Single Mothers and Supermyths

Past theories concerning the causation of ex-nuptial pregnancy are reviewed. Current claims that large numbers of single women are deliberately setting out to become pregnant so they will have something to love and something to live on are critically considered. Each of these theories is likely to explain why some women become pregnant, but it is argued that none of them is generally applicable. Statistical and survey evidence supports the argument that the ‘Superdoll Syndrome’ is as mythical as its predecessors.     

Mental Health Problems Among Single Mothers: Implications for Work and Welfare Reform

Welfare reform's emphasis on work and self-sufficiency assumes that poor single mothers are similar in their status and functioning to the rest of the population. However, we find that their status is quite distinct. Logistic regression results reveal that the likelihood of working is 25% lower for those with a psychiatric disorder. Mental health problems may prevent women from undertaking the tasks necessary to find employment, or women with these problems may lack the self-confidence needed to take on new challenges. Our findings suggest that mental health problems among single mothers deserve greater attention as a barrier to self-sufficiency and highlight the need for more effective intervention and treatment efforts to improve economic and social outcomes.     

Work Orientations of the Poor and Income Maintenance

Attitudes towards work are compared between a non-poverty sample and a group of poor involved in an experimental income maintenance scheme. Two problems are examined. The first tests work orientation differences between the poor and the non-poor. The second assesses the supposed ‘work disincentive effect’ of income maintenance. Contrary to the ‘culture of poverty’ thesis and the logic underlying many policy efforts, it was found that the poor are strongly motivated to achieve through work. Male/female comparisons revealed that non-work tendencies are evident among the female poor. These, however, are attributed to their acceptance of different role expectations. It was also shown that over time the work orientations of the poor remained stable under conditions of guaranteed income support. The hypothesized ‘work disincentive effect’ of income maintenance was not supported.     

Support for Income Maintenance Benefits: Attitudes of a Group of Non-Recipients Toward Three Benefits

This paper compares attitudes of a small sample of people not in receipt of income support benefit recipients in the Melbourne metropolitan area towards three benefits: the aged pension, unemployment and sole parent benefits. From 159 responses to telephone interviews, attitudes are analysed as to availability of benefit by family support, availability on the basis of need, amount of benefit level, and on a self—interest dimension including preparedness to pay additional tax to increase benefit and expected future use of benefit by the respondent. Results indicated strong support for aged pension and weak support for unemployment benefit. Self—interest factors coupled with age and gender characteristics influenced responses. Further research into the relationship between present and future expectations regarding pension/benefit costs and benefits is indicated.     

The Effects of Family-Friendly Policies and Workplace Social Support on Parenting Stress in Employed Mothers Working Nonstandard Hours

This study examines whether family-friendly policies (childcare leave, on-site childcare, and flexible working hours) and workplace social support (supervisor and coworker support) in South Korea are directly related to parenting stress among employed mothers with nonstandard work schedules. In addition, this study investigates the moderating role of family-supportive organization perceptions in the aforesaid associations. Data were collected from 223 employed mothers who have nonstandard work schedules with at least one or more children under the age of six. Results show that on-site childcare, flexible working hours, and supervisor support are negatively associated with parenting stress, whereas childcare leave is positively associated with parenting stress. Employed mothers with high family-supportive organization perceptions report low levels of parenting stress when they received high levels of supervisor support or did not take childcare leave. Additionally, employed mothers with low family-supportive organization perceptions report high levels of parenting stress when they did not use on-site childcare. Consequently, our findings indicate that employed mothers’ greater family-supportive organization perceptions are key factor reducing their parenting stress when they are limited to use family-friendly policies. Implications are discussed in terms of the importance of work-family intervention to the work-family balance among mothers working nonstandard hours.     

Coping Skills Training for School-Age Mothers

This study reports the development and evaluation of a program to increase adolescent mothers' ability to cope by promoting their interpenonal and cognitive skill and social supports. Program development efforts identified high-stress situations for young mothers and informed construction of a skills-training program to improve direct and indirect methods for handling stressful situations. Adolescent mothers in the program more than a comparison group of teenage mothers report improved self-reinforcement and interpersonal problem-solving after the groups and at 4-month follow-up. Videotape performance measures indicated that trained participants increased their interpersonal skills for buildmg and keeping social supports. Self-reports of social supports and parenting skill showed modest posttest gains but significant improvement by follow-up. Measures of well-being show change for participants with the lowest well-being at pretest. Consumer ratings were favorable. These results argue that social and cognitive skills training can increase social supports and perceptions of parenting skill and enhance well-being for those mothers at greatest risk.     

Social Support Training for Abusive Mothers

This paper describes a twelve-week group program designed to help low-income abusive mothers build more effective bases of social support in their daily lives with friends, family and neighbors. The group, conducted at a therapeutic day nursery, was supplemental to ongoing services for maltreated children and their families. The group incorporated training in a range of interpersonal competencies including basic conversational skills, self-protection, and assertion. Sessions were designed around a metaphoric Relationship Roadmap for friendship which visually depicted definitional terms and time frameworks appropriate to various friendship stages. Humor, stress-reduction, and visual aids were components of the teaching process. Individualized goals and skill rehearsal were used to increase relevance and mastery of content. Socialization of mothers to group norms and expectations was enhanced by pregroup induction procedures and by members' previous involvement in an agency-based parenting support group.     

Single Parent Families and Social Policies in Australia 1974–1982

Of the two major sources of income support for single parent families, social security transfers and earned income, there has been an increase in the proportion of families dependent on social security in the period 1974–1982, a period of recession and high unemployment. Over this period the value of income support for supporting parents has declined because of the non-indexation of the child components of pensions and benefits. This article identifies disincentives to the parents' labour force participation: lack of post-school qualifications, shortage of jobs, scarcity of affordable child care and the low income retention rates imposed upon the extra earnings of pensioners and beneficiaries.     

Psychological Distress Among Single,Employed, Black Mothers and Their Perceptions of Their Young Children

This study investigated the relationship of psychological distress to mothers' perceptions of their 3- and 4-year-old children using data gathered from a sample of 111 single employed black mothers with low income. Findings revealed that parenting a boy child was associated with higher levels of depressive symptomatology, which, in turn, was associated with more negative perceptions of children, especially boys. However, higher educational attainment appears to mitigate the effects of psychological distress on young black children, regardless of sex of child and the extent of the mother's involvement in the paid labor force. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Achievement and Behavior Among Children of Welfare Recipients, Welfare Leavers, and Low-Income Single Mothers

This article examines the behavior and achievement of children infemale-headed families that were on welfare, that left welfare, and that were not on welfare in the3 years preceding the study. Data come from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement, a nationally representative sample of children under age 13 collected in 1997. The results suggest that there are both positive and negative outcomes of welfare transitions. Based upon our results, children whose mothers are able to leave and remain off welfare score consistently better on cognitive tests of their development. The transition period, however, is a difficult one. Children's emotional well-being may suffer during the parental transition from cash assistance to self-sufficiency.     

(Not) Taking Account of Precarious Employment: Workfare Policies and Lone Mothers in Ontario and the UK

Workfare is, at least in part, a policy response to changing labour markets and the expansion taking place in jobs that are low‐paid, irregular and insecure. For lone mothers, increasingly the focus of workfare policies, precarious employment creates special challenges. However, the nature of the jobs that are available to women on social assistance has received relatively little attention in the workfare literature, which focuses more on individual characteristics, supports to employment, and programme impacts. Drawing upon both primary and secondary sources and using Ontario, the province with the most developed workfare programme in Canada, this article examines the ways in which policies support and enforce precarious employment. The article also considers the implications of precarious employment for UK policy, which has not (yet) adopted workfare for lone mothers, although incremental steps in that direction are taking place as employment is increasingly viewed as the appropriate objective of income support programmes for lone mothers.     

Child Care Costs and Women's Employment: A Comparison of Single and Married Mothers With Pre-School-Aged Children

Objectives . The effects of child care costs on the employment of single and married mothers with pre-school-aged children were analyzed. Methods . Both demographic and employment data from the March Current Population Survey were used, supplemented by child care data from various sources. Results . We find that child care costs have strong effects on employment for women with pre-school-aged children and that these effects are larger for single mothers than for married mothers. Conclusions . Our simulation results suggest that policies that reduce the costs of child care could raise the employment rate of married mothers by 3 to 14 percentage points and the employment rate of single mothers by 5 to 21 percentage points.