Attitudes of New Immigrant and Veteran-Resident Israeli Divorced Mothers Toward Single Motherhood

The aim of the study is to compare the attitudes of immigrant and veteran-resident divorced mothers toward single motherhood. The comparison focuses on two dimensions: personal attitudes and perceived social attitudes. Respondents included 100 divorced mothers who emigrated from the former Soviet Union after 1989 and 100 long-term Israeli divorced mothers. The immigrant divorced mothers, often having divorced following disagreement over the decision to emigrate, are forced to undergo parallel adjustment processes to a new society and to the new lifestyle inherent in single-parent households. Additionally, they are caught between attitudes toward single parenthood in their culture of origin, where divorce is common, and in Israeli culture, where the family plays a much more stable and central role. Results show that veteran-resident divorcees express significantly more favourable personal attitudes toward single motherhood, while immigrant divorcees perceive social attitudes as being more favourable. Immigration was found to affect personal and perceived social attitudes significantly, above and beyond demographic attributes.