Brothermothering: Gender, Power, and the Parenting Strategies of Low-Income Black Single Mothers of Teenagers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinikka Elliott ◽  
Joslyn Brenton ◽  
Rachel Powell
Keyword(s):  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Parenting Strategies ◽  
Gender Power ◽  
Black Single Mothers

Black Mothering in Action: The Racial-Class Socialization Practices of Low-Income Black Single Mothers

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Turner
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Racial Socialization ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
Black Mothers ◽  
Black Single Mothers

African Americans have long dealt with racism, discrimination, and racialized state and vigilante violence. As such, African American parents must educate their children about the realities of racism in the United States and how to cope with racism and discrimination. This practice, known as racial socialization, is a key aspect of Black parents’ parenting practices. Much of this labor tends to fall on the shoulders of Black mothers. To date, most of the scholarship on Black mothers’ racial socialization practices focuses on Black middle-class mothers. In this study, the author uses in-depth interviews with low-income African American single mothers in Virginia to examine how low-income Black single mothers racially socialize their children, what major concerns they express regarding raising Black children, and how their racial socialization practices and the concerns they express compare with those of Black middle-class mothers. Paralleling previous studies, the findings show that low-income Black single mothers generally fear for their children’s, especially their sons’, safety. They also invoke respectability politics when racially socializing their children, encouraging them not to dress or behave in ways that will reinforce stereotypes of Black boys as thugs or criminals. Diverging from previous research, however, the author argues that low-income Black single mothers’ employment of respectability politics is largely aspirational, as, unlike middle-class mothers, they are not able to assert their class status in an effort to prevent their children from experiencing discrimination.

Motives and Barriers for Physical Activity among Low-Income Black Single Mothers

Sex Roles ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 77 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 379-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deirdre Dlugonski ◽  
Tiesha R. Martin ◽  
Emily L. Mailey ◽  
Emily Pineda
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Black Single Mothers

scholarly journals Gendered Emotional Support and Women’s Well-Being in a Low-Income Urban African Setting

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 837-859
Author(s):  
Sangeetha Madhavan ◽  
Shelley Clark ◽  
Yuko Hara
Keyword(s):  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Single Women ◽  
Gender Composition ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Data Set

In most contexts, emotional support is crucial for the well-being of low-income single women and their children. Support from women may be especially important for single mothers because of precarious ties to their children’s fathers, the prevalence of extended matrifocal living arrangements, and gendered norms that place men as providers of financial rather than emotional support. However, in contexts marked by economic insecurity, spatial dispersion of families, and changing gender norms and kinship obligations, such an expectation may be problematic. Applying theories of emotional capital and family bargaining processes, we address three questions: What is the gender composition of emotional support that single mothers receive? How does gender composition change over time? Does the gender composition of emotional support affect the self-reported stress of single mothers? Drawing on data from a unique data set on 462 low-income single mothers and their kin from Nairobi, Kenya, we uncover three key findings. One, whereas the bulk of strong emotional support comes from female kin, about 20 percent of respondents report having male-dominant support networks. Two, nearly 30 percent of respondents report change favoring men in the composition of their emotional support over six months. Three, having a male-dominant emotional support network is associated with lower stress. These results challenge what is commonly taken for granted about gender norms and kinship obligations in non-Western contexts.

scholarly journals Outcomes of Depression in Black Single Mothers

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 464-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahshida L. Atkins
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Perceived Social Support ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Health Practices ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Black Single Mothers ◽  
Positive Health Practices ◽  
Depressive Cognitions

Despite suggestions in the literature that depression has serious consequences, few studies have examined specific health and psychosocial outcomes of depression in Black single mothers. The purpose of this study was to estimate paths in a just-identified theoretical model of outcomes of depression for Black single mothers based on theoretical propositions and empirical findings. The model included the variables, depressive cognitions, depressive symptomatology, perceived social support, and positive health practices. Five direct and two indirect hypothesized relationships were estimated using structural equation modeling. A nonprobability sample of convenience of 159 Black single mothers aged 18 to 45 years was recruited for the study. This study used a cross-sectional correlational design. The participants responded in person or via the U.S. mail to the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression scale, the Depressive Cognition Scale, the Personal Resource Questionnaire 85–Part 2, and the Personal Lifestyle Questionnaire. Beta and Gamma path coefficients were statistically significant for four out of five hypothesized direct relationships within the model ( p < .01). The direct path between depressive cognitions and positive health practices was not supported (Gamma = −.11, p > .05). The two indirect paths were weak but statistically significant ( p < .01). Depressive symptoms and perceived social support were outcomes of depressive cognitions. Positive health practices was not a direct outcome of depressive cognitions. Perceived social support and positive health practices were outcomes of depressive symptoms.

scholarly journals Anti-Poverty Policy for Families in the Next Century: From Welfare to Work—and Worries

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T Ellwood
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Single Parents ◽  
Work Incentives ◽  
Welfare To Work ◽  
Working Families

This paper reveals that recent changes in social policy have included both sharp cutbacks in welfare for non-working families and dramatic increases in supports for low income working families. It explores the reasons for these changes, and documents how they have radically changed work incentives for some persons, notable single mothers. The result has been a large increase in work by low wage single parents. The paper concludes by examining several potential dangers of this new direction and explores the challenges that remain for the next century.

What Do Low-Income Single Mothers Say about Marriage?

2000 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Edin
Keyword(s):  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income

“We Need to Stand Together”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie M. Fousekis
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Women Leaders ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Nursery School ◽  
Care Program ◽  
Publicly Funded ◽  
Child Care Program ◽  
Working Families ◽  
Female Networks

This chapter focuses on two women leaders, Theresa Mahler and Mary Young, and describes how they helped the coalition navigate female networks, create alliances with men inside and outside the legislature, and finally secure a permanent public child care program, even if only for California's low-income working mothers. As legislative chair for the Northern California Association for Nursery Education (NCANE), Mahler served as the key spokeswoman for nursery school educators and child care supervisors throughout the postwar struggles to secure permanent, publicly funded child care. A soft-spoken, unassuming woman who became president and later legislative chairman of the California Parents' Association for Child Care (CPACC), Young spoke on behalf of California's low-income working families, particularly single mothers.

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