Suchergebnisse

Recent political decisions to redesign the welfare system compels single mothers to work. With concern for the women and children so effected, this qualitative study explores the views of 42 poor single mothers regarding (1) their aspirations and dreams in relation to work and (2) the helpfulness of their social support networks in enabling them to make transitions to work or to study. Analysis was performed on both the sample as a whole and on subgroups of respondents who were divided by work category, e.g. employed fulltime, employed part-time, women who were students and full-time mothers. Developing meaningful subgroupings of single mothers may help avoid the dangers inherent in lumping all single mothers into a large and potentially inaccurate category.

Identifying the role orientation of recently divorced women holds promise for further understanding the divorce process and the family life cycle of nonnuclear families. The authors describe how 30 female heads of family perceived their adaptation to divorce and to the reconstruction and development of their family units. Results of this exploratory study further suggest that the meaning and value a divorced woman attaches to the mothering component of her role as well as the comfort she feels in accepting a work identity affect the ways in which she adapts to being a single parent. The consequences of this adaptation, in turn, alter the content of the family life cycle.

The case is made for understanding and applying in social work practice current conceptions of chronic stress. Citing literature from the social sciences, the authors develop and describe a comprehensive model of chronic stress, focusing on single mothers that are experiencing economic poverty. The utility of the model lies in its synthesis of concepts that can be used in direct practice, policy development, and program design.

Models of stress in the psychological literature have moved beyond a concentration on acute life events to smaller more chronic stresssors, commonly called "hassles." The authors review of research suggests that the hassles of women have not been fully differentiated from the hassles of men. Rural women are a sadly neglected group. The authors interviewed thirty-three rural, poor single mothers to identify the hassles in their daily lives. The findings indicate the centrality of their mothering role. Chronic hassles included: children that overwhelm them, children with chronic illness, disciplining children, fathers of the children, negative social network members, and the hassles of finding, keeping, and paying baby-sitters. By exploring the hassles in the lives of rural single mothers, one uncovers the specific environmental conditions of living that tax and at times erode the mothers capacity to cope. Over the past twenty years, chronic stress factors alone or in combination with life events have been found to have major consequences for individual and family well-being. As Moos and Swindle (1990) indicate, interventions addressed to alleviate chronic hassles have the capacity to improve daily functioning and to reduce the potential for depressive disorders in the targeted population (Moos & Swindle, 1990, pp. 176–177).