Moving “Up and Out” Together: Exploring the Mother–Child Bond in Low‐Income, Single‐Mother‐Headed Families

• Published date: 01 June 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12378
• Date: 01 June 2017
• Author: Amanda L. Freeman

A L. F University of Hartford

Moving “Up and Out” Together: Exploring the

Mother–Child Bond in Low-Income,

Single-Mother-Headed Families

Bearing children is often viewed as negatively

impacting the social mobility of low-income sin-

gle mothers. This analysis draws on 66 in-depth

interviews with low-income, single-mother par-

ticipants in an antipoverty program in Boston.

The author argues that the mother–child rela-

tionship is at the center of efforts by these sin-

gle mothers to move out of poverty. Interviewees

repeatedly expressed the primacy of their chil-

dren’sneeds being met in order for them to move

forward. Mothers tried to include their children

in efforts to move out of poverty, thus fulll-

ing the role of a “good mother” while exhibit-

ing proper behavior for a poor person trying to

achieve economic independence. The data here

highlight the limitations of policy initiatives that

fail to acknowledge the centrality of children’s

well-being to the lives of single mothers and

suggest that the mother–child bond may be an

untapped resource for policies and programs

serving this community.

In 2012, 23% of children in the United States

resided in a household headed by a single

mother, whereas only 22% of children resided

in a married household with a male breadwinner

Sociology Department, University of Hartford, 200

Bloomeld Avenue, Hillyer Hall, Room 412, West

Hartford, CT 06117 (afreeman@hartford.edu).

This article was edited by Rob Crosnoe.

Key Words: family policy, motherhood, poverty, qualitative.

(Cohen, 2014). Still, the nuclear family remains

the normative model, and single-parent-headed

families continue to be characterized in terms

of “decits and disadvantages” (Nelson, 2006;

Zartler, 2014, p. 604). Public opinion polls show

negative attitudes about single-parent-headed

families (Usdansky, 2009; Zartler, 2014). Schol-

ars have also long focused on disadvantages

for youth raised in single-parent households

(Amato, 2000; Carlson & Corcoran, 2001;

Osborne & McLanahan, 2007; Ziol-Guest,

Duncan, & Kalil, 2015), although much of this

disadvantage may be attributed to the effects of

living in poverty. More than 40% of children

living with single parents are poor, and recent

research has found that parenting practices and

outcomes for children are inuenced far less

by family structure than by poverty (Hofferth,

2006, 2015).

This study contributes to the eld by offering

insight into the ways in which the parent–child

bond inuences how mothers make decisions

and construct their family identity (Chapman,

Coleman, & Ganong, 2016; Naples, 2001; Nel-

son, 2006).

Close attention is paid to the inuence of par-

enting on the mothers’ perceptions and daily

lives. Participants’ accounts suggest that moth-

ers may use the bond with their children as a tool

to achieve social mobility, which has yet to be

explored in the literature about low-income fam-

ilies. Furthermore, I look at the ways programs

and policies regard the mothers’ relationship

with their children and suggest that an alternative

Journal of Marriage and Family 79 (June 2017): 675–689 675

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12378