presence of other adults in
the home; (11) dating frequency; (12) number of close friends; (13) contact
with other single mothers; and (14) reliance upon children for emotional

support.

CHAPTER 2

METHOD

Sampling Procedure

 

Since the primary objective of this study was to assess the needs
and problems of single mothers in a variety of situations, considerable
emphasis was placed upon obtaining a sample representative of the diverse
total population. ‘This concern eliminated all direct means of locating
potential subjects: lists of AFDC recipients would have excluded all
single mothers ineligible for government assistance; membership lists
from Parents Without Partners or other single parent organizations would
have overlooked women who, for a variety of reasons, had chosen not to be
involved in these organizations; and court records would have included only
women divorced in Ingham County, excluding those who had never married,
were separated or widowed, or had been divorced in other jurisdictions.

To avoid these serious biases, an indirect method of sampling was
chosen. Since the majority of people in all situations send their children
to public schools, the use of school records to locate single-mother
families seemed to be the least-biased and most feasible sampling pro-
cedure.

One elementary school which reported that 40% of its student
population resided in single-parent homes was chosen to provide the
subject pool for the study. Administrative agreements with the school's
principal and with the school district's director of research were
negotiated to provide school sanction of the study and access to school
records of students' living situations. Examination of all students'

51

52
residence records revealed that 130 of the approximately 350 students in
the school were living with their mothers only. The 104 families repre-
sented by these students then comprised the initial subject pool.

Of the original group of 104 single mothers, 87 were eventually
interviewed. One of these was found to be incoherent and unable to
respond to questions; her interview was not included in the analysis.

Two of the original 104 had remarried and one had been incorrectly
classified in the school records; none of these were interviewed. Five
women actively refused to participate, three passively refused (failed to
appear at any of three scheduled interviews), and six could not be
contacted (had moved, were away for the summer, or for other reasons
could not be reached).

As a result of the sampling procedures used, some biases were
introduced in terms of residential area and socioeconomic status, age
of children (all mothers had at least one child of elementary school age),
and possibly religion (since mothers of some faiths may have sent their
children to parochial schools). However, these biases were thought to
be less serious than those which would have been introduced with other
sampling procedures.

Interviewing Procedqres

Each of the single mothers identified from school records was
sent a letter informing her of the study and requesting her participation.
The letters were written on school letterhead and were signed by the
community-school coordinator, who happened also to be a single mother.

It was hoped that a personal letter from a school official known to many
of the mothers would provide credibility to the study and encourage

. participation. (See Appendix A for a copy of the initial contact letter.)

53

Within one to two weeks after each of three groups of letters had
been sent, each woman who had not refused to participate was contacted by
phone by the author. At this second contact the study was more fully
explained, questions about the study were answered, and a time was arranged
for an interview in the woman's home.

Interviews were conducted by the author at the woman's convenience
in her own home. Each woman was first asked to read and sign a consent
form informing her of her rights as a subject and explaining the intent of
the study. (See Appendix B for a copy of the consent form.) She
was then asked to respond to the items included in the questionnaire
(See Appendix C for a copy of the questionnaire.) The woman was given a
copy of the questionnaire to facilitate comprehension, but all questions
were read to her, and responses were recorded by the interviewer to assure
completeness and accuracy.

Interviews were expected to last approximately one hour. The
median length of the interviews was sixty minutes, but there was a range
from forty minutes to three hours. The women were encouraged to talk freely
about their experiences, feelings, ideas, and opinions both to allow them
to provide input into possible future programming and to enhance the
author's knowledge of the single mother's situation. Since the content of
the interview was emotionally loaded for some women, frequent digressions
and explanations of responses were expected and, at times, encouraged by
the author.

During the course of the interview, several women made requests
for information or help of an immediate nature. In response to these
requests or to needs perceived by the interviewer, a number of referrals

to existing services were made: seven women were referred to family

54

counseling services, four to the school counselor, three to women's
self-help groups, two to Big Brothers, two to adult education classes,
one to a drug treatment program, and one to a singles' social organization.

Several women were not at home during the time prearranged for
the interview. These women were contacted again by phone, and another
time was arranged. In cases where this appointment was also missed, one
final attempt was made to interview the subject. When all three attempts
proved futile, the subject was regarded as a ”passive refusal," a
phenomenon which occurred with only three women.

All interviews were completed during the period between May 1, 1975
and June 30, 1975.

Interview Format

 

The interview format used in this study was designed to obtain
information about the single mother's situation and her experiences
across a variety of areas. The format was rationally developed by the
author in collaboration with school officials and several single mothers
interested in the study. It was field tested in several interviews with
single mothers outside the subject pool, a step which resulted in some
minor changes in wording and construction to improve comprehensibility
and facilitate administration.

The final form of the interview format (reproduced in Appendix C)
was comprised of nine sections, each addressing a separate class of
variables:

Section 1 of the interview dealt with basic demographic information
including race, marital status, length of time as a single parent, age,

members of household, occupation, income, source of income, and education.

55

Section 2 focused on each of the children living with the single
mother. Questions about each child's age, sex, child care arrangements,
problems, services used, and time spent with each parent were included,
as was a question about any children not living with the mother.

Section 3 provided an opportunity for the woman to talk about her
experiences in each of eleven possible problem areas (money, housing,
child care, employment, education, raising children, female companionship,
male companionship, free time, social acceptance, and feelings about
self). In each area, three potential problems for single mothers were
presented in checklist form in addition to open-ended questions about
other problems encountered and services used. The woman was also asked
to rate each problem area as "getting worse," "getting better," or
“staying about the same" as an indication of her evaluation of the
situation. She was then asked to rank the three problem areas currently
causing her the most worry and to indicate which time period had been
the most difficult for her.

Section 4 asked the woman to choose a self-defining term from a
list of possible definers such as "woman," “mother," “divorcee," etc.
This section was included to gather information to test Goode's (1956)
hypothesis that positive adjustment to divorce may be defined as present-
oriented rather than past-oriented self-perception.

Section 5 included a number of questions about social support and
social involvement: number of friends, number of single mother acquain-
tances and friends, organizational involvement, dating frequency, and
perceived sources of emotional support.

Section 6 included two open-ended questions about changes single

mothers would like to see in their lives and goals they had for the future.

56

Responses to these questions (and to the other open-ended items in other
sections) were recorded as completely as possible during the interview and
were later content-analyzed and coded by the author.

Section 7 was comprised of a short depression scale adapted from
Arscott (1970). While it was not the intention of this study to do any
sort of intensive psychological evaluation, it was felt that the inclusion
of a brief scale such as this could provide a general indication of
overall “unhappiness" which could be a useful variable in later associative
analyses. Pearlin and Johnson (1971) used a similar depression scale as
an indicator of life stress among parents. They suggested that the
commonness of depression "suggests that it may be a fairly sensitive
barometer of life-strains" (p. 706).

Section 8 provided a listing of the major services available
specifically for single mothers in the area. The woman was asked if
she had heard of each service; if she had used it; and if so, if she had
been satisfied with the service.

Section 9 included brief descriptions of new types of services
for single mothers which could be developed in the future. The woman
was asked to check those which looked appealing and to offer suggestions
for modifications which would make the service more useful to her. She
was also asked for her own ideas for other services which she would like
to see developed. Two final questions asked if she would attend a
meeting or work with other single mothers to organize any new types of
services or organizations. These final items were included in an attempt
to assess the amount of grass-roots interest and support for social

action existing among this group of single mothers.

57

Both free-response and forced-choice items were included in the
interview format to provide a balance between the consistency in type of
information obtained with structured alternatives and the depth of
information made possible with free-response opportunities. The latter
concern was thought to be of particular importance in this study given
its exploratory nature, the highly personal content of the interview,
and the broad goal of learning as much as possible about the situations
and experiences of single mothers.

Analysis Strategy

In accordance with the dual purpose of the present study as
outlined in Chapter 1, two types of data analysis were completed. In
order to obtain a descriptive picture of the situations and experiences
of the single mothers interviewed, response frequencies were tabulated
for all demographic data, problem checklists, social support indices,
goals and self-perception items, service utilization reports, and
reactions to proposed programs. This Quantitative needs assessment
tabulation is presented in the first section of Chapter 3.

The second purpose of the study was to examine relationships
between adjustment to single motherhood and some of the situational and
support variables thought to mediate the amount of stress experienced
by single mothers. Multiple regression was used to analyze the relationship
between severak predictive variables and two scales used as indices of
adjustment.

The first measure of adjustment was a short depression scale
adapted from Arscott (1970). This scale originally consisted of six
Likert-type items. After assessing the internal consistency of the

scale with the study sample, item six was deleted. The coefficient of

58
internal consistency of the remaining five-item scale was .804. The
depression scale items and item-total correlations may be found in

Table 2-1.

Table 2-1

Depression Scale Items and Item-Total Correlations

 

 

Items Item-Total Correlations
1. I feel the future looks bright. .487
2. Things seem hopeless. .564
3. I feel bored. .483
4. I feel down in the dumps. .626
5. I feel depressed. .762
a6. I am bothered by noise. .325

 

Coefficient of internal consistency
(Cronbach's Alpha) .804

 

aThis item was deleted from the scale due to its relatively low
item-total correlation.

A second index of adjustment was a scale constructed from items
assessing perceived success in dealing with each of eleven potential
problem areas. The question was phrased as follows: "Would you say
that your problems in this area are getting worse, getting better, or
staying about the same?" It might be termed a scale of optimism
about one's situation. From the original pool of eleven items, two

were deleted because they revealed inadequate variance and had item-total

59
correlations less than .10. The coefficient of internal consistency of
the resulting eight-item scale was .694. The "optimism" scale items
and item-total correlations may be found in Table 2-2.

Fourteen variables were chosen to be predictor variables in the
regression analysis. Several of these were basic demographic variables:
(1) the mother's age, (2) the number of months that she had lived alone
with her children, (3) the mother's educational attainment, (4) the
mother's employment status (employed/not employed), (5) number of children
living in the home, (6) age of the youngest child at home, and (7) the
number of other adults in the home. Income was adjusted for size of
family by dividing by the number of people supported. The percentage
of the family's income received from AFDC was also used as a predictor,
as was the number of times per year that the woman's children saw their
father. Four variables were used as indicants of social support:

(1) total number of close friends, (2) number of friends and acquaintances
who are single mothers, (3) dating frequency, and (4) reliance upon
children for emotional support.

The relationship between these predictor variables and the
two indices of adjustment were analyzed with the stepwise regression
program contained in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
(SPSS). The results of these analyses are presented in the second section

of Chapter 3.

60
Table 2-2

Optimism Scale Items and Item-Total Correlations

 

 

Items Item-Total Correlations
l. Money Problems .l57
2. Child Care Problems .256
3. Employment Problems .359
4. Problems with Children .482
5. Female Companionship Problems .225
6. Dating Problems .638
7. Leisure Time Problems .258
8. Social Acceptance Problems .240
9. Emotional Problems .469
al0. Housing Problems -.lOl
311. Education Problems .065

 

Coefficient of Internal Consistency
(Cronbach's Alpha) . .694

 

aThese items were deleted due to inadequate variance and low
item-total correlations.

CHAPTER 3
RESULTS

Needs Assessment Tabulations

As stated previously, the major purpose of the present study
was to provide a quantitative description of the types of situations and
experiences encountered by a group of single mothers. To this end,
response frequencies for all situational variables, problem checklists,
social support indices, goals, service-utilization reports, and reactions
to proposed programs are presented in this section.

Situational Variables-

Residence. All women interviewed lived within a one-half mile
radius of the common elementary school. This district lay on the out-
skirts of the city and was relatively isolated by distance and lack of
bus service. There were few operating businesses in the area (although
there were numerous abandoned commercial buildings) and fewer recreational
or service facilities. The area was divided into four rather distinct
neighborhoods.

The older section, characterized by unpaved streets and small,
unpainted houses, was predominantly lower class, with a large proportion
of elderly residents. Only eight of the 87 women interviewed lived in
this neighborhood, two in their parents' homes.

Immediately surrounding the school was a lower middle class
neighborhood of single family dwellings built when the area was a
promising suburb. Twelve of the women interviewed lived in this area,
all but two in the homes where they had lived with their husbands.

6l

62

In an outer circle around the school were a number of federally-
owned, city-controlled, low-rent units (single family houses and duplexes).
Eighteen of the women interviewed lived in these units, among them all
but four of the black women and both Chicano women.

The remaining neighborhood was comprised of three large federally-
subsidized townhouse developments built recently between the existing
neighborhood and the new expressway. The remaining majority of the women
interviewed, 49 of the 86, lived in these rental units. Only one of these
had lived there prior to her separation from her husband.

There was thus some variability in type of living situation among
the single mothers interviewed, although the vast majority of the women
(87%) were recent arrivals to the area, moving into the available low-
rent housing after becoming single mothers.

gage, Sixty-nine of the 86 single mothers successfully inter-
viewed were white (80%). Fifteen women were black (17%); only two were
Chicano (2%).

Age, Median age was found to be 29.4, with a range from 22 to
57. The range of this variable was, of course, restricted due to
sampling procedures, since all women interviewed had children of elemen-
tary school age.

Marital Status. Sixty-eight of the women were divorced (79%).
Eight women were separated (9%); eight had never married (9%); only two
were widowed (2%).

History of Single Motherhood. Median length of time spent as a
single mother was found to be three years, with a range from five months
to ten years. The majority of women had had no previous periods of

single motherhood: 73 women (85%) had been single mothers for only one

63
continuous portion of their lives. The remaining l3 women (l5%) had
had one or more previous periods of single parenthood interrupted by
periods of marriage and dual-parenthood.

Education. All the women interviewed had completed at least
nine years of fOrmal education. Seventy-three had graduated from high
school (85%). Of these, thirty women had had some further college or
technical training (35% of the total). Four women had college degrees.

Occupation.” A substantial portion of the women interviewed
were holding jobs outside the home, although only forty of them were
working full time (47%). A breakdown of occupational type is presented

in Table 3-l.

Table 3-l

Tabulation of Occupational Status

 

 

Type of Occupation Frequency Percentage
Homemaker 26 30.2
Secretarial l9 22.l
Unskilled Service (part-time) ll l2.8
Student 9 lO.5
Skilled Service 8 9.3
Managerial 5 5.8
Factory Worker 4 4.7
Professional 4 4.7

 

64

Income, The median income per family unit was found to be
$5,286 per year, with a range from $2,400 to $10,800. Nhen adjustments
for family size were made, it was discovered that twenty-nine families
(34% of the total sample) had incomes at or below the federal poverty
index for 1975 ($250 plus $50 per additional family member per month).

Source of Income. Several sources of income were reported,
including job earnings, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, paternal
child support, Social Security, and Unemployment Insurance. None of
the women interviewed were receiving alimony payments. A cross-tabulation
of source of income by percentage of total income is presented in
Table 3-2. Table entries represent the number of women deriving

various percentages of their incomes from each of the sources listed.

Table 3-2

Source of Income by Percentage of Total Income

 

Percentage of Total Income

 

 

Income Source None 1-49% 50-99% 100% # Receiving
Job Earnings 35 9 27 15 51
AFDC 47 3 9 27 39
Child Support 58 26 1 1 28
Social Security 81 0 3 2 5
Unemployment

Insurance 82 l l 2 4

 

65

From Table 3-2 it can be seen that 35 women (41%) reported no
job earnings and appeared to be completely dependent upon external
sources of income and assistance. An additional nine women (l1%)
derived less than half of their total incomes from personal job earnings.
Only 15 women (17%) were providing their total incomes from job earnings.

Fifty-eight of the women (67%) reported receiving no paternal
child support. Included among this group were the 39 women receiving
AFDC benefits, since child support payments are made directly to the
Department of Social Services in these cases. When these women and the
two women who were widowed were subtracted, however, there remained a
group of l7 women who were not receiving the paternal child support to
which they were legally entitled. Of the 45 women who should have been
receiving child support payments, only 28 (62%) actually were.

Thirty-nine women (45%) reported receiving some portion of their
incomes from Aid to Families with Dependent Children. TWenty-seven
of these (31% of the total) received lOO% of their incomes from AFDC.
The remaining twelve had other additional sources of income, principally
job earnings.

Members of Household. Most of the women interviewed were living

 

alone with their children and had no other adults in their households
(70 women or 81% of the total sample). 0f the remainder, three were
living with one or both parents; seven were living with male friends;
two were living with female friends; three included adult offspring in
their households; and one included a resident housekeeper.
Number of Children. TWenty-six of the women had only one child

currently living with them (30%); 40 had two children with them (47%);
twelve had three children (14%); six had four children (7%); two had

five children (2%). The mean number of children per family was 2.05.

66
Seven women reported having adult offspring who were no longer living
with them. Five reported having other minor children who were not
currently in their custody. '

Children's Contact with Their Fathers. Of the l76 children
represented in the families of the 86 women interviewed, 57 were
reported as never seeing their fathers (32%). An additional 33 saw
their fathers very rarely or less than once a year (18%). Thirty-
four children saw their fathers once a year; 27 saw their fathers
between two and four times a year (14%). Only 27 children (14%)
had contact with their fathers as frequently as once a month.

Problems Encountered

Most of the women reported having experienced a variety of
survival and adjustment problems as single mothers. Table 3-3 presents
frequencies of endorsement responses to the problem checklists provided
during the interview as well as frequencies of responses to open-ended
questions about additional difficulties encountered.

Inspection of Table 3-3 reveals a substantial amount of individual
variation in the types of difficulties encountered by the women.

There existed also, however, a surprising number of problems shared by

a large number of single mothers. Most frequently mentioned problems
centered around the following issues: (1) lack of money; (2) inadequate
child care; (3) inadequate job skills; (4) lack of time; (5) concern
about child rearing; (6) lack of opportunities for social activity;

and (7) lack of self-confidence.

Rank-orderings of the eleven problem-areas listed in Table 3-3
also revealed the common experiences and perceptions of the women

interviewed. The vast majority of the women indicated that money-

67
Table 3-3

Tabulation of Problems Encountered

 

 

 

Source of Problem Frequency Percentage
Mongy_
Inadequate money to meet needs 62 72.l
Budgeting problems 21 24.4
Inability to get credit 33 38.4
aInability to obtain child support 36 41.9
aLack of emergency funds 14 16.3
aAdjustment to lower living standard 11 12.8
Housing
Finding affordable housing 25 29.1
Finding housing in desired location 28 32.6
Housing maintenance problems 14 16.3
aRental discrimination due to single
parent status 14 16.3
Child Care
Obtaining quality child care 41 47.7
Finding child care during hours
needed 27 31.4
Transporting child to child care 6 7.0
aHigh babysitter turnover 11 12.8
aLack of school lunch program 16 18.5

 

aThese items represent responses to open-ended questions; endorsement
frequencies would be expected to be smaller for these items than for items
from the problem checklists.

68
Table 3-3 (cont.)

 

 

Source of Problem . Frequency Percentage
Employment
Inability to find well-paying job 28 32.6
Inability to find enjoyable job 22 25.6
Inability to find job flexibility
necessary for sole parent 15 17.4
aHiring discrimination due to single
parent status ll 12.8
Education
Inadequacy of job skills 43 50.0
Lack of money to continue education 40 46.5
Lack of time to continue education 50 58.1

aLack of child care to continue
education 14 l6.3

aLack of personal confidence to
continue education 12 14.0

Child Rearing

Lack of time for children 40 46.5
Lack of support of another adult
in child rearing 53 61.6
Feelings of parental inadequacy 44 51.2
aConcern about lack of male model 43 50.0
aFeeling "trapped" by children 19 22.1
aDifficulty in disciplining children 18 20.9

aDisagreements with children's
father over child rearing 7 8.1

 

aThese items represent responses to open-ended questions; endorsement
frequencies would be expected to be lower for these items than for items
from the problem checklists.

69
Table 3-3 (cont.)

 

Source of Problem Frequency Percentage

 

Female Companionship

Difficulty forming friendships

with women 28 32.6
Feeling uncomfortable with married
women 45 52.3
Difficulty finding opportunities to
meet other single mothers 35 40.7
aLoss of female friends upon becoming
a single mother 11 12.8
aLack of time for female friends 9 10.5
aDifficulty trusting women 10 11.6

Male Companionship

Difficulty finding opportunities to
meet men 50 58.1

Difficulty with children accepting
mother's dating situation 25 29.1

Difficulty with male friends' under-

standing single mother's responsi-

bilities 37 43.0
aDifficulty trusting men 11 12.8

Leisure Time

Lack of free time 54 62.8
Too much free time 19 22.1
Lack of opportunities to go out 42 48.8

aLack of money for leisure-time
activities 18 20.9

aLack of child care for leisure-
time activities 14 16.3

 

_aThese items represent responses to open-ended questions; endorsement
frequencies would be expected to be lower for these items than for items
from the problem checklists.

70
Table 3-3 (cont.)

 

Source of Problem Frequency Percentage

 

Leisure Time (cont.)
aGuilt feelings for enjoying self 9 10.5

aLack of non-couple-oriented
activities 7 8.1

Social Acceptance

Discomfort in social situations due

to single parent status 32 37.2
Worry about other people's opinions 45 52.3
Lack of acceptance by children's

teachers 23 26.7

aLack of acceptance by relatives 11 12.8
aLack of acceptance by neighbors 9 10.5
3Lack of acceptance by couples 21 24.4

Feelings about Self

Feeling that no one else has

similar problems 38 44.2

Lack of confidence in own decisions 55 64.0
Feeling worthless as a person 38 44.2
aFeeling depressed 25 29.1
6Feelings of guilt 20 23.3
aWeight problem 5 5.8
aNegative attitudes toward marriage 5 5.8

 

aThese items represent responses to open-ended questions; endorsement
frequencies would be expected to be lower for these items than for items
from the problem shecklists.

71
related problems were causing them the greatest amount of concern.
Child-rearing problems were ranked second most frequently, followed by
a variety of other problem areas at much lower frequencies. Table 3-4
displays the number of times each problem area was ranked as one of the

three most serious concerns and the median rank calculated for each area.

Table 3-4

Problem Area Rankings According to Degree of Concern

 

No. of Times Ranked in

 

Problem Area Median Ranka Top 3 Problem Areas
Money 1.14 71
Child Rearing 2.37 58
Male Companionship 3.25 29
Child Care 3.35 20
Employment 3.38 17
Feelings about Self 3.38 17
Education 3.39 16
Leisure Time 3.43 11
Housing 3.46 7
Female Companionship 3.49 2
Social Acceptance 4.00 O

 

aIn the scoring system used, a median rank of one would indicate
a "most serious" ranking by all women; a median rank of four would be
calculated when a problem area had not been ranked by any of the women.

72
The women's own evaluations of their success in dealing with
each of the eleven problem areas were assessed by having them rate each
area of difficulty as “getting worse," "getting better," or "staying

about the same." Tabulations of these ratings are presented in Table 3-5.

Table 3-5

Ratings of Perceived Success in Dealing with Problem Areas

 

 

 

Rating‘
Problem Area Worse Same Better Median Rating
(-1) (0) (+1)
Money ' 20 45 21 .01
Housing ' 4 65 17 .10
Child Care 13 50 23 .10
Employment 9 67 10 .00
Education 7 66 13 .05
Child Rearing 19 26 41 .42
Female Companionship 6 59 21 .13
Male Companionship 15 34 37 .32
Leisure Time 14 51 21 .07
Social Acceptance 2 52 32 .29

Feelings about Self 9 33 44 .52

 

73

As is shown in Table 3-5, median ratings for most problem areas
were close to the neutral rating of zero; the majority of women perceived
their problems in most areas as staying about the same. Exceptions
existed in the areas of child rearing, male companionship, social accep-
tance, and feelings about self; in these areas median ratings ranged
from .29 to .52, indicating more positive perceptions of success in
dealing with these difficulties.

Periods of Greatest Difficulty. The large majority of the
women reported that their most difficult period had occurred within the
first year of single motherhood. Fifteen women (18%) stated that the
period immediately following physical separation from their husbands
had been the most difficult. Another 13 women (15%) experienced greatest
difficulty during actual divorce proceedings. Eleven women (13%)
pinpointed the first six months of single motherhood; 25 others (29%)
reported the first year as being most difficult. Four women who had
never married (5%) stated that the time immediately following their
first child's birth had been most problematic. In sum, 82% of the
women interviewed listed some period during the first year as being
most difficult.
Self-Definitions

In an attempt to determine what sorts of role-definitions
single mothers ascribed to themselves, the women were asked to choose
best-fitting role descriptions from among a list of alternatives.
Tabulated responses to this task are presented in Table 3-6.

There appeared to be no one role-definition which the single
mothers ascribed to themselves. Some of the most frequently-chosen
definitions--woman, mother, single woman, career woman--are rather

general terms, not specific to the status of women raising children

74

alone. The inclusion of the "mother" role in the chosen self-definition
seemed to be relatively important: the word "mother" appeared in the
choices of 38% of the women. It was not as pervasive as might have been
predicted, however; 62% of the women did not include the "mother" role
in their self-definitions.

The term "single mother" was chosen relatively infrequently
(by only 15% of the total sample), despite the increasing popularity of
the term among women's organizations and in popular literature. Choices
of older, more negative terms such as "divorcee" and "unwed mother"

were, however, even more infrequent (9% of the total).

Table 3-6

Tabulation of Chosen Role Descriptions

 

 

Role Description Frequency Percentage
Woman 19 22.1
Mother 17 19.8
Single Mother 13 15.1
Single Woman 11 12.8
Career Woman 11 12.8
Divorcee 5 5.8
Unwed Mother 3 3.5
Other ' 7 8.2

 

75
Social Interaction and Support

Number of Close Friends. The median number of close friends

 

reported was found to be 4.56, with a range from zero (reported by two
women) to twelve.

Contgct with Other Single Mothers. The median number of acquain-
tances who were single mothers was found to be 4.77, with a range from
zero to fifty. Four women reported having never met another single
mother; an additional 21 had met only one or two.

The median number of close friends who were single mothers was
1.24, with a range from zero to fifteen. TWenty-six women reported
having no close friends who were single mothers; an additional 23
reported having only one.

Dgtigg, Forty-three of the women interviewed (50% of the sample)
reported having an ongoing relationship with one man at the time of the
interview. An additional 12 women (14%) were dating frequently or
regularly. Twelve women (14%) reported dating occasionally. Nineteen
women (22%) said that they dated rarely or never.

Sources of Emotional Support. In order to find out what types

 

of significant others were relied upon for emotional support, the single
mothers were asked to choose, in rank order, three people from among a
list of possible sources of support. Tabulations of responses to this
task are presented in Table 3-7.

As can be seen from the relatively high median ranks across all
potential sources of emotional support listed in Table 3-7, there was
much individual variation within the group of single mothers on this
variable. "A male friend" was clearly the most frequently chosen
alternative: 54% of the women ranked a person in this relationship as

among their most important three sources of emotional support. Moreover,

76

Table 3-7

Rankings of Sources of Emotional Support

 

Source of Support

Median Ranka

No. of Times Ranked
in Top 3 Sources

 

Male Friend ,
Children

Parents

Female Friend (not single mother)
Single Mother Friend

Female Relative

Therapist

Social Worker

Minister

Male Relative

Child's Father

2.75
3.07 .
3.09
3.11
3.19
3.29
3.46
3.48
3.48
3.48
3.48

46
40
39
38
33
26

hthO‘

 

aIn the scoring system used, a median rank of one would indicate
that all women reported receiving their primary emotional support from
a given source; a median rank of four would be given to sources
receiving no endorsement as a source of emotional supp0rt.

77
among the 46 women who ranked a male friend as a source of support,
37, or 80%, listed this person as their primary source.

Second most frequently ranked alternatives were the woman's
children and her parents, a finding not too surprising since one
generally expects the immediate family to provide its members a great
deal of emotional support. The relatively high ranking of the women's
children as providers of emotional support was unexpected in this sample,
however, since the median age of the oldest child in these families was
only nine. The majority of the women interviewed had children who
might be considered too young to be able to provide emotional support
for their mothers.

The next most frequently ranked sources of support involved
female friends and non-parental relatives, including other single mothers.
While the median ranks for these alternatives were relatively high,
female friends were seldom chosen as most important sources of support;
they were most frequently picked as second or third in importance.

Lowest rankings were given to "professional supporters"--
therapists, social workers, and ministers--and to male relatives and
former spouses. The women interviewed apparently saw these sources as
providing them little emotional support.

Goals for the Future

Two open-ended questions were asked in order to determine what
sorts of changes the women wanted in their lifestyles and what sorts of
goals they had for the future. The first was a fantasy question asking
what they would change given magical powers to reorder their lives.
Categorized responses to this item are presented in Table 3-8.

The most frequent response to this question was the desire to

be married, a wish reported by 43% of the women interviewed. While this

78
Table 3-8

Tabulations of Wished-for Changes

 

 

Desired Change Frequency Percentage
Be married 37 43.0
Have financial security 23 26.7
Have a good job 15 17.4
Not have to work 13 15.1
Better house or apartment 12 14.0
Have more education 11 12.8
Not have gotten married 9 10.5
Not have had children 9 10.5
Be in better mental health 7 8.1
Be in better physical health 3 3.5
Be able to travel 3 3.5
Have more friends 3 3.5

 

79
frequency of response was high, its converse was higher: 57% did not
mention marriage as a wished-for change.

The next five responses listed in Table 3-8 relate to financial
security, employment, housing, and education, all of which deal, at
least tangentially, with the issue of money. The high response
frequencies in these areas are in line with the previously discussed
ranking of money-related problems as the most pressing among the
single mothers interviewed.

Past-oriented wishes of not having gotten married and not having
had children were each reported by 10% of the women. (These responses
were not made by the same women-~the two items have an intercorrelation
of only .26.) These response frequencies are not particularly high but,
considering the social desirability factors which must mitigate against
such responses, should be seen as a substantial indication that these
feelings exist among single mothers.

The second free-response item asked what sorts of realistic
goals the women had for the future. Categorized responses to this
question are displayed in Table 3-9.

By far the most commonly reported goals related to child-
rearing: 73% of the women listed "doing a good job of raising my
children" as one of their most important goals.

Getting married was, again, a frequently-listed goal, reported
by 27% of the women. An additional 20% listed "developing a lasting
love relationship" which would not necessarily involve marriage. The
sum of these response frequencies shows this goal to be quite prevalent
but not pervasive, as discussed previously.

The next most frequently mentioned goals related to employment,

financial security, housing, and education, in much the same order as

80

Table 3-9

Tabulations of Goals for the Future

 

 

Goal Frequency Percentage
Raise children well 63 73.3
Get married 23 26.7
Get a better job 23 26.7
Build financial security 20 23.3
Buy own home 18 20.9
Develop lasting love-relationship 17 19.8
Get more education 16 18.6
Improve self psychologically 15 117.4
Be happy 8 9.3
Lose weight 7 8.1
Travel 7 8.1
Get off AFDC 3 3.5

 

81
previously displayed in Table 3-8. In general, the types of goals
mentioned conformed quite closely to the changes wished for as reported
in response to the preceding question. The major exception was in the
area of child-rearing, which was addressed in the fantasy question only
by the small minority of women who wished they had not had children.
Service Utilization

The women interviewed were found to have had little experience
with many of the local services designed specifically for single mothers.
With the exception of the obligatory financial aid services, Aid to
Families with Dependent Children and the Friend of the Court, utilization
rates were low--under ten percent for most services. Some of the programs
were fairly widely known, however; particularly those with frequent
media exposure such as Big Brothers and Parents Without Partners.
Percentages of women who reported having heard of or having used each of
the services listed are presented in Table 3-10.

Only two of the services listed had been used by more than half
of the women interviewed. The services of AFDC were familiar to all the
women and had been used at some point by nearly 63% of them. This is
hardly surprising since AFDC stands as the only source of financial
support for most nonworking single mothers. One finding is worthy of
special note: of the 54 women who had received AFDC benefits at some
point during single motherhood, only 39 were receiving benefits at the
time of the interview. TWenty—eight percent of the one-time AFDC
recipients were supporting themselves through combinations of job
earnings and child support at the time they were interviewed.

The Friend of the Court was also known to nearly all the women
interviewed. It, too, is an obligatory financial aid service, being the

court's enforcement arm for collection of paternal child support payments.

82
Table 3-10

Knowledge and Utilization of Single Mother Services

 

 

Percent Who Knew Percent Who Had

Service or Organization of Service Used Service
Aid to Families with Dependent

Children (AFDC) 100 62.8
Big Brothers/Big Sisters '95.3 16.3
Friend of the Court 94.2 51.2
Parents Without Partners 83.7 18.7
Catholic Social Services 58.1 3.5
Fandly and Child Services 55.8 9.3
Single Parents Club ' 39.5 2.3
$010 Parents Club 37.2 7.0
Women's Center 23.3 7.0
Open Door Women's Program 15.1 0.0
Michigan State University

Women's Resource Center 15.1 1.2

Lansing Community College Women's
Center 9.3 0.0

 

83
Fifty-one percent of the women had dealt with this office directly. This
figure is particularly interesting in that it reflects primarily the
percentage of women who had had difficulty in obtaining support payments.
Personal contact with the Friend of the Court is generally not necessary
except in cases_with collection or payment level problems.

The Big Brothers and Big Sisters programs were known to 95% of
the women but had been used by only 16%. This service has been widely
publicized in the media but has experienced difficulty in recruiting
volunteers to provide its services. An additional eight women reported
having tried to enroll their sons in the program only to be put on a long
waiting list or to be told that their sons were too young for the program.

The two family counseling agencies with programs for single
parents--Catholic Social Services and Family and Child Services--were
each known to over half the women interviewed but had been utilized by
only 4% and 9%, respectively.

Only one of the social organizations was recognized by a large
percentage of the single mothers. The national organization, Parents
Without Partners, was known to 84% and had been used by 19%. The majority
of the women who reported having utilized the service, however, had made
_ only one experimental visit to a club social function. Only two of the
women interviewed were regular members of the organization. The two local
clubs for single parents--the Single Parents Club and the 5010 Parents
Club--were familiar to less than 40% of the women and had been visited
by very few. None of the women reported belonging to either group.

The women's self-help organizations with programs for single
mothers shared the lowest recognition and utilization rates. These
programs, with the possible exception of the Open Door Program, have

been oriented primarily toward younger, college-age women and have not

84

been highly publicized. The fact that they had not been heard of or
utilized by the sample of women interviewed is not particularly surprising.

Since utilization rates for most of the services listed were
found to be low, the question of satisfaction with services received
was, in most cases, impossible to evaluate. Some meaningful information
was obtained, however, in regard to satisfaction with the few services
which had been fairly widely used.

Of the 49 women who had had direct contact with the office of
the Friend of the Court, 30 (61%) reported having been dissatisfied
with its services. The most frequently cited reason for dissatisfaction
was ineffectiveness in terms of enforcing court-ordered paternal child
support agreements. Other women disliked the coercive tactics used by
the office; some reported that they or their children had been abused
by their former spouses following threats of arrest for non-support
made by the Friend of the Court.

Thirty of the 54 women (56%) who had received AFDC benefits
felt dissatisfied with the services provided by this agency. Reasons
most frequently given were (1) inadequate benefit levels; (2) excessive
red tape; (3) impersonal attitudes of caseworkers; and (4) embarrassing
checks for fraudulent claims, including questioning of neighbors and
friends.

A surprising nine of the fourteen women whose children had had
Big Brothers or Big Sisters reported being dissatisfied. All of these
women gave bad experiences with unreliable or unstable volunteers as
the reason for their dissatisfaction. Several reported that their
child's volunteer had simply disappeared without warning, leaving the
child confused and hurt; others reported conflicts with the volunteer
over more specific issues such as supervision of the child, appropriate

activities, etc.

85

Dissatisfaction with Parents Without Partners was similarly
high--twelve of the sixteen women who had attended a Parents Without
Partners function had not felt comfortable with the organization. Those
dissatisfied unanimously reported discomfort with the "coupling"
expectations of the group, stating that they felt they were on display
for the male minority of the club.
Reactions to Proposed Programs

In order to determine what additional types of services or
programs would be seen as useful by single mothers themselves, the women
were asked to choose from among brief descriptions of proposed programs
those which seemed appealing. They were also asked to describe
additional program ideas of their own. Frequencies of endorsement of
each of the program descriptions provided and categorized responses to
the open-ended question are presented in Table 3-11.
Willingness to Work on New Programs

A surprisingly large number of the single mothers indicated an
interest in meeting and working with other single mothers to implement
new programs on their own behalf. Seventy-five women (87%) expressed
interest in attending an initial problem-solving meeting, while sixty-
one (71%) indicated willingness to work toward setting up new programs.
This apparent interest may be deceptive, however, given the acquiescence

effects involved.

86
Table 3-11

Tabulations of Endorsement of Proposed Programs

 

 

Proposed Service Frequency Percentage
Mother-child recreational activities 54 62.8
Class on "Survival Skills for Single

Mothers" 39 45.3
Parent-child communication workshops 34 39.5
Single mother rap groups 33 38.4

Counseling services specifically for
single-mother families 31 36.0

Task force of single mothers to
communicate with agencies and

institutions 30 34.9
Resource sharing among single mothers 24 27.9
Cooperative child care 22 25.6
Coffee house or center for single

mothers 18 20.9

aRecreational programs for children 17 19.8

Emergency temporary housing 14 16.5
aSchool lunch program for children 13 15.1
aHotline counseling for single parents 9 10.5
6Big Brothers for boys under age 9 6 7.0
aIncreased single-mother participation

in schools 6 7.0

aMore information about existing services 5 5.8
aRap groups for children of single

mothers 4 4.7

aPeer counseling for divorcing women 4 4.7
aDirectory of babysitters 3 3.5
Residential cooperative 2 2.3

 

aThese items represent responses to open-ended questions.

87
Correlates of Adjustment

As outlined in Chapter 2, stepwise regression procedures were
used to examine the relationships between fourteen situational and
support variables and the two indices of adjustment to single motherhood.
The first of these indices, the depression scale, was found to have a
mean of 16.58 and a standard deviation of 3.49. The Optimism scale had
a mean of 16.23 and a standard deviation of 3.12. Both measures showed
adequate variance to act as criterion variables.

Prior to the regression analysis, the intercorrelations among
the predictor variables were inspected for colinearity. The matrix of
correlations among these predictors may be found in Table 3-12. The
mean intercorrelation was found to be .14, with only two correlations
exceeding .50. The predictors did not appear to contain excessive
colinearity. The two measures of adjustment were found to be correlated
at -.41.

The correlations between individual predictor variables and
the two indices of adjustment were surprisingly low, as can be seen in
Table 3-12. None exceeded .35. The results of the two regression
analyses confirmed this generally low linear relationship.

Prediction of Depression

Thirty-four percent of the variance in depression scores could-

be accounted for by the linear combination of all fourteen predictor

2 of .34 was significant atd==.005 (F=2.59).

variables. This R
However, only three of the predictors--dating frequency, amount of
contact with other single mothers, and number of children--made a
significant unique contribution to the prediction. The first two showed
a negative relationship with depression, while the third, number of

children, was positively associated with the depression index. With

88

 

 

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90
only these three variables in the equation, the amount of variance
accounted for was reduced to 24% (R2=.24) but was still statistically
significant at.d:=.001 (F=8.42). The standardized Beta weights for
these three predictors and their associated F values may be found in

Table 3-13.

Table 3-13

Significant Beta Weights for Prediction of Depression

 

 

Standardized
Predictor Variables Beta Weights F
Dating Frequency -.271 7.43
Contact with Single Mothers -.273 7.88
Number of Children .212 4.49

 

Prediction of Optimism

Only twenty-eight percent of the variance in the optimism scale
could be accounted for by the linear combination of all fourteen predictor
variables. This Rzof .28 was significant at<%-=.03 (F=l.99). Three of
these variables made significant unique contributions to the prediction:
number of close friends, dating frequency, and frequency of children's
contact with their father. All three predictors were positively related
to optimism. With only these three variables in the equation, the amount
of variance accounted for was slightly reduced to 22% (R2: .22), which
was statistically significant at ¢‘=.001 (F=7.72). The standardized
Beta weights for these three predictors and their associated F values

may be found in Table 3-14.

91
Table 3-14

Significant Beta Weights for Prediction of Optimism

 

 

Standardized
Predictor Variables Beta Weights F
Number of close friends .248 5.31
Dating frequency .291 8.07

Frequency of children's contact
with father .195 3.52

 

CHAPTER 4
DISCUSSION

The single mothers interviewed during this study provided a
great deal of useful information about their lives. Many of their
reported experiences and perceptions confirmed previous authors' specu-
lation about their lifestyles. Some, however, did not. In this
chapter, the information gained from these interviews will be compared
with previous speculation and research about the problems entountered
by single mothers and the factors involved in adjustment to the single
mother rolé. Finally, the reactions of single mothers to proposed
services will be discussed, and implications of the research for
future program development will be explored.

Needs and Problems of Single Mothers and Their Families
Financial Problems

Poverty. The problem most convincingly documented in previous
research-~poverty-ewas well-supported in the present sample as well.
The median income for these families, sampled in 1975 ($5,286), was
actually over $1,000 lower than the median income of $6,400 reported
for the U.S. population of single mothers in 1974 (McEaddy, 1976).
This apparently greater extent of poverty may actually have been an
artifact of the sampling procedure, since the school sample introduced
biases associated with area of residence.

The percentage of families at or below the federal poverty
index was found to be almost identical to that estimated by McEaddy.
His population estimate was 33%; the sample percentage was 34%.

92

93

Lack of money was perceived as the major source of their problems
by a majority of the women interviewed. Fifty-eight percent listed it
as the problem causing them most concern; 87% ranked money as one of their
three most difficult problem areas. In more specific terms, 72% of the
women reported that their incomes were inadequate to meet their family's
needs. In response to open-ended questions, 21% noted that they had no
money for leisure-time activities, and 16% said that they lacked funds
f0r emergencies.

Lowered Standard of Living. Several of the women mentioned

 

that their divorce or separation had resulted in a drastic lowering of
their family's standard of living. Thirteen percent of the mothers
mentioned difficulty in adjusting to this downward social mobility in
response to an open-ended question about "other money problems." Others
mentioned problems adjusting to the change of residence following
separation. This phenomenon was quite pervasive: 87% of the sample

had moved into rented housing in the area after becoming single mothers.

Housing. Housing problems were perceived as major areas of
concern by only a small portion of the sample (8%). However, 29%
reported having experienced difficulty finding housing they could afford
and 33% reported difficulty finding housing in an area where they
wanted to live. An additional 16% felt they had experienced rental
discrimination due to their single parent status, and 38% said that
they had been unable to ge credit as single mothers.

The apparent discrepancy between the frequency of housing
problems encountered and the women's rating of housing as a relatively
low priority concern may be reflective of the living situations of the
women at the time they were interviewed. Fifty-seven percent of the

women were living in relatively new townhouse units in a federally-

94
subsidized housing complex. For many of the women, moving their
families into these low-rent units apparently resolved most of their
previous housing problems.

Paternal Child Support. One contributor to poverty among
single-mother families--non-support from the children's father--
was also prevalent among this sample. Among the 45 women whose ex-
husbands had been ordered to pay child support, only 28 (62%) were
‘receiving payments. This percentage seems someWhat better than the 33%
to 58% rates reported by Brandwein, Brown, and Fox (1974), but it does
not take degree of compliance or regularity of payments into account.
Thirty-six women (42% of the sample) mentioned difficulties in obtaining
child support payments in response to an open-ended item about "other
money problems." This figure indicates the existence of more problems
in this area than would be concluded from the number of families
receiving support; moreover, even this may be considered an underestimate
of the prevalence of child-support problems since the question was not
explicitly raised by the interviewer.

Satisfaction with the agency responsible for enforcement of
child support payment orders was also low. Sixty-one percent of the
women who had had contact with the Friend of the Court found it to be
ineffective or felt that its collection tactics were overly coercive.

Employment. A majority of the single mothers interviewed were

 

employed outside the home (59%), although only 47% were employed
full-time. These percentages were fairly similar to those reported by
McEaddy (1976) and Stein (1970). Only 17% of the women were providing
their total incomes from job earnings. The remaining 42% of working
mothers derived some portion of their incomes from paternal child support,

AFDC, or Social Security.

95

Employment and education were frequently mentioned as areas of
comcern. Thirty-three percent of the women reported problems in finding
a well-paying job, and 50% perceived that they lacked adequate job
skills. Forty-seven percent reported that they lacked the money to
continue their educations, and 58% noted that they lacked the time to
go back to school. Additionally, 13% of the women mentioned, in response
to an open-ended question, that they had experienced job discrimination
due to their single parent status. Employment was listed among the
three problems causing greatest concern by 20% of the women; education
was so ranked by 18%.

‘AEQC. Forty-five percent of the women were receiving AFDC
assistance at the time of the interviews. An additional 17% had
received AFDC support at some point but were currently employed and
supporting their families through job earnings. Dissatisfaction with
AFDC services was widespread. The widely-reported complaints of low
payment levels, excessive red tape, impersonal caseworkers, and social
stigma were repeated by this sample.

Financial Goals. A number of the goals listed by the single
mothers related to financial improvement: 27% said that they wanted to
get better jobs; 23% planned to build financial security for their
families; 21% wanted to buy their own homes; 19% intended to get more
education; and 4% specifically wanted to be able to get off AFDC.

Summary. Most of the financial problems mentioned in previous
research were found among this sample of single mothers. The median
income f0r this group was lower even than that estimated for the national
population of single mothers. A majority of the women felt that money
was their most severe problem. A substantial portion of the women had

experienced housing problems, although most were fairly satisfied with

96
their current living situations. Many had experienced difficulty
obtaining paternal child support, and a large number felt that the
court's enforcement arm was ineffective in helping them. The majority
of the single mothers were working outside the home, most of them full
time. Half the women, however, felt that their job skills were inadequate
and listed lack of both money and time as blocks to furthering their
education. Nearly half the women interviewed were receiving AFDC
assistance at the time of the interviews, and nearly two-thirds had
received AFDC at some point. Many of these women had been dissatisfied
with some aspect of AFDC services.

Although financial goals were not pervasive among this group of
single mohters, nearly two-thirds listed some sort of financial improve-
ment as an important plan for the future. The majority appeared to
share the goal held by many family heads, both male and female--
providing financial securitnyor their families.

Child-Rearing Problems

Child-rearing problems or concerns were ranked second to money
as major sources of worry among the women interviewed. Sixty-seven
percent of the single mothers ranked problems in raising their children
as among the three areas causing them most concern; 20% listed child-
rearing problems as their largest area of difficulty.

Sole-Parent Responsibilities. The most frequently voiced concern

 

was exhaustion or frustration from raising their children without the
aid and support of another adult (reported by 62%). The reality of this
concern was emphasized by the apparent lack of involvement of the
children's fathers in their lives. Only 16% of the children in the
sampled families saw their fathers as frequently as once a month. Half
the children never saw their fathers or had contact with them less than

once a year.

97

Forty-seven percent of the women reported that the multiple
responsibilities of single parenthood left them with insufficient time
to spend with their children. This finding provides some support for
Glasser and Navarre's (1965) structural perspective on the limited
resources contained within the one-parent family. Other experiences
reported by the women may lend credence to other parts of Glasser and
Navarre's theory. In response to open-ended questions about "other
child-rearing problems," 22% reported feeling "trapped" by their children,
and 21% said that they had trouble disciplining their children. Both
reactions were listed by Glasser and Navarre as dangers inherent in the
"affectionally unstable" family with only one adult. These reactions,
however, were not pervasive among the single mothers interviewed and,
in any case, may be quite universal parental feelings, common in two-
parent as well as one-parent homes.

The women's perceptions of their children as sources of emotional
support were also predicted by the structural analysis perspective.
Glasser and Navarre warned that the shortage of adult affectional resources
in the one-parent family might lead single parents to make unrealistic
emotional demands on their children. In this sample, 47% of the women
listed their children among their three most important sources of
emotional support; 19% saw their children as their most important source
of support. These percentages are particularly surprising in light of
the fact that the median age of the oldest child among the families
sampled was only nine. The majority of the women interviewed had children
generally considered to be too young to provide emotional support for
a parent.

Glasser and Navarre (1965) might interpret this finding as an

example of inappropriate expectations forced upon children in families

98
which lack adult resources. However, it is also possible that single
mothers are able to derive support from their children without making
unrealistic emotional demands upon them. The question is unanswerable
without research into the structure and function of interactions
within one-parent families.

Concern about Parental Adequacy. Approximately half of the
women reported concerns about their children's development in a single-
mother home. Fifty-one percent reported feelings of inadequacy as a
parent, while 50% mentioned concern over the lack of a male model for
their sons in response to an open-ended question about "other child-
rearing problems" Given that references to "male role models" were
initiated by the mothers thenselves, this latter percentage seems quite
high. These concerns could represent accurate appraisals by the women
of their parenting abilities. They could also, however, reflect the
anxieties to which popular overgeneralizations from the father-absence
literature have contributed.

Child Care. A sizeable proportion of the women interviewed

 

had experienced problems in finding adequate child care facilities.
Child care problems were given the fourth highest ranking in terms of
amount of current concern, being ranked among the top three problem
areas by 23% of the women. Forty-eight percent reported difficulty
obtaining quality child care that they could afford. Thirty-one percent
had had trouble finding child care during the hours that they needed
substitute care. In response to an open-ended question about "other
child care problems," 13% reported problems caused by high babysitter
turnover, and 19% noted that the local elementary school's lack of a

supervised lunch period posed special child care problems for them.

99

Lack of child care was also mentioned as an impediment to the
single mothers' activities. In response to open-ended questions, 16%
listed child care problems as a block to continuing their education, and
16% mentioned lack of child care as limiting their leisure-time activities.
Additionally, 17% of the women noted that they had experienced problems
finding a job which allowed them the flexibility needed for sole-parent
child-rearing. This problem could be linked at least partially to
inadequate or unreliable child care arrangements and to the difficulty
of finding contingency or emergency child care.

Child-Rearinngoals. The most frequently-mentioned goal for the

 

future related to child-rearing: 73% of the women listed raising their
children well as an important goal. Eleven percent, however, admitted
the wish that they had not had children. This percentage is not parti-
cularly large but, given the social desirability factors which must
mitigate against such responses, should be seen as substantial. It
is unknown how pervasive such feelings may be among married parents.
Summary. Many of the child-rearing concerns thought to be
problematic for single mothers were reported among this sample of women.
The general area of child-rearing problems received the second highest
ranking in terms of current concern, following money-related problems.
Most of the women appeared to have fairly complete responsibility for
the upbringing of their children: only 17% of the children in the
sampled families had contact with their fathers as frequently as once
a month; half saw their fathers very rarely or never. Nearly two-thirds
of the women reported feelings of exhaustion resulting from this sole
responsibility. Nearly half reported having insufficient time to spend

with their children. Feeling "trapped" and having trouble disciplining

lOO
their children were each mentioned by approximately 20% of the women.
Surprisingly, nearly half the mothers perceived their children as major
sources of emotional support. All of these reports could provide
evidence for Glasser and Navarre's (1965) notion that single-parent
families have inherent structural resource deficits. They do not,
however, provide direCt support for their contention that single-parent
families are emotionally dangerous for either parents or children.

Parental anxieties were also reported: fears of inadequacy as a
parent and concern over the lack of a male model for their children were
each voiced by 50% of the women. These concerns may reflect popular
conceptions about the inferiority of single-mother families more than
accurate appraisals of parental adequacy.

Child care problems received the fourth highest overall ranking
of areas of concern. Nearly half the women reported trouble finding
good, affordable child care. More specific child care problems, such
as lack of extended-hour facilities, babysitter turnover, and lack of
supervised school lunch programs were also mentioned. Child care
problems were quite prevalent despite the fact that 78% of the women had
no preschool-age children. These problems might be expected to be more
numerous (or at least different) in samples of women with younger children.

The desire to do a good job of raising their children was the
most widespread goal for the future among these single mothers, reported
by nearly 75% of the women. Like the goal of financial security, this
desire would seem to be common among most parents, both married and single.

Social Interaction

 

Social isolation has frequently been mentioned in the literature-

as a major problem for single mothers. A large number of women reported

lOl
difficulties in this area, although they did not appear to be as isolated
as previous writers have speculated.

Male Companionship. The third most pressing concern ranked by
the sample was the area of male companionship: 34% of the women ranked
this issue among their three biggest concerns. Finding a male companion
was listed as an important goal for nearly half the women interviewed:

27% included getting married as a goal for the future, while 20% mentioned
developing a lasting love relationship which would not necessarily
involve marriage.

A number of women had experienced problems in pursuing these
goals. Fifty-eight percent reported difficulty in finding opportunities
to meet men. Forty-three percent reported problems with male friends'
understanding their responsibilities as single mothers, and 29% mentioned
conflicts with their children over the mother's dating situation. Thirteen
percent mentioned that they found it difficult to trust men.

Despite these problems, a large percentage of the women reported
fairly frequent dating activity. Half the women said that they had an
ongoing relationship with one man. An additional 14% were dating frequently
or regularly, and 14% were dating occasionally. Only 22% reported dating
rarely or never. Male friends were also the most frequently-ranked
source of emotional support: 54% listed a person in this relationship
. as among their top three sources of support; 43% listed a male friend as
their most important source of support.

Female Companionship. Female companionship was not given a high

 

priority in terms of either pressing current concerns or goals for the
future. Although most women did not rank this area as a major concern

or mention it as a goal, many did report having experienced problems

102
related to female friends. Thirty-three percent reported having
difficulty forming friendships with other women, and 41% had found it
difficult to meet other single mothers. Thirteen percent mentioned
that they had lost female friends when they became single mothers.
This percentage is not particularly large but, given that it represents
responses to an open-ended question, should be seen as substantial.
The perception of this phenomenon, along with the report by 52% of the
women that they felt uncomfortable with married women, may provide
some support for Hunt's (1966) contention that divorcing people drift
away from married friends and into a "World of the Formerly Married."

Reports of actual contact with other single mothers were high,
but not universal. The majority of the women said that they had met
several other single mothers, although 5% said they knew none and 24%
had met only one or two. Thirty percent reported having no close
friends who were single mothers, and 27% said that only one of their
close friends was a single mother. This reported contact shows some
evidence of a social network among single mothers, but it does not seem
as pervasive as Hunt's analysis would suggest.

Other single mothers were a fairly frequent perceived source of
emotional support. Thirty-eight percent of the women listed a single
mother as a major source of support, although only 7% ranked a single
mother as the primary source. Female friends who were not single
mothers were ranked even more frequently, by 44% of the sample. Only
4% ranked a non-single-mother female friend as the primary source of
support.

With single mother and non-single mother categories combined,

female friends were ranked more frequently as sources of emotional

103
than were male freinds. In general, however, male friends were ranked
as primary sources of support while female friends were ranked as
second or third in importance. This pattern appears to parallel the
traditional norms of society at large, with women deriving primary
emotional support from a heterosexual relationship and secondary support
from one or more female friends.

Social Acceptance. Although social acceptance problems were not
ranked as major concerns by any of the single mothers, a number of
women reported experiences of social stigma or social discomfort. Fifty-
two percent reported worrying about other people's opinions of them as
single mothers. Thirty-seven percent had experienced discomfort in
social situations due to their single parent status. Other women
mentioned problems in being accepted by various segments of society:
their children's teachers (27%), couples (24%), and neighbors (11%).
Additional forms of discrimination were reported in employment (13%),
housing (16%), and credit (38%).

Although 13% of the women mentioned lack of acceptance by
relatives, a larger number ranked relatives as major sources of emotional
support. Forty-five percent ranked their parents, and 30% ranked female
non-parental relatives.

In general, although substantial numbers of women reported
encountering instances of social stigma, discrimination, and discomfort,
these experiences were apparently not seen as overwhelmingly problematic.
These issues seemed less important to this sample of women than would
have been predicted from the literature. The increasing commonness of
single-mother families in recent years may have lessened the social

stigma reported by Goode (1956) and other earlier researchers.

104

Social Activities. Although leisure-time problems were ranked

 

as important concerns by only 13% of the women, a large percentage
reported having encountered difficulties in this area. Lack of free
time was mentioned as a problem by 63%, while having too much free time
was a problem for 22% of the women. Forty-nine percent reported that
they lacked opportunities to go out socially. In response to open-ended
questions, 21% noted that they lacked money for leisure-time activities,
while 16% said that lack of child care inhibited them from going out.
Eight percent noted that there was a shortage of activities oriented
toward people other than couples. Eleven percent reported that they
felt guilty about enjoying themselves socially.

Despite these problems, the majority of women appeared to engage
in some social activities. Ninety-eight percent reported having at
least one close friend, and 60% reported dating regularly.

Single-Parent Social Organizations. While most of the women had
heard of at least one of the local social organizations for single
parents, very few had had contact with any of them. The most widely
utilized, Parents Without Partners, had been visited by 19% of the
women. Only two of these, however, had joined the organization. The
remainder had not felt comfortable with the perceived expectation that
members date each other and had not joined.

Summa y. Many of the social interaction problems mentioned in
the literature had been experienced by substantial percentages of the
women in this sample. Most of thenlhowever, seemed to have resolved or
adjusted to many of these problems and appeared to be less socially isolated
than previous writers have suggested.

Male companionship received the third highest ranking as an

area of concern, following money and child-rearing. Getting married or

105

developing a lasting love-relationship were also the second most frequently
mentioned goals, after child-rearing goals. Although many problems had
been encountered in meeting potential companions and resolving dating
conflicts with their children, a large number of the women were apparently
dealing with these problems: 50% of the women had established an ongoing
relationship and an additional 28% were dating with some frequency. Over
half the women listed a male friend as an important source of emotional
support.

Although female companionship was not listed as a major source
of concern and was not addressed as a goal for the future, many of the
women reported difficulties in meeting other single mothers, forming
friendships with women, and feeling uncomfortable with married women.
A small percentage also reported having lost female friends when they
became single mothers. Despite these problems, most of the sample
appeared to have contact with other women. Over two-thirds of the
women had at least one close friend who was also a single mother. Female
friends (both single mothers and others) were also the most frequently
ranked sources of emotional support.

Problems of social stigma, social discomfort, and discrimination
were frequently reported, although they were not ranked as areas of
major concern. Similarly, problems related to leisure time and social
activity were common but were perceived as major concerns by few women.
The major organization which specifically addresses the social interaction
problems of single parents, Parents Without Partners, had been investigated
by fewer than 20% of the women. The majority of these had felt that
this organization could not meet their needs and had not joined.

Although a variety of the social interaction and social isolation

difficulties mentioned in the literature had been experienced by this

106
group of single mothers, the difficulties did not seem as universal
or as problematic as previously suggested. Only one area, male
companionship, was ranked as a major concern or listed as an important
goal. Many of the women appeared to be resolving these problems on
their own, reporting fairly frequent dating and social interaction.
Others appeared to perceive these problems as of lower priority than
more pressing concerns such as money and child-rearing.

Emotional Adjustment

 

Several authors (Berkman, 1969; Pearlin and Johnson, 1977; Renne,
1971) have reported higher incidence of emotional problems among single
mothers than among other groups of people. While it was not the purpose
of this study to make such comparisons or to do intensive examinations
of emotional health, some indices of adjustment were included in the
interviews.

Perceived Emotional Problems. Emotional adjustment to single

 

motherhood was ranked as a major area of concern by only 19% of the
women. Higher percentages, however, indicated that they had experienced
one or more adjustment difficulties. Sixty-four percent reported

lacking confidence in their own decisions, and 44% reported having

felt worthless as a person. Despite the fact that over two-thirds of

the women had friends who were single mothers, 44% said that they felt

no one else had encountered problems similar to theirs. In response to
an open-ended question about emotional adjustment, 29% reported feelings
of depression and 23% reported guilt feelings. In response to the fantasy
question about changes they would like in their lives, 8% wished for
better mental health. Seventeen percent listed some sort of psychological

improvement as a goal for the future.

107

Periods of Greatest Difficulty. In concurrence with speculation
in the literature, the vast majority of the women (82%) listed the first
year of single motherhood as the most difficult. Only 14% of the sample
had been single mothers for less than a year at the time they were
interviewed.

Role Descriptions. Goode (1956) hypothesized that successful
adjustment to single motherhood involved developing present- rather than
past-oriented role perceptions. Only 9% of the women in this sample
chose self-descriptors which might be classified as "past-oriented"--
divorcee or unwed mother. The majority chose terms not limited to
single mothers-~woman, mother, single woman, career woman. Only 15%
chose the term single mother. The popularity of the general terms may
provide some indication that the "single mother role" was not the most
salient feature of most of these women's lives.

A large majority of the women also appeared present- and future-
oriented in their wishes for change in their lives. Past-oriented
wishes, such as "not having gotten married" or "not having had children"
were each listed by only 11% of the sample. In general, the wished-for
changes closely paralleled the list of goals for the future, indicating
a fairly realistic, present-oriented perception of life among most of
the women.

Summary. Emotional adjustment was seen as a major area of
concern by less than 20% of the women interviewed. A number of women
reported having encountered emotional problems such as lack of self-
confidence, feelings of isolation and worthlessness, depression, and
guilt. The majority, however, could look back and perceive that their

most difficult period of adjustment, generally some time during the

108
first year, was behind them. The majority of the women chose present-
oriented role descriptors and listed future-oriented, realistic wishes
for change in their lives. In general, although the women had encountered
emotional adjustment difficulties, most appeared to be making the

necessary adjustments better than previous literature has suggested.

Mediators of Adjustment

 

Demographic, situational, and social support factors were
mentioned in the literature as possible mediators of adjustment to
single motherhood. A number of these variables were included in this
study and were used in multiple regression analyses predicting two
indices of emotional adjustment.

Many of these factors showed no significant linear relationship
with the indices of optimism and depresSion used in this study. The
variables which did not have a significant bivariate correlation
with either adjustment measure included demographic factors such as age,
employment, receipt of AFDC, income, age of youngest child, and number
of adults in the home. Although these factors had been speculated to
be important mediators of adjustment, they were not found to correlate
with the adjustment indices used with this sample.

Although most of the women indicated that their adjustment to
single motherhood had improved with time, the length of time spent as
a single mother did not show a significant linear relationship with
either depression or optimism. As noted earlier, only 14% of the sample
had been single mothers for less than one year; the distribution of this
variable could account for the lack of a significant correlation with
adjustment.

Another variable thought by Glasser and Navarre (1965) to correlate

with adjustment, reliance upon children as a source of emotional support,

109
also showed no significant linear relationship with optimism or depression.
Perhaps the perception of one's children as a source of support may not
be as negative a phenomenon as has been assumed, at least in terms of
the single mother's emotional adjustment.

In predicting amount of depression, dating frequency, amount of
contact with other single mothers, and number of children all made
unique contributions to the linear relationship. The two social support
factors, dating frequency and contact with other single mothers, were
negatively related to depression; these variables might be seen as
mediators of the stress involved in adjusting to single motherhood.
Number of children was positively related to depression and might be
seen as a direct contributor to depression, as Pearlin and Johnson (1977)
have reported. Number of children might also be seen as a moderator of
the relationship between social support and depression, inhibiting the
amount of social interaction and social support available to a single
mother. '

In the second prediction, number of close friends, dating
frequency, and frequency of children's contact with their father were
all positively related to degree of optimism. In this relationship,
the support variables--number of friends and dating frequency-~might
be viewed as direct contributors to optimism. Frequency of children's
contact with their father might also be viewed as a contributor:
frequent contact would seem to indicate greater involvement of fathers
in their children's lives and consequently more shared parental responsi-
bility for child-rearing. Frequency of contact might also be seen as a
moderator of the relationship between social support and optimism: a
father who regularly takes his children for visits may provide the single

mother with greater opportunities for social activity while her children

110
are away. The significant correlation between frequency of paternal
visits and number of freinds listed by the mother (r=.22) may provide
some support for this latter interpretation.

In both regression analyses, social support variables accounted
for the largest portion of the variance in the linear relationship with
depression and optimism. This would seem to indicate that social
support factors are important mediators in adjustment to single mother-
hood, as has been often suggested in the literature. The amount of
variance in adjustment accounted for by these variables was not high,
however, (24% for depression and 22% for optimism) and should not be
overinterpreted. Factors other than those measured in this study were
apparently more important in accounting for adjustment differences
than were the social support factors under discussion.

Additionally, any correlational findings such as the relationship
between social support variables and indices of adjustment must be
interpreted with caution. The direction of causality cannot be
determined from the present study. The argument that personality
features such as depression or optimism determine the amount of social

support a single mother is likely to get could be equally persuasive.

Implications for Program Development
As outlined in Chapter 1, the primary purpose of this study was
to document the needs, problems, and experiences of a group of single
mothers and to use this information in determining service needs and
priorities for the development of programs to aid single mothers and
their families. The following section will address implications for
program development in the areas of financial assistance, child care,

and social support.

111

Financial Support

 

The most serious, pressing concern among this group of women
was poverty. In objective terms, many of the families were poor: the
median family income was over $1,000 lower even than the national
estimated median for single mother families, already less than half the
median for two-parent families. One third of the families were living
at or below the federal poverty line. In subjective terms, 87% of the
women perceived money to be among their three most pressing concerns;
58% saw money as their biggest problem.

The first priority in services to single mother families must
then be financial. Ways must be found to provide single mothers with
adequate means for supporting their families. Many of the recommendations
made by the Carnegie Council on Children (Keniston, 1977) for alleviating
poverty among families in general are relevant to single-mother families
as well. A guaranteed, reasonable level of income available to all
families would be of particular benefit to single-mother families.

As a guaranteed right of all families, such an income support program
would eliminate much of the social stigma widely associated with the
particularistic AFDC system. A program based on the universal needs
of all types of families would not only alleviate financial need but
would lessen the social isolation and societal stigma now felt by many
single-mother families, especially those receiving AFDC.

Better provisions for paternal contributions to children's
financial support could also relieve the poverty of some single-mother
families. More realistic court support orders and more thorough
enforcement efforts have been recommended, as have more creative
*solutions such as "divorce insurance,“ purchased during marriage to

provide support for the children in the event of divorce or separation.

112

The most lasting, satisfactory resolution to a single-mother
family's poverty is likely to come from the employment of the mother.
Many single mothers, in order to obtain adequate jobs that will enable
them to support their families, need further training and education.
Half the women interviewed in this study perceived their job skills as
inadequate. They listed lack of time, money, and child care as blocks
to improving their skills and continuing their education. Clearly,
employment training programs for single mothers must include provisions
for financial support and child care and must be flexible enough to
allow single mothers to pursue their child-rearing responsibilities
while boing back to school.

Flexibility is needed in the employment world, as well.
Increased availability to flexitime work schedules and part-time jobs
would help many single mothers balance the dual responsibilities of
solo child-rearing and employment. Jobs allowing for full-time work
during the school year and part-time work during summers and vacations
are also needed, as are improved provisions for "child-rearing time
off" to care for sick children and family emergencies.

Child Care

Closely related to the financial needs of single-mother
families are their needs for adequate child care. Again, the need for
child care is common to all types of families; its lack is most sorely
felt, however, in families with only one adult. The need for care of
preschool children during working hours has been widely discussed and
is being addressed in most communities, although questions of quality

and availability still exist.

113

Single mother families, however, have needs for other types of
child care. They need before- and after-school supervision for school-
.age children, as do many dual-career families. Many of them hold jobs
with irregular work schedules or routinely work in the evening or at
night and need child care during these hours. They need babysitters or
other care during evenings to maintain some level of adult social life.
They need contingency care when the school has a holiday or the regular
babysitter is sick. They also need drop-in care for their children in
emergency situations.

The concept of cooperative child care, in which mothers trade
babysitting services with each other, has been advanced as a solution to
many of these problems. The idea was presented to the single mothers
but was only endorsed by 26% of them. Several women mentioned that it
might meet some needs, such as the need for occasional leisure-time care,
but that cooperative care would not meet the basic need for regular
extended-hour supervision. As one woman put it, " I tried co-op
babysitting, but I quickly learned that I had just as little time as I
had money."

There seems no way around the basic need for low-cost, high-
quality, widely-available, extended-hour child care facilities. Again,
the recommendation converges with that made by the Carnegie Council on
Children (Keniston, 1977) in regard to families of all types. A wide
variety of child care options should be available to all families, with
costs held down by governmental subsidy or direct payment to family
units. The issues of quality should be addressed by evaluation and
monitoring, and parental input into programming decisions should be

routinely solicited and utilized in planning facility services.

114
Social Support

Most of the proposed programs presented to the single mothers
for their reactions dealt with social support, emotional adjustment,
and child rearing concerns. Most of them had been designed to
capitalize on an assumed level of grass-roots support for organizing
mutual-help services. This support appeared to be extremely high: 87%
of the women expressed interest in attending an initial organizational
meeting, and 71% said that they would be willing to work with other
single mothers in developing self-help programs. Even when the social-
desirability biases in these percentages are considered, there seemed
to be substantial support for grass-roots organization among the group.

The levels of social isolation did not appear to be as high as
was anticipated from the literature. Most of the women reported having
friends and engaging in social activities. Nearly 80% were dating with
some frequency, and over two-thirds reported having at least one single-
mother friend. Of the social interaction and social acceptance
problem areas, only male companionship was ranked as a serious concern.

Child-rearing concerns, however, were seen as quite important.
The women were particularly worried about their adequacy as parents,
the importance of male models in their children's lives, their lack of
time to spend with their children, and their frustration and exhaustion
at assuming full responsibility for child-rearing.

The program proposals which received favorable reactions from a
substantial number of women addressed the dual areas of child-rearing
and social support. The most popular (endorsed by 63%) was the idea
of recreational activities for single mothers and their children.
Forty-five percent found the idea of a class on "Survival Skills

for Single Mothers" to be appealing. Parent-child communication workshops

115
and single-mother rap groups were endorsed by 40% and 38%, respectively.
Counseling services for single-mother families and a liaison-type task
f0rce of single mothers were each approved by approximately 35%. I

The proposals whith received support from more than 30% of the
women are similar in a variety of ways. First, they all involve an
element of social or emotional support, factors which made significant
contributions to the prediction of emotional adjustment, discussed above.
Second, they all address issues of child-rearing, at least tangentially.
These issues were ranked second only to money problems as an area of
concern and constituted the most frequent goal which the single mothers
had for the future. Third, these programs could all be planned, developed,
and operated by single mothers themselves, with minimal cost and minimal
professional involvement.

In short, the types of programs described above appear to
address concerns which are relevant to single mothers, they capitalize
upon the apparent relationship between social support and adjustment to
single motherhood, and they allow for development of the grass-roots
potential which seems to exist, at least among this group of single
mothers. Moreover, these proposals for mutual-help programs seem
appropriate in intensity. The vast majority of the single mothers did
not appear to be in need of extensive professional counseling or child-
rearing assistance. After the basic needs of adequate incomes and
realistic child care services, most of them appeared primarily in need
of opportunities to share information, concerns, and responsibilities
with other adults and to be assured that they were providing healthy
childhoods for their children.

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Sterne, R. S. Delinquent conduct and broken homes: a study of 1,050
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Sudia, C. E. An updating and comment on the United States scene. [ho
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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

INITIAL CONTACT LETTER

Dear a

I am contacting you specifically because you are a single mother, as
I need your assistance in planning a program for single parent families.

In the past six months that I have been employed at School as
the community school coordinator, single parent families Have come to
my attention as a very special group of persons. As a single parent
myself, I am aware that we make valuable contributions to our communities.
However, our own needs often are not met by our communities as society
generally continues to orient itself to double parent families.

I have recently begun to work with Deborah Bybee, a woman extremely
interested in the concerns of single mothers. We are developing a
program to provide services for single mothers in the community.

Deborah and I need your help in order to do this. We want you to
participate in designing this needed program for our community. We
have developed an interview which will allow you to discuss your
experiences as a single mother as well as tell us what services you
need and want in the program.

Either Deborah or I will contact you by phone to set a date for our
first get together. If you have any questions about this project or
do not wish to participate, please contact me at (phone).

Sincerely,

 

Community-School Coordinator

P.S. Deborah and I are very excited about this project and are looking
forward to listening to you.

124

APPENDIX B

SURVEY CONSENT FORM

I have freely consented to take part in a needs survey conducted
by Deborah Bybee and (Community-School Coordinator)
under the supervision of Dr. ROBert Calsyn.

The study has been explained to me and I understand the explanation
that has been given and what my participation will involve.

I understand that I am free to discontinue my participation in
this study at any time without penalty.

I understand that the results of the study will be treated in
strict confidence and that I will remain anonymous. Within these
restrictions, results of the study will be made available to me
at my request.

I understand that my participation in the study does not guarantee
any beneficial results to me.

I understand that, at my request, I can receive additional
explanation of the study after my participation is completed.

Signed

 

Date

 

125

APPENDIX C

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

Administered by

 

Date

 

Time Begun

 

Time Finished '

 

SECTION‘l
Ethnic background: ______Black
______Caucasian
______ Chicano
__ Oriental
Other (specify: )

 

 

First, I'd like to ask you some questions about your present situation.
1. What is your life status?

Never married
______Separated

Divorced
__ Widowed

2. How long have you been a single parent?

 

3. 'What is your age?
4. Please list the people who presently live in your household:

Relationship to you Age Sex

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

126

m \l 01 0'1
0 o o o

127

What is your occupation?

 

 

What is your approximate monthly income?
How many people does this income support?

Where does your financial support come from? (Please give approximate
percentages for those sources which apply.)

_____% earnings from your job

_____% paternal child support

_____% alimony

_____% AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children)
% Social Security

% help from your parents

% scholarship, loan, etc. for your education

- % public assistance (non-AFDC)

% unemployment insurance
% other (please explain: )

What is the highest grade level that you have completed in school?

Grade School High School College or Graduate or
Technical Professional

1234567891011121314151617181920

128

SECTION 2

Now let's talk about each one of your children individaully. In order
to develop services to meet your needs, we need to find out what your
experiences are with each one of your children on a day-to-day basis.
These questions are not meant to see how good a mother you are or to

be in any way judgmental. We are just trying to learn what we can about
your situation so that we can best help.

Child #

1. Age

2. Sex .

3. What kind of child care arrangements do you have for this child?

none needed

paid babysitter

stays with friend

stays with relative (specify: )
day care center

nursery school

cooperative or shared babysitting with another mother

other (explain: )

 

How often does this child see his/her father?

 

How many waking hours per day (on the average) do you spend with
this child?

 

Has this child had any problems at home or at school?
yes
no

 

If yes, please describe the problem briefly:

 

 

 

129
8. Have you sought help for this child from any of the following?

no help sought

social worker (case worker)

school specialist (counselor, social worker, etc.)
mental health center or clinic

private therapist

juvenile court services

family services agency

minister, priest, or rabbi

______Big Brother/Big Sister

 

other (please explain:
9. Do you have any children who are not living with you?

yes, adult
yes, minor
no

130

SECTION 3

Let's focus on some of the problems and needs you have encountered.

Below is a list of problem areas. Within each area are several problems
which you may have run into. Please indicate if you have encountered
any of these problems in the entire time that you have been a single

mother.

1.

getting credit or loans

Money - Have you found any of these to be problems for you?

getting enough money to meet the needs of your family

budgeting your money

Are there any other money problems that you have had since you
have been a single mother?

 

 

Would you say that your money problems on the whole are:
getting worse

______getting better
staying about the same

Have you received help from any person or service for any of
your money problems? If so, from whom or from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.

131

Housing - Have you found any of these to be problems for you?

finding adequate housing that you can afford

finding a place to live in an area or neighborhood where
you would like to live

taking care of your house or apartment

Are there any other housing problems that you have had since
you have been a single mother?

 

 

Would you say that your housing problems on the whole are:

getting worse

getting better

staying about the same

Have you received help from any person or service for any of
your housing problems? If so, from whom or from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1‘1

3.

132

Child Care - Have you found any of these to be problems for you?

a.

finding good child care that you can afford

finding child care during the hours that you need it
transporting your child (children) to and from daycare or
babysitter
Are there any other child care problems that you have had since
you have been a single mother?

 

 

Would you say that your child care problems on the whole are:
getting worse

______getting better
staying about the same

Have you received help from any person or service for any of
your child care problems? If so, from whom or from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

133
4. Employment - Have you found any of these to be problems for you?
finding a job that pays enough to support your family

finding a job that you enjoy

finding a job with the flexibility necessary for your situation
(in terms of working hours, time off, etc.)

a. Are there any other employment problems that you have had since
you have been a single mother?

 

 

b. Would you say that your employment problems on the whole are:
__ getting worse
______ getting better
._____ staying about the same

c. Have you received help from any person or service for any of
your employment problems? If so, from whom or from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with? '

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.

a.

134

Education - Have you found any of these to be problems for you?

having inadequate training for a good job

finding the money to continue your education
finding the time to go back to school or receive additional
training
Are there any other education problems that you have had since
you have been a single mother?

 

 

Would you say that your education problems on the whole are:
getting worse

______getting better

______staying about the same

Have you received help from any person or service for any of
your education problems? If so, from whom or from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service ' Satisfaction .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.

135

Raisingyyour Children - Have you found any of these to be problems

for you?

finding time to be with your children

handling your children without the help or support of another
adult

feeling adequate as a parent

Are there any other problems related to raising your children
that you have had since you have been a single mother?

 

 

Would you say that these problems on the whole are:
getting worse
getting better
staying about the same

Have you received help from any person or service for any

problems related to raising your children? If so, from whom
or from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

136

7. Female Companionship: Have you found any of these to be problems for
you?
finding the opportunity to form friendships with other women
feeling "out of place" with either single or married women

meeting other single mothers who can understand your problems
and whom you can talk to about them

9!

Are there any other problems relating to female companionship
that you have had since you have been a single mother?

 

 

b. Would you say that these problems on the whole are:
getting worse
getting better
staying about the same

c. Have you received help from any person or service for any

problems related to female companionship? If so, from whom
or from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

137

8. Male Companionship - Have you found any.of these to be problems for
you?

finding opportunities to meet men with whom you can form
relationships
explaining your dating situation to your children
finding men who can understand your situation as a single
mother
° a. Are there any other problems relating to male companionship
that you have had since you have been a single mother?

 

 

b. Would you say that these problems on the whole are:
getting worse
getting better
staying about the same

c. Have you received help from any person or service for any

problems related to male companionship? If so, from whom or
from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

138
9. Free Time - Have you found any of these to be problems for you?

finding time to do things that you want to do
having too much free time on your hands
finding opportunities to enjoy yourself socially

a. Are there any other problems relating to free time that you
have had since you have been a single mother?

 

 

 

b. Would you say that these problems on the whole are:
getting worse
getting better
staying about the same

c. Have you received help from any person or service for any

problems related to free time? If so, from whom or from what
service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

139

10. Social Acceptance - Have you found any of these to be problems for you?

feeling comfortable as a single mother in social situations

worrying about other people's opinions bf you as a single
mother

feeling accepted and understood by your children's teachers

Are there any other problems relating to social acceptance that
you have had since you have been a single mother?

 

 

 

Would you say that these problems on the whole are:
getting worse
getting better
staying about the same

Have you received help from any person or service for any

problems related to social acceptance? If so, from whom or
from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

140
ll. Feelings about Yourself - Have any of these been difficult for you?

feeling as though no one else has problems like yours

feeling confident about your decisions (that you "did the
right thing")

feeling worthwhile as a person

a. Are there any other problems related to your feelings about
yourself that you have had since you have been a single mother?

 

 

b. Would you say that these problems on the whole are:
getting worse
getting better
staying about the same

c. Have you received help from any person or service for any

difficulties related to your feelings about yourself? If so,
from whom or from what service?

Is there anything about this service that you weren't completely
satisfied with?

Person or Service Satisfaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12.

13.

14.

141

Which three problem areas cause you the most worry at the present
me.

Money

Housing

Child Care

Employment

Education

Raising Your Children
Female Companionship

Male Companionship

Free Time

Social Acceptance

Feeling Good About Yourself

 

Are there any other problems which you have experienced that we
have not talked about?

Looking back over the time since you first became a single mother,
what has been the most difficult period for you?

142
SECTION 4
Try now to think about how you view yourself.

1. Which gee of the following words best fits how you think of
yourself. Pick only one. (Ignore those which do not apply.)

woman

worker (i.e., salesperson, secretary, teacher, etc.)

unwed mother

friend

mother

girl

divorcee

student

single mother

widow

single woman

ex-wife

other (please explain:

 

143

SECTION 5
1.

How many people do you consider close friends? (A close friend is
someone you can talk to about your feelings and to whom you can
turn to for help.)

 

How many other single mothers do you know?

How many of your close friends are single mothers?

 

Which statement best describes your present dating situation?

have a steady relationship with one man
date regularly

date frequently

date occasionally

date rarely

never date

What are the top three sources of emotional support for you at the
present time (with 1 indicating the most important). Ignore those
which do not apply. (A source of emotional support is someone

who really cares.)

 

social worker
_____ your child's (children's) father
your parents
your children
another relative (specify: )
your counselor or therapist
minister, priest, or rabbi
another single mother
a female friend (not a single mother)
a male friend
other (specify: )

144
SECTION 6
Now try to picture your life as you would like for it to be.

1. If you could magically change anything at all in your life, what
would you like to be different.

2. What do you see as your 3 most important goals for the future?

1.

145
SECTION 7

Now I'd like to ask you some questions about the way you feel.
Choose the response that best fits how you feel.

1. I feel the future looks bright.

Almost always true
Often true
Sometimes true
Seldom true

Never true

 

N

Things seem hopeless.
Almost always true
Often true
Sometimes true
Seldom true

1111

Never true

 

3. I feel bored.

Almost always true
Often true
Sometimes true
Seldom true

Never true

 

4. I feel down in the dumps.

Almost always true
Often true
Sometimes true
Seldom true

Never true

 

5. I feel depressed.

Almost always true
Often true
Sometimes true
Seldom true

Never true

146

6. I am bothered by noise.

Almost always true
Often true
Sometimes true
Seldom true

Never true

SECTION 8

147

Let's talk about some of the services that exist here in this community.

Below is a list of Lansing area services and organizations for

single parents.

Indicate if you have heard of the service, if you have

used it, and whether there is anything about the service that you were
not completely satisfied with.

10.
11.

12.

13.

. Parents Without

Partners

. Catholic Social

Services

. Solo Parents

Club

. Family & Ch11d

Services

. Friend of the

Court

. Single Parents

Club

. Women's Center

. Open Door

Women's Division

. MSU Women's

Resource Center
LCC Women's Group

Aid to Families
with Dependent
Children (AFDC)

Other Department
of Social Services
(DSS)

Big Brothers/
Big Sisters

Heard of the Used the Anything you were
Service Service dissatisfied with

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

148
SECTION 9

We've talked about your experiences with services that presently exist.
Now let's look at some new ideas for the future.

1. Which ideas are most appealing to you? Conditions for use

 

cooperative or shared child care
with other single mothers

rap groups for single mothers to
share their feelings, concerns,
and support

parent-child communication work-
shops desifned specifically for
single-mother families

recreational programs for single
mothers and their children (camping,
swimming groups, trips, etc.)

temporary housing for single mothers
and their children during crisis or
transitional periods

a permanent living cooperative with
other single-mother families

a class on "Surviving as a Single
Mother" to teach new skills in
managing money, raising children
alone, handling legal hassles,
getting a job, etc.

a coffee house or center where single
mothers could go to relax (with child
care provided)

counseling facilities specifically
for single-parent families

shared resources among a group of single
mothers (transportation, emergency food
and clothing, skills, talents, etc.)

a panel of single mothers to discuss the
experiences of single-parent families with
teachers, professionals, and other groups
in order to facilitate better understanding
and communication

149

Are there any conditions you would have for participating in any
of the programs you picked (such as low cost, child care provided,
specific times of the day, etc.)?

What additional kinds of organizations, services, or facilities
for single mothers and their families would you like to see
developed in this area? Please describe any ideas you have.

Would you be interested in coming to a meeting to discuss shared
problems and solutions with other single mothers in the area?

yes
no

 

Would you be willing to work with other single mothers to set up
any programs (those listed above or any other ideas)?

yes

no