Showing papers on "Single mothers published in 1995"

The Antisocial Personalities

Abstract: This volume presents a scholarly analysis of psychopathic and sociopathic personalities and the conditions that give rise to them. In so doing, it offers a coherent theoretical and developmental analysis of socialization and its vicissitudes, and of the role played in socialization by the crime-relevant genetic traits of the child and the skills and limitations of the primary socializing agents, the parents. This volume also describes how American psychiatry's (DSM-IV) category of "Antisocial Personality Disorder" is heterogeneous and fails to document some of the more interesting and notorious psychopaths of our era. The author also shows why the antinomic formula "Nature vs. Nurture" should be revised to "Nature via Nurture" and reviews the evidence for the heritability of crime-relevant traits. One of these traits -- fearlessness -- seems to be one basis for the primary psychopathy and the author argues that the primary psychopath and the hero may be twigs on the same genetic branch. But crime -- the failure of socialization -- is rare among traditional peoples still living in the extended-family environment in which our common ancestors lived and to which our species is evolutionarily adapted. The author demonstrates that the sharp rise in crime and violence in the United States since the 1960s can be attributed to the coeval increase in divorce and illegitimacy which has left millions of fatherless children to be reared by over-burdened, often immature or sociopathic single mothers. The genus sociopathic personality includes those persons whose failure of socialization can be attributed largely to incompetent or indifferent rearing. Two generalizations supported by modern behavior genetic research are that most psychological traits have strong genetic roots and show little lasting influence of the rearing environment. This book demonstrates that the important trait of socialization is an exception. Although traits that obstruct or facilitate socialization tend to obey these rules, socialization itself is only weakly heritable; this is because modern American society displays such enormous variance in the relevant environmental factors, mainly in parental competence. Moreover, parental incompetence that produces sociopathy in one child is likely to have the same result with any siblings. This book argues that sociopathy contributes far more to crime and violence than psychopathy because sociopaths are much more numerous and because sociopathy is a familial trait for both genetic and environmental reasons. With a provocative thesis and an engaging style, this book will be of principal interest to clinical, personality, forensic, and developmental psychologists and their students, as well as to psychiatrists and criminologists.

Redefining single-parent families: Cohabitation and changing family reality

Abstract: This paper explores the implications, for the measured prevalence and duration of mother-only families, of marked changes in nonmarital fertility, unmarried cohabitation, and homeleaving and re-entry. Throughout, estimates are compared on the basis of marital definitions and definitions including cohabitation. The duration of the first single-parent spell appears to have increased under the marital definition, but declines substantially when cohabitations are taken into account. A substantial proportion of single mothers have spent some time as single parents while in their parents' household. Hence we argue that definitions of single-parent families must be based on living arrangements rather than on the parents' marital status.

Adults raised as children in lesbian families.

Abstract: A longitudinal study of 25 young adults from lesbian families and 21 raised by heterosexual single mothers revealed that those raised by lesbian mothers functioned well in adulthood in terms of psychological well-being and of family identity and relationships. The commonly held assumption that lesbian mothers will have lesbian daughters and gay sons was not supported by the findings.

The Effect of Health on the Work Effort of Single Mothers

Abstract: Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation are used to investigate ways in which health influences a single mother's decision whether to work: the direct effect of a woman's health on work effort and potential wage; the impact of her children's health on hours available to work; and the impact of health on the values of health insurance and Medicaid associated with work and AFDC participation, respectively. Simulations suggest that wage subsidies and decreases in AFDC benefits are unlikely to increase the labor force participation of single mothers in poor health or with disabled children, as they face limitations on work hours and the kinds of work they can perform that prohibit them from earning enough to stay out of poverty. Extending health insurance coverage to all children of single mothers regardless of AFDC status would induce a large percentage of these mothers to seek and accept employment, as would a pay-or-play insurance plan covering all workers (and their dependents) who work 15 or more hours a week.

The poverty of welfare reform

Abstract: Once again, America is getting tough on welfare. Democrats and Republicans at both the national and state levels seem to have agreed that paying public funds to the poor-particularly to single mothers and their children-perpetuates dependency and undermines self-sufficiency and the work ethic. In this book Joel Handler, a national expert on welfare, points out the fallacies in the current proposals for welfare reform, arguing that they merely recycle old remedies that have not worked. He analyzes the prejudice that has historically existed against "the undeserving poor" and shows that the stereotype of the inner-city woman of color who has children in order to stay on welfare is untrue. Most welfare mothers are in the labor market, says Handler; however, the work that is available to them is most often low-wage, part-time employment with no benefits. Efforts to move large numbers of welfare recipients to full-time employment are not likely to be successful, especially since most of the welfare programs for single mothers are at the state and local levels, and these governments are reluctant to spend the extra money needed to institute work or other reform programs. Handler suggests that national reform efforts should focus less on welfare and blaming the victim and more on increasing labor markets and reducing poverty through legislation that promotes, for example, the Earned Income Tax Credit and universal health care benefits. Welfare reform, by itself, does nothing to improve the job market, and unless there are more jobs paying more income, we will have done nothing to lessen poverty or reduce welfare.

The Effectiveness of Child-Care Subsidies in Encouraging the Welfare-to-Work Transition of Low-Income Single Mothers

Abstract: In recent years, public attitudes toward single mothers have changed dramatically, and policymakers are being pressed to devise reforms that will reduce their welfare dependency. In the summer of 1994, at least 11 separate welfare reform proposals were being debated by Congressional committees. Because child care is relatively expensive compared to potential earnings for single mothers, extensions to current child-care assistance programs will be an integral component of any welfare reform package. Very little evidence exists regarding child-care utilization patterns and links to employment for low-income mothers. Exceptions include Mark Berger and Dan Black (1992) and the recent Congressional testimony given by Jane Ross (1994) of the GAO. Contributing to the changing attitudes toward welfare recipients is the change in the demographic makeup of the labor force. Overall female labor-force participation rates have grown dramatically in the past 30 years, from 45 percent in the mid-1960's to 75 percent in the early 1990's. As a result, subsidizing poor single mothers so that they can stay at home with their children while more and more married mothers are working for pay has become less popular. This has led to the encouragement of work, particularly full-time work, as a means of poverty reduction for single mothers.! Unfortunately, child care costs represent a significant employment barrier. On average, child care costs $63 per week overall, and $44 per week for care by a relative. For the typical single mother, child-care costs range between 15 percent and 30 percent of earned income, depending on the mode of care and hourly wage.2

A Parent's Economic Shadow: Family Structure versus Family Resources as Influences on Early School Achievement.

Abstract: The experience of growing up in the United States is different for youngsters today than it was for their parents. Family organization has changed and the proportion of single mothers has increased dramatically in recent decades. In 1990, only 59% of children were living in "traditional" families with both biological parents (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992b). Between 1970 and 1991, the proportion of children maintained by a single parent, usually the mother only, jumped from 11% to 22% (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1992), and it is estimated that about half of all children will spend some time in a household headed by a female parent. For African Americans, single parenting is the modal family form; in 1992 only 38% of African American children lived with two parents (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992a). The consensus from earlier research is that children in one-parent families do about as well as those in two-parent families on standardized tests, although on more subjective measures, like teachers' marks or deportment ratings, children in one-parent families do not fare as well (Garfinkel & McLanahan, 1986; Hetherington, Camara, & Featherman, 1983). These conclusions about how family type affects standardized test scores, however, are based mainly on data procured in the 1960s and 1970s when the major reason for single parenting was divorce. The nature of single parenting is now quite different. In 1970, 73% of children living with one parent were in a home where parents were divorced or the spouse was absent, and about 7% were in a home with a never-married parent (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1989). In 1992, of all children living with the mother only, about 60% were living with divorced or separated parents and 35% were living with a never-married parent (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992a). These changes in circumstances of single parents have several implications. One is that studies of how residing with a divorced single parent affects children, which focus on the trauma of parental separation and household moves that go along with divorce, are not necessarily relevant for many of the youngsters who live with single parents in the 1990s. Another implication is that low economic status is probably more problematic for children who live with a single parent now than was true in earlier decades because children of never-married mothers are much poorer than children of divorced or separated mothers (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992a). For example, of White children between 6 and 11 years of age living with only their mother, twice as many are below the poverty line (64% vs. 32%) if the mother is never married rather than divorced. Of African American children, 71% are below the poverty line if the mother is never married, compared with 52% in divorced-mother families. Children of never-married mothers also have less access to human capital than do other children. Of children ages 6 to 11, about 85% of the parents in two-parent or divorced-mother families are high school graduates, compared with 60% of never-married mothers (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992a). Zill and Rogers (1989) noted a relative lack of social capital as well. Even though never-married mothers spend more hours at home with their children than divorced mothers do, children living with divorced mothers are more likely to participate in a variety of family activities, to have an intellectually stimulating home environment, and to do better in school than children living with never-married mothers. The changing demographics of single-parent families certainly invite a re-examination of the issue of how parent configuration affects children's school performance. Also, most of the information about single parenting and children's schooling pertains to secondary school youngsters (see, e.g., Garfinkel & McLanahan, 1986; Hetherington et al., 1983; Mulkey, Crain, & Harrington, 1992). The picture may be different for younger children because first-grade children's cognitive skills develop at a rate about 10 times the rate of high schoolers (Jencks, 1985). …

The Effects of Family Structure on Educational Attainment: Do the Effects Vary by the Age of the Child?

Abstract: I Introduction Projections indicate that one-half or more of the children living in the United States will spend at least part of their childhood in a single parent family (Bum-pass, 1984). One in four children are expected to live in stepparent families (Hofferth, 1985). Should we be concerned? Growing up with only one parent is found to be related to attaining lower levels of education, becoming a parent earlier, being more likely to have premarital births, marrying earlier, and being more likely to divorce when compared to children who lived with both biological parents throughout their childhood (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Bumpass & McLanahan, 1989; Haurin, 1992; Haveman, Wolfe, & Spaulding, 1991; Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985; Krein, 1986; Krein & Belief, 1988; McLanahan, 1985, 1988; McLanahan & Bumpass, 1988; Mueller & Cooper, 1986; Sandefur, McLanahan, & Wojtkiewicz, 1992). Similarly, children who at some time lived with a stepparent are less likely to graduate from high school, more likely to marry earlier, and more likely to become parents earlier than other children (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Haurin, 1992; Michael & Tuma, 1985). For these children, many of the outcomes mentioned above, especially not finishing high school, lead to reduced employment, lower earnings, lower occupational and economic attainment, lower family incomes, and greater likelihood of receiving welfare assistance or going without material necessities during their adulthood (Krein, 1986; Mueller & Cooper, 1986; Veum & Weiss, 1993). As an example, of all persons 25 years and over in 1992, 11 percent lived in poverty. But the poverty rate was 25.6 percent for those of this group who had not received a high school diploma (Census, 1993). This study considers how the various family structures children experience throughout childhood are related to the likelihood of their graduation from high school. Specifically, the impact of family structure is considered by the type of structure experienced, the age of the child when the experience occurred, and the age of the child when a change in family structure occurred. II Previous Studies Research examining the effects of family structure on the educational attainment of children is abundant. McLanahan (1985) considers the effects of different types of single mother families. Astone and McLanahan (1991), Li and Wojtkiewicz (1992), and Sandefur et al (1992) all study the effects of stepparent families. Krein (1986), Krein and Beller (1988) and Li and Wojtkiewicz (1992) examine duration effects related to experiences within nontraditional families. Each of these studies concludes that periods of childhood spent outside a two parent structure adversely affect educational attainment. How researchers model childhood experiences varies across studies. Often, analyses examine family structure at only one time during childhood (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Bumpass & McLanahan, 1989; Dawson, 1991; Greenberg & Wolfe, 1982; Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985; Keith & Finlay, 1988; McLanahan, 1983; Michael & Tuma, 1985; Sandefur, McLanahan, & Wojtkiewicz, 1989). While Krein (1986) expands the modeling by using indicator variables to designate if any time was spent in a single parent family during preschool, elementary school or high school years, she does not consider other family structures. Similarly, Krein (1986) and Krein and Beller (1988) include as an explanatory variable the number of years the child spent in a single parent family. A one time observation of family structure combined with a measure of the timing of a family formation disruption is used by McLanahan (1985, 1988) and McLanahan and Bumpass (1988) to model childhood experiences and their effects on educational attainment. Building upon these studies, Haveman et al (1991) combine a measure of family structure with measures of the number of marital disruptions and remarriages. …

Does Welfare Play Any Role in Female Headship Decisions

Abstract: During the 30 years, the composition of white and black families in the US has changed dramatically. In 1960, less than 10% of families with children were headed by a single mother, while in 1990 more than 20% of families with children were headed by females. A large body of research has focused on the role of the U.S. welfare system and particularly of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, in contributing to these changes in family structure. Most studies use cross-sectional data and identify the effect of welfare on female headship through interstate variation in the AFDC program. Recent research finds that controlling for state effects has a large impact on the estimated welfare effect. This paper examines why state effects matter for estimating the role of welfare in female headship decisions by examining the of individual effects and policy endogeneity. An explanation for why state effects matter is that the composition of the population across the states differs, and the composition is related to the generosity of the state's welfare program. If that is true, then controlling for individual effects should have the same result as controlling for state effects. We also examine the endogeneity of AFDC policy by including controls representing the determinants of state welfare generosity. The results show that after controlling for individual effects, there is no evidence that welfare contributes to increasing propensities to form female headed households for either whites or blacks. Further, the results suggest that welfare-induced migration among blacks leads to an upward bias in the estimated welfare effect in previous studies.

Stress Levels, Family Help Patterns, and Religiosity in Middle- and Working-Class African American Single Mothers

Abstract: In this survey of 318 middle- and working-classAfricanAmerican mothers, stress andfemale-related stress were found to be intense andfrequent. Women experienced serious life changes. Younger mothers...

Helping between Parents and Young Adult Offspring: The Role of Parental Marital Quality, Divorce, and Remarriage.

Abstract: The transition to adulthood is particularly problematic for today's young adults. Persistent underemployment, low beginning salaries, rising housing costs, high divorce rates, and high levels of nonmarital childbearing have increased the amount and duration of parental support needed by young adults. Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that parental support of adult offspring is at its highest while offspring are in their twenties (Cooney & Uhlenberg, 1992). At a time when young adults are particularly in need of assistance, parents' marriages are also going through changes that may put the needed help in jeopardy. The high rate of parental divorce and the conflict that often precedes divorce, the economic deprivation that accompanies single parenthood, and the conflicting loyalties associated with some parental remarriages have the potential for putting ameliorative parental assistance at risk. The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which parental marital quality, divorce, and remarriage influence (a) young adults' feelings that they can approach parents for assistance with problems, (b) the amount of assistance parents provide to offspring, and (c) the amount of assistance offspring provide to parents. To investigate these issues, we draw on a 12-year longitudinal study that includes interviews with a national sample of parents and their young adult offspring. PREVIOUS STUDIES Given the potential salience of parental marital quality and family structure for exchanges between parents and their adult offspring, surprisingly little is known about this link. Until recently, the study of adult intergenerational exchange has focused almost exclusively on factors that influence offsprings' care of the elderly (see Mancini & Blieszner, 1989, for a review). Only recently has interest shifted to general patterns of exchange at all ages (e.g., Eggebeen & Hogan, 1990; Hogan, Eggebeen, & Clogg, 1993; Rossi & Rossi, 1990). Even within this broadened focus, the emphasis has been on the marital status of offspring as a predictor of receiving help from parents (Eggebeen & Hogan, 1990; Hogan et al., 1993). Only a few studies have dealt with the marital status of parents as a factor influencing helping between parents and children. Furthermore, these studies are all cross-sectional, and only one obtained information from more than one generation (Rossi & Rossi, 1990). Several studies show that single parents exchange less assistance with offspring than do married parents. In a three-generational study, Rossi and Rossi (1990, Tables 9.6, 9.18, 9.19) found that children reported giving more assistance to, and receiving less assistance from, single parents than from married parents, although this was more true for widowed than for divorced parents. Two studies based on the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) obtained comparable results. Hoyert (1991) found that elderly single mothers reported giving less and receiving more assistance from offspring than did currently married mothers. Similarly, Cooney and Uhlenberg (1992) found that offspring in the NSFH reported receiving more support from married than from single parents. However, these studies did not distinguish between divorced and widowed or never-married parents, or between remarried parents and those in first marriages. A few studies have focused on parental divorce and remarriage--the topic of the present article. In a study based on a national sample, Umberson (1992) found that divorced parents reported less support from adult children than did married parents. Similarly, Cooney and Uhlenberg (1990) found that divorced fathers in the NSFH were less likely to name a child as a source of assistance than were married fathers. Also using NSFH data, White (1992) found that divorced mothers and fathers reported giving less social, instrumental, and financial help to offspring than did continuously married mothers. …

Early interactive processes: Parenting by adolescent and adult single mothers

Abstract: The parenting skills of adolescent (15–18 years) and adult (19–37 years) single mothers were compared in terms of behavior frequencies, appropriateness, and vocal responsiveness. Corresponding behavior frequencies and vocal responsiveness of infants were also examined. Twenty-four adolescent mothers and 24 adult mothers were observed in their homes for 1 hour when their infants were 4 months old. At 12 months, similar observations were conducted with 17 of the mother-infant dyads in each group. All mothers were primiparous, Caucasian, and single at the time of their infants' births; adolescent and adult mothers were approximately matched on family background. Even with these controls, differences were evident in the parenting of adolescent and adult mothers. With their 4-month-old infants, adolescent mothers vocalized less, smiled less, and offered or showed toys less frequently than did adult mothers. When their infants were 12 months old, adolescent mothers were rated as less appropriate in their interactions and were significantly less vocally responsive than adult mothers. Infants of adolescent mothers, as compared with infants of adult mothers, exhibited less smiling and vocalizing at 4 months and an absence of vocal responsiveness at 4 and 12 months.

Social policy as a cause of childhood accidents: the children of lone mothers.

Abstract: Almost one in five British mothers is a lone mother. Their children have injury rates that are twice those of children in two parent families. In this article the link between lone parenthood and childhood injury is examined. The increased injury rates for the children of lone mothers can be explained by the poverty, poor housing conditions, and social isolation of lone mothers in Britain. The problem of reconciling the demands of paid work with the demands of the unpaid work of childrearing is particularly difficult for lone mothers, who find themselves in a benefit dependent poverty trap. Many such mothers would seek paid work if affordable day care were available. Day care would also provide a safe environment for their children, who are otherwise exposed to the environmental hazards of poor housing. Provision of day care is a social policy that would have important effects on the health and welfare of lone mothers and their children. These effects deserve to be properly evaluated. Since the early 1970s the number of one parent families in Britain has increased by between 30000 and 40000 a year. Currently there are over one million lone parent families in Britain, about 21% of all families with children. Nine out of 10 of these families are headed by a mother.1 The children of lone mothers have the highest death rates of all social groups. In a reanalysis of British census data, the children of “unoccupied” parents, of whom an estimated 89% are unemployed single mothers, had a death rate 42% higher than children in social class V, the poorest socioeconomic group.2 Injuries were responsible for 60% of the deaths among the children of lone mothers.2 The strong association between single parenthood and risk of childhood injury is well established from epidemiological studies. …

The Preconditions and Consequences of Relative Deprivation: Two Field Studies1

Abstract: Two field studies assessed the preconditions and behavioral consequences of relative deprivation. A sample of single mothers receiving government assistance participated in Study 1, and a sample of working women participated in Study 2. We found general support for a 2-factor model of the preconditions of relative deprivation, in which wanting the desired state and deserving the desired state were the best predictors of discontent. In both studies, discontent regarding the status of one's group (i.e., single mothers or working women) was specifically predictive of reports of group-directed protest behaviors. In Study 2, discontent regarding one's own status was specifically predictive of willingness to engage in self-improvement behaviors. Participants in both studies reported more group discontent than personal discontent. These findings provide support from naturalistic settings for the construct of relative deprivation.

A New Idea for Welfare Reform

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

Single Mothers and their Children: Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia

Abstract: 1. Introduction: To have an unlicensed child 2.The mothers: a perfectly nice girl - an ordinary girl, perhaps your own daughter 3. Breaking the news: what are you going to do about it? 4. Pregnancy and confinement: medicos, midwives and morals 5. Death: very army of murderesses within our midst 6. Separation: now put this thing that has happened to you away, forget about it, get on with the rest of your life 7. Surviving: you must maintain your own 8. Illegitimacy: to punish the innocent child 9. Empowerment and resistance: speaking out publicly.

Masking Dependency: The Political Role of Family Rhetoric

Abstract: Despite widespread changes to family structure and the increase of women in the workforce, the vision of a traditional family consisting of a male breadwinner formally married to a female homemaker who cares for the couple’s biological children continues to pervade contemporary political and legal discourse and drive policy decisions. Such a vision masks the nature and extent of individual dependency and the costs of providing care for dependents. Dependency has been privatized, with the family expected to serve as the repository of dependency without assistance from the market or state. This Article argues that continued adherence to unrealistic and unrepresentative assumptions about family thwarts society’s ability to effectively address persistent problems of poverty and social welfare and obscures the reality that women, whether acting within a nuclear family or as single mothers, largely assume responsibility for dependents. Family policy should instead provide social and economic subsidies that reflect the family functions that society should protect and encourage. Because of the inevitability and universality of dependency, the Article asserts that a just society requires that the community provide for its weaker members and grant resources to those caretakers who fulfill the societal need for caretaking at substantial cost to themselves.

Mother-Child Communication Sequences: Play Activity, Child Gender, and Marital Status Effects.

Abstract: contextual-ecological models of sex-typing guided the examination of mother-child communication patterns in relation to mother's marital status, child gender, and play activity. Married mothers (n = 47) and single mothers (n = 30) were videotaped in their homes while playing with their preschool-age daughter or son (mean age = 45.5 months). Mother-child pairs played with both a masculine-stereotyped toy set (toy track with cars) and a feminine-stereotyped toy set (toy foods and plates) for 8 min each. Mothers' and children's use of controlling (assertive), supportive (affiliative), and collaborative (both assertive and affiliative) speech acts were coded, and speech act sequences were analyzed. Mothers' and children's speech was influenced by child gender, the other's prior behavior, the mother's marital status, and the play activity. The study lends support to a multidimensional and multivariate view of sex-typing processes.

Gender and family work in one-parent households

Abstract: One-parent families, headed by an unmarried residential mother or father who lives with one or more children under the age of 18, are increasingly common (Bumpass & Sweet, 1989; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993). Much as been written about these families, but there has been little empirical attention to how they handle household work. Single parenting might be particularly difficult for fathers who are unaccustomed to the full burden of family labor (Passinger, 1989). In married-couple families, mothers do the bulk of family work, in terms of both care of children and household tasks (Acock & Demo, 1994). Who does that work when the father is the only adult in the household? Do single fathers assume all responsibility for children themselves? Do single fathers do the same household tasks that single mothers do? THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES No matter what the family structure, there are socially constructed expectations for each family member. Gender theory suggests that gender is the primary predictor of individual behavior in families, because families and other social structures transmit advantages according to gender (Ferree, 1990). As women and men are categorized and stratified, and their similarities downplayed, roles and behaviors are given "gendered meanings" (Ferree, 1990, p. 105). The power that men have over women in society is reflected at home, which is why women do more family work than men, and why women do more menial tasks and men do more interesting ones. Family work is also seen as a way for women, but not men, to express love. In part, women and men "do gender" through the way they conceptualize family work, responding to their own and societal expectations (West Zimmerman, 1987). Societal expectations are relevant in one-parent households, too. We may expect single mothers to keep a cleaner house than single fathers, and single fathers who keep a clean house may be applauded for it in a way that single mothers are not. Gender theory, however, does not suggest that single fathers will be unable to meet their children's needs. Instead, it argues that they will parent in a gendered way; that is, single fathers will meet their children's needs, but they will do so differently than single mothers. Because of the low status of family work and its identification with women, fathers will probably do less than mothers, and fathers will do different kinds of family work than mothers do. Additionally, following gender theory, fathers will emphasize play over caregiving activities when interacting with children, but mothers will do the reverse (Fassinger, 1993; Lamb, 1986). 1 A variation on gender theory is microstructuralism (Risman, 1997). Although many individualist theories attribute gendered parenting behavior to personality differences between mothers and fathers, microstructural theory suggests variations in parenting may be explained by other variables such as social class. Risman (1987) noted that "microstructural theory in its most extreme manifestation would suggest that identical behavioral expectations and identical socially structured opportunities would produce identical behaviors in men and, women" (pp. 8-92. Therefore, microstructuralism would predict that single mothers and single fathers would not differ in meeting the demands of caring for children, if they were similar in other ways. FAMILY WORK What is known about family work in one-parent families comes primarily from studies of small, voluntary samples, with most information based on data from single mothers. A review of studies on single fathers with custody found that fathers had warm relationships with their children and had some knowledge of their development (Guttman, 1989). Risman and Park (1988) found that single fathers centered their home lives around their children. On average, fathers did household tasks with them, were involved with them in leisure and pay, took them on outings, and played sports with them. …

[Prevalence of postpartum depression and associated factors in Santiago, Chile].

Abstract: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and factors associated to postpartum depression (PPD) in a sample of women attending clinics representative of different socioeconomic levels in Santiago. A total of 542 mothers selected from five health centres filled in the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale which was used as the diagnostic criteria, a score of 10 and above being considered diagnostic of depression. Based in our findings, the prevalence of PPD would be 36.7% after adjusting for socioeconomic distribution in Santiago. An inverse relationship was found between socioeconomic status and prevalence of PPD. Mothers with lower incomes had a three-fold increase in prevalence of PPD in comparison to mothers with higher incomes. Single mothers (unmarried, separated and widows) were twice more likely to be cases of PPD.

Work commitment and constraint among mothers on workfare

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

Masking Dependency: The Political Role of Family Rhetoric

Abstract: Despite widespread changes to family structure and the increase of women in the workforce, the vision of a traditional family consisting of a male breadwinner formally married to a female homemaker who cares for the couple’s biological children continues to pervade contemporary political and legal discourse and drive policy decisions. Such a vision masks the nature and extent of individual dependency and the costs of providing care for dependents. Dependency has been privatized, with the family expected to serve as the repository of dependency without assistance from the market or state. This Article argues that continued adherence to unrealistic and unrepresentative assumptions about family thwarts society’s ability to effectively address persistent problems of poverty and social welfare and obscures the reality that women, whether acting within a nuclear family or as single mothers, largely assume responsibility for dependents. Family policy should instead provide social and economic subsidies that reflect the family functions that society should protect and encourage. Because of the inevitability and universality of dependency, the Article asserts that a just society requires that the community provide for its weaker members and grant resources to those caretakers who fulfill the societal need for caretaking at substantial cost to themselves.

Poverty, Public Assistance, and Children in Intact and Single-Mother Families

Abstract: This article examines the effects of poverty, public assistance, and family structure on school-age children's home environment and developmental outcomes.

The “Leaky Needs” of School-Aged Mothers: An Examination of U.S. Programs and Policies

Abstract: What do school-aged mothers need in order to become independent? What curricula are best for young women who are secondary school students and also single mothers? The pursuit of answers to these questions leads to an examination of U.S. programs for school-aged mothers, which are located within the politics of the New Right and the battles for public resources. According to feminist theorist Nancy Fraser (1989), public policy battles begin with the interpretation of needs and the establishment of relations between a defined need and specific resources required to meet it. If a need is contained within the domestic or economic sphere, where women's needs have historically been located, then public resources can be legitimately denied or severely limited. Fraser's framework of needs interpretation is used to examine school-based programs for young mothers. In general, U.S. programs define the needs of young mothers as narrow and short term, that is, as prenatal needs. However, radically different n...