Resilience/Grit/Perseverance in Single Mothers in the African American Community
Introduction
One of the cumbersome demographic changes to occur over the preceding few years has been the increase in the rate of single parenthood. Families headed by mothers are snowballing in the United States, with 56 per cent of these households headed by single Black American mothers with children under the age of 18 XXX. A series of studies have suggested that being a child raised by a single mother of African American origin tends to drop in drug abuse, poor academic achievement, crime, or pregnancy. However, little research has emphasized on assessing the way these African American mothers overcome the challenges of single parenting. In place, a great deal of preliminary research has positioned on the causes and detrimental effects of single parenthood. In numerous studies, researchers have used the term resiliency to describe the occurrences when the single mothers determined to have positive outcomes with their children. Similarly, researchers have defined perseverance among African American single mothers as the ability to keep on regardless of the difficulty, without giving up. Lastly, in similar research contexts, researchers have described grit as perseverance to accomplish long-term goals in the face of challenges and impediments, engaging the single parents’ psychological resources, including strategies and tactics.
Findings from Previous Research
Previous research conducted by various groups of professionals, including economists, sociologists, and psychologists have engaged in the quantitative and qualitative assessment in a bid to explore the wellbeing of single Black mothers and their children. Brodsky (1996) conducted qualitative interviews with ten single African American mothers raising children in risky neighbourhoods. The author identified that lack of psychological sense of community (PSOC) is meaningful and linked to positive outcomes. However, negative PSOC led to positive results for subjects who viewed the community to be a burden as opposed to a resource. In a Special Section of Women and Development Part II, Wilson also conducted an inspirational phenomenological study to describe the lives of single mothers that raised successful African American men (Wilson, 2014). According to Wilson, single African American mothers experience struggles in the form of emotional difficulties and employment issues as a significant inhibitor for the group. The author noted that implementing activities to strengthen the relationship between mother and son may be beneficial in the period of family therapy sessions.
African America single mothers in the United States experience significant challenges that proved taxing compared to those encountered by European American single mothers. As a magnitude of their short comes, they remain exposed to numerous risk factors that frequently springs from their social and environmental interactions. As Kjellstrand and Harper (2012) found, the socioeconomic and ecological challenges potentially obstruct resilience and lead to difficulties with adjustment. Preliminary research evidence posits that consistent economic strain presents a detrimental influence on emotional health and adaptation of African American single mothers. The experience of environmental risk factors, such as exposure to stressful life events and low family income tends to affect the surviving skills and adaptive capacities harshly. In recent decades, scholars have studied the longitudinal impacts of such risk factors on single African American mothers on achievement and adjustment outcomes. In preliminary studies about socioeconomic status and single African American mothers, Kjellstrand and Harper (2012) found that the group projected poor outcomes in such variables. What’s more, the Black single mothers experienced variable conditions of social and economic drawbacks and exhibited amplified susceptibility to nerve-wracking events, such as daily hassles.
Perhaps, in the most recent studies, Jacson and Ceballo (2020) examined the role of religiosity and familism values as moderating factors of the correlation between past-year community violence exposure as well as psychological distress among low socioeconomic urban Filipino mothers. The authors’ analysis and reported that religiosity and familism substantially moderated the connection between exposure to community violence and psychological distress, depicting their potential importance as proactive factors (Brodsky, 2000). The victimization and violence of single mothers lead to complex depressive indications at low to moderate levels of religiosity. Further, the authors found that individual victimization had a close relationship with increased anxiety at low and high levels of religiosity as well as familism, as opposed to high levels of feminism and religiosity. To that, the authors concluded by citing the cultural importance of family and religious-based values in Filipino culture. The factors, according to Jacson and Ceballo (2020), are equally possible to incorporate in health promotion and intervention efforts for low socioeconomic single mothers exposed to community violence.
Brodsky (2000) examined the significance of religion in the lives of resilient urban African American single mothers. Notably, the author focused on the importance of spirituality and religion in the community, as reported in the social sciences. Accordingly, Brodsky (2000) noted that a range of religious functions and involvement established in the lives of single African American mothers that raise children in the risky community require proper intervention efforts through the provision of social services at both local and national levels. The study of religion has a high impact on the outcomes of psychological interest that have been applied in numerous operational definitions of religion and models to explain the phenomenon whereby these descriptions impact the outcomes of mental health. Brodsky’s exploration of the varied roles of religious belief and expression in the context of African Community also proved decisive in planning and integrating interventions to individuals where religion serves as a fundamental role in collaboration with institutions. More significantly, Kjellstrand and Harper (2012) reported that the role of family stress as an intermediary relationship between religion and resiliency were proportional. In a separate study, Brodsky (2000) also noted that increased poverty was associated with higher endorsement of depressed mood. Thus, the findings examined protective and risk factors of urban African American women. In essence, the results indicated that hassles, poverty, and exposure to violence were predictors of higher rates of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Taken together, these findings suggest that SES-based stressors could have harmful effects on the outcomes of single mothers in African American communities, especially in areas of mental health (Skowron, 2005). The result is likely more outstanding the single mothers in black neighborhoods since poverty has increasingly become concentrated among such women that occupy a larger population.
In a comprehensive research review of risk and resilience of African American single mothers and children, Murry, Bynum, Brody, Willert and Stephens (2001) linked single parent structuring of families to processes of parenting, child development, and maternal wellbeing outcomes. Even though the authors expressed methodological concerns based on the conceptual framework used, the researchers reported the circumstances that confront single mothers. In-depth research into the African American single parents within the black communities also revealed that they were never married women that sought to raise their children in families that do not incorporate any other adults. Murry and colleagues listed various measures, including employment among the subjects that would increase their ability to garner more resources from their families. According to the authors, employed mothers tend to report better resilience and participation in social activities and happiness with their rapports compared to unemployed single black mothers.
Need For an Intervention Macro Level
In a social work context, intervention at the macro level requires working at community and systems-level to promote change among the study groups. African American single mothers have different challenges to developing resiliency and perseverance. To that end, developing macro-level interventions would ensure bringing individual community members as part of research to address the problem on a large scale because it affects a broader community in the modern-day. Taylor and Conger (2017) wrote that implementing supportive relationships provide indispensable to healthy psychological wellbeing with consideration to the effects of depression. The use of social support at the community level by incorporating friends, according to Taylor and colleague considerably contribute to their wellbeing. Further, the community intervention based on specific internal resources is linked to positive behaviors of parenting and amenable to change. To that end, the authors suggest that enhancing perceptions of social support as well as bolstering internal strengths among single African American single mothers. Further, the approach would promote the expansion of effective involvement programs serving to augment positive functioning and coping in families with single mothers.
Wandersman and Maury (1998) also studied the relationship between mental health and urban neighborhoods with the psychological contributions to comprehending the idea of toxicity, resilience and interventions. The psychological consequences of living in urban settings require an understanding of mental, health and related intervention approach for psychologists. Further, responding at the macro level requires a more accurate evaluation of urban neighbourhoods and the promotion of mental health among African American single mothers. According to Wandersman and Maury (1998), understanding the support networks coupled with neighboring behavior may be essential in assisting the plan interventions for African American single mothers. Previous studies have shown that devising support systems and partnering with neighborhoods at the macro level would provide a persevering and resilient mental health outcomes, even in disadvantaged single mothers (Wandersman and Maury, 1998).
The African American women single mothers have previously demonstrated lower levels of mental health due to pressures of raising their children without support. As Taylor and Conger (2017) notes, single mothers within the black communities have demonstrated a connection with low socioeconomic power and environmental problems. The described population has also shown a relationship with life stressors and poor adjustment. In particular, these economic, social, and ecological stressors tend to exacerbate feelings of hopelessness as well as negative expectancies toward self and the future. According to Taylor and Conger (2017), the single mothers of African American origin are increasingly vulnerable to risks ranging from poor psychological functioning and economic hardship. To that end, the examination of the sources of stress among the population would promote practical approaches to contributing to children’ adjustment. The factors of social support and particular internal resources would strengthen the wellbeing of single mothers. Further, the population requires intervention because of the need to promote positive parenting behaviors as well as developing amicable changes among the single African American mothers.
African American single mothers are vulnerable, especially with the heightened economic pressures due to coronavirus disease that has prompted economic collapse. Likewise, the radical stay-at-home policies implemented by the government has made the situation worse for single mothers as they cannot access social support or reach out to friends that would bolster their resilience and perseverance (Taylor & Conger, 2017). The current situations relate to high levels of financial and emotional distress and disruptions in single-mother parenting that also lead to the vulnerability of their children to adjust to the challenges. The above vulnerabilities certify the significance of identifying approaches to effectively intervene in promoting constructive adjustments for African American single mothers along with their children across the range of social isolation and harsh economic circumstances. The need to identify the mechanisms and processes that assist single mothers of African American background would provide the best approach to improving their lives and those of children in their families. As Kjellstrand and Harper (2012) notes, resilience and perseverance consistently find that when single mothers are subjected to warm, competent parent tends to safeguard children against lousy behavior, crime, and drug abuse.
Recommendation for Intervention
At the top of determinants of resiliency and perseverance of African American single mothers is the economic hardship that exacerbates behavioral and emotional problems for the parents. Previous research has found that these challenges present a negative influence on child outcomes and parenting (Taylor & Conger, 2017). Consistent with this, an applicable recommendation for the group is socioeconomic support. The need for supportive relationships is standard for providing indispensable to healthy psychological wellbeing, predominantly concerning depression. The idea of socioeconomic support based on caring and available network that appreciates and takes care of the African American single mothers strongly relate to mental health compared to other forms of social support, like tangible support.
The implementation of social and economic support to single mothers within the black community requires recruitment of the subjects through awareness programs. The support program should provide a piece of detailed information through community advertisements. In this sampling plan, the subjects will be divided into an intervention group and a control group. Hence, both the control, group and intervention group would complete data assessment. After the intervention, a follow-up after three months would show the benefits of the response by comparing the two research subject groups. The intervention would be necessary for measuring the effects of mothers’ social support, such as perceived support and satisfaction with the relationship. Further, it would be essential for determining the internal strength variables of a single mother by estimating optimism and self-esteem using a conceptual model. The model will also provide the outcome of the social support program, as will be indicated by positive mental health, and positive coping strategies of the subjects.
Through this approach, the program would provide community-based intervention to single mothers. In that order, the interventions include putting the single African American women to welfare to work activities. Equally, allowing the single mothers to form social networks that provided the required emotional help and mentorship would promote health and wellbeing among the population. Overall, cost-effective and authentic connections between African American single mothers would improve social support necessary for maintaining gains realized in treatment.