Showing papers on "Single mothers published in 1985"

The Role of the Father in Child Development

Abstract: For a variety of sociopolitical, economic, scientific, and clinical reasons, considerable interest in the study of father-child relationships has emerged in the last decade. In the last few years, the focus has narrowed to concern about the effects of increased paternal involvement. Interest in, and concern about, the latter seems to be especially prominent among social service providers and clinicians. For this reason, and also because the voluminous literature on paternal influences has been scrutinized quite extensively, we will focus in this chapter on evidence concerning the effects of increased involvement. Much less will be said, mostly in summary fashion, about paternal influences more generally, although readers will be referred to recent reviews for further discussions of the literature.

Household structure and labor force participation of black, hispanic, and white mothers.

Abstract: This paper investigates whether the inclusion of nonnuclear adults in a household facilitates the labor force participation of single and married mothers. Results based on a sample of extended and nuclear households show that the extension mechanism facilitates the labor market entry of married mothers, but not of single mothers. Interactions between extended structure, ethnicity, and poverty, however, suggest a complex relationship. For extended family households, the gender and employment characteristics of nonnuclear adults affected the labor force participation of single mothers, but the number of nonnuclear members was inversely associated with the market activity of married mothers. Policy implications are discussed in the final section.

The Psychological Impact of Being on Welfare

Abstract: One hundred black single mothers on AFDC were interviewed regarding their explanations for and responses to being on welfare. Most believed they were on welfare for temporary, uncontrollable reasons. Those who believed more strongly in the dominant ideology of equal opportunity gave individualistic explanations, blaming themselves for their welfare status and experiencing lower self-esteem. In addition, those of higher subjective social class believed themselves responsible for being on welfare, but did not feel stigmatized. Believing oneself to be personally responsible for being on welfare was associated with being less assertive about one's rights as a welfare client.

The Social Networks and Social Support of Married and Single Mothers in Sweden.

Abstract: The object of this research was to identify structural characteristics of social networks and contextual factors associated with high levels of social support for married and single mothers in Sweden. The networks of 37 single and 43 married mothers were compared. Single mothers were receiving more instrumental and personal support than married mothers were, although their networks did not differ substantially in structure. Single mothers receiving the highest levels of support were employed full-time; had few children; had networks composed mainly offriends (rather than relatives, neighbors, or workmates); saw their network members frequently; and kept a balance of giving and taking in their relationships. Results were similar for married mothers except that reciprocity was less important for maintaining relationships and that neighbors were more important as a source of support. Findings are discussed in relation to the results of related studies done in the U.S.

Strategies used by black single mothers against stress

Abstract: In a recent study, coping strategies used by 318 black single mothers faced with conflicting role demands and stress were assessed. The women experienced intense stress, but stress levels were lower for women who were living with their extended kin. Conflicts existed between the role of mother and employee and between the women’s work and childrearing. For conflicts, women selected the least healthy of the three possible coping strategies. They attempted to meet the demands of their work and family, without trying to change the expectations of either. Stress was highest for women who met demands by restricting their own career or personal choices.

Paying for maternity care.

Abstract: The costs of prenatal care and the delivery of newborns are continuously increasing. In the 3 years since 1982 alone the cost of a hospital delivery has increased approximately 40%. 40% of all births in the US are to women aged 18-24. These women compose the highest risk group for having complications of pregnancy. It is alarming that in 1984 more than 25% of these women had no form of insurance to cover the costs. Poor minority and unemployed women are most likely to lack coverage. The 3 basic types of coverage are individual or direct employers or indirect and federal. Direct insurance is not always affordable and often provides incomplete coverage. Employers insurance is often able to cover the costs of maternity care for many young women. However a high rate of job turnover and the loss of a husband due to death or divorce excludes teenagers widows and divorcees from maintaining this type of indirect insurance. Federal insurance in the form of Medicaid has strict eligibility requirements. In nearly 1/2 the states one must be below the poverty level in order to be eligible and the benefits vary among the states. In addition many practitioners will not accept Medicaid as payment. The Aid to Families With Dependent Children is available in lieu of Medicaid but only to single mothers who already have dependent children. The Maternal Child Health block grant is designed to equalize the differences in Medicaid eligibility among states and to give coverage to poor women who are ineligible for Medicaid. The individual states are allowed to allot the monies for this grant without qualifications for minimum services with the result that it is unknown which women receive necessary services.

The Effects of World View on Adaptation to Single Parenthood Among Middle-Class Adult Women

Abstract: The nature of the relationship between middle-class adult women's world view and their report of the quality of their adjustment to being single mothers was explored. Single mothers and those from two-parent families completed five instruments assessing their world view and emotional adjustment to being mothers. The many statistically significant findings indicated that, although there was considerable person-to-person variation, single mothers who advocated a more Afrocentric world view—defined as more spiritual, communal, and interpersonal and less achievement-oriented, materialistic, and individualistic than the alternate Eurocentric perspective—had higher self-esteem, less depression and anxiety, and were more satisfied with being mothers. The results also indicated that single mothers were less well adjusted than those from two-parent families.

Single Mothers and Child Neglect, 1880-1920

Abstract: IN 1917 CORA SIMPSON, A TWENTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD MOTHER OF GIRLS AGED THREE and one-and-a-half, came to the office of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC) seeking help.2 She was penniless, she said, because her husband had deserted her. Some excerpts from her case record may be of interest, both as an introduction to the issues that will be discussed here and to the sources on which this essay is based:

On gender and writing

Abstract: In the introduction to this collection of 22 essays on gender and writing the editor confesses: I was never interested in including articles which would attack the idea of whether gender and the writing process had anything in common. I wasn't interested in anyone who held an 'androgyny' view of the writing process or in anyone who had anti-feminist views. The people I asked were all people who had something positive to say about how they saw gender and the writing process coming together in their work. (p.9) Consequently one finishes this book with the impression that almost all these writers know one another and share views on politics, literature and sex. The largest group of essays is from single mothers or gay women who write fiction, theater or poetry. Of the 22 writers almost all are British, all but 3 1/2 are female (the half because he "shares" a doubled personality with his wife), all but a few speak of being formed by the turbulent 1960's.

Decision by Single Women to Conceive by Artificial Donor Insemination

Abstract: Single women are frequently denied artificial insemination with donor sperm (AID) by U.S. physicians. Reasons include the fear that any child lacking married parents will suffer psychological damage, the belief that an unmarried woman's motivation is probably purely selfish, and the concern that single women will be unable to cope with the stresses of parenthood. Psychiatric interviews with 12 single applicants for AID were conducted to examine the validity of the latter two objections. The findings were then compared to Merritt and Steiner's recent non-psychiatric descriptive study of 100 single mothers, almost all of whom either became pregnant by intercourse or adopted children.With AID, applicants sought to eliminate paternal obligations, emotional entanglements, and custody questions. All had given careful considerations to the demands of childrearing, social supports, finances, babysitting, and health insurance. They were unconcerned about social stigma associated with unwed pregnancy and motherhood...

Violence on television and imitative behavior: impact on parenting practices.

Abstract: In the past 30 years, four federal government commissions have reported on the relationship between television violence and aggressive behavior. The latest report concluded categorically that there is a causal relationship between television violence and aggressive behavior. Two infants were seen at an emergency room as a direct consequence of their socially isolated single mothers seeing a particular made-for-television movie. In one case, the infant died as a possible result of a parent imitating an act of child abuse; in the other case, early medical intervention precluded possible tragedy. These cases illustrate another way in which children may be victimized by violence on television; namely, by parents imitating inappropriate parental behavior. The origins of imitative behavior are discussed with specific reference to the impact on vulnerable parents. The concept of media-influenced parenting behavior is presented and implications for physicians are discussed.

Relationships between the social networks of Swedish mothers and their children

Abstract: In a sample of seventy-two Swedish mothers and their children, significant relationships between characteristics of mothers' social networks and those of their children were found. The nature and strength of the relationship varied with the marital status of the mother and the sex of the child. The greatest similarity, or isomorphism, was found between the networks of married mothers and their daughters. The greatest dissimilarity was found between single mothers and their sons. The findings suggest that the nature and degree of mothers' involvement in their own networks of support and exchange may have both facilitative and inhibitive influences on the social relations of their children. Processes suggested by the data by which mothers' network involvement may influence their children's networks include modelling, teaching, sanctioning, providing opportunities, and providing a secure base.

Social Support for Single Mothers: A study of Big Brothers/Big Sisters

Abstract: This study used a waiting-list control design to investigate the hypothesis that receiving service from Big Brothers/Big Sisters enhances a single mother's social adjustment and general well-being. Mothers who had children matched with a big brother or big sister were compared with mothers who were awaiting service. Mothers receiving service were significantly better on both dependent measures. Interview data supported Gottlieb's (1983) contention that family and friends are more important sources of social support than are professionals.

The Feminization of Poverty: Nature, Causes, and a Partial Cure

Abstract: The feminization of poverty a phenemenon that 1st came to attention in the 1970s is attributed by the authors of this paper to the rapid growth in the prevalence of single mothers and the decline in poverty rates among other population groups such as the aged. This approach contrasts with the popular interpretation that the feminization of poverty is due to declines in the standard of living of women as a group. Data are presented to show that during the late 1960s and early 1970s poverty increasingly became associated with female-headed families. By 1978 36% of the poor were living in female-headed households with children. The increase in poverty rates among male-headed families in 1979-83 has offset the trend toward the feminization of poverty although poverty continues to be widespread among female-headed families. Poverty among single mothers can be attributed to the low earnings capacity of these women the limited contributions that absent parents make to the households in which their children live and inadequate public transfers. In 1982 the average income of both black and white 2-parent families was 2.5 times as large as the average for female-headed families. Due to socialization and sex discrimination women earn an average of 60% of mens earnings. 75% of single mothers on welfare are unable to earn as much or much more than they receive in welfare benefits. Only half of women with children potentially eligible for child support receive payments. As a result single mothers are forced either to rely on welfare or work full-time for marginal economic gain. Needed is a program that will supplement rather than replace earnings. A new Child Support Assurance System would both increase contributions from absent parents and restructure public transfers to supplement the earnings of single mothers. This system would increase the economic well-being of children in single-parent households as well as reduce welfare costs.

Teenage mothers: pregnancy performance and new-born status.

Abstract: The results of 874 consecutive teenage mothers delivered in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin during 1979/’80, were compared with an older group of women. Prematurity, stillbirth and 1st week neonatal mortality rates were each higher for the teenage group. Maternal weight gain during pregnancy was less in the younger mothers, and a small (122 grams), but significant difference in the mean birth weights for both groups was observed.

A note on the number and living arrangements of women with children under 21 from an absent father: revised estimates from the April 1979 and 1982 Current Population Surveys.

Abstract: This note discusses 2 problems in the March/April match files of the Current Population Surveys (CPS): 1) the overestimate of the population of women with children under 21 from an absent father and the consequent underestimate of the proportion of this population awarded due and receiving child support payments; and 2) the large underestimate of the proportion of divorced separated and never married mothers living as subfamilies. The 1st problem is a result of currently married women being excluded from the survey unless they had been previously divorced and furthermore women living with only own children 21 years of age and older were included in the survey as long as someone under 21 was living in the household. From a public viewpoint the population of interest is most likely to be all women with children under 21 from an absent father; this is in part because child support payments usually stop when children reach age 21. Based on the age distribution of children at the time of their mothers marital disruption it is inferred that 1/2 of all children who will experience the disruption of their parents marriage by age 21 will have done so by age 7. On the basis of a conservative adjustment the CPS estimates of the population of women with children under 21 appear to be inflated by 2.1% in 1979 and 1.9% in 1982. In addition by removing from the population women with children age 21 and over the proportion of the population awarded due and receiving child support payments is somewhat higher than previously estimated. Primary families are not distinguished from subfamilies and the undercount of subfamilies is due to many single mothers never being identified as the mothers of other family members. Many families fail to report that their unmarried daughter is the mother of 1 or more of the children in the household. Corrected estimates for both problems are presented.

Women's projects and co-operatives in France at the beginning of the 19th century

Abstract: Seamstresses, washerwomen and midwives establish co-operatives in order to organise their own work, independent of employers, and to divide their profit amongst themselves and to assure a reserve for harder times, for periods of sickness, for their old age. Women's collectives publish feminist magazines, including a daily newspaper by and for women; they found co-operative schools or an organisation for the support of single mothers. Women live in communes, make plans for women's houses and women's meeting-centres. And all this took place in the France of 1830–1848. In my paper, I would like to present some of the self-organised women's projects and co-operatives of that time and thereby also uncover information and sources which have remained buried under prevailing historiography. Moreover, my further intension is to refuse the commonly-held prejudice which dismisses the ‘proletarian’ or ‘socialist’ Women's Movement of the 19th century far too easily as having been ‘male-dominated’, a verdict frequently passed in Women's Studies in Germany. In view of this, it seems to me important to highlight historically the autonomous projects of proletarian and socialist women and to pay appropriate tribute to their significance for the history of the Women's Movement (not only in France!). Finally. I would like to approach a methodical problem which confronts me again and again in my work: the contradiction between historical distance and personal proximity and identification with the historical theme. By this, I mean the toilsome process of approaching history as something which is extraneous and yet related to us; this problem of, on the one hand not wiping out our present-day knowledge, feelings, values and norms from our research, and on the other hand, not using these as a distorted gauge from the women of former times.

[Analysis of the attraction of an obstetrical service. Analysis of preferences according to geographic distance, sociocultural level and previous medical experiences].

Abstract: This study analyses selected characteristics of 13,676 women, all single pregnancies, attending the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaeocology of the A. Beclere Maternity Hospital in Clamart (in the greater Paris region of France). The characteristics analysed for each women were: sociocultural level, occupation, place of residence (i.e. distance from the hospital), frequency and time of prenatal visits, and selected aspects of obstetric history (treatment for infertility, previous preterm birth, perinatal mortality). A comparison was made between the patients living near the institution and the patients living far from the hospital; this revealed four separate groups: Women living near by the hospital followed-up early by the department, and whose social class distribution is similar to that of the parisian population as a whole. Women living near the hospital, followed-up late or not at all by the department, most have a low sociocultural level, and are referred to the hospital by local homes for single mothers. Women living far from the hospital, followed-up early and often having a high socio-cultural level. In this group, a higher level of information about pregnancy, obstetrics, and medical services are observed. However this group also shows a high frequency of previous obstetric incidents: previous contact with a medical institution appears to be an important factor in the choice made by these women, independent of their sociocultural level. Women living far from the hospital and followed-up late by the department. These patients have a high sociocultural level, and show a high frequency of previous obstetric incidents: they tend to present as emergencies requiring the department's technical services.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

833 evaluation of genetic counseling following the birth of a malformed newborn

Abstract: The benefits of routine genetic counseling (GC) in ameliorating the family impact of a malformed newborn were investigated by a comparison of 2 Saskatchewan cities Saskatoon (S) and Regina (R). During 33 months all newborns in S and R having a significant malformation were ascertained. (S 122, R 130). A questionnaire (Q), State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Family Unit Inventory (FUI) were administered at home to parents of both groups 6 weeks following the birth (T1). S parents only were offered GC which 112 accepted. STAI and FUI were administered again to S and R parents at 6 months (T2), and 1 year (T3). 110 S and 112 R parents were followed to T3. The malformation groups were, with minor exceptions, comparable S v. R. Group comparison of all other variables individually revealed no significant differences S v. R. The impression that GC conferred no particular benefit to families was therefore further explored by development of a family vulnerability index derived by grouping scores from different combinations of variables. Similarly vulnerable S and R families were compared for change in parental anxiety and FUI scores and knowledge of both reproductive risks and the child's condition. Factors influencing response to GC include survival v. demise of the infant, more severe malformation, availability of prenatal diagnosis, lower parental education and income, single mother, parental age difference and certain FUI characteristics. Identification of situations where GC adds significantly to regular management may permit a more appropriate allocation of this limited resource.