Poor Mothers and Habits of Hiding: Participatory Methods in Poverty Research

• Published date: 01 November 2005
• Author: Leah Schmalzbauer,Lisa Dodson
• Date: 01 November 2005
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2005.00186.x

LISA DODSON Boston College

LEAH SCHMALZBAUER Montana State University*

Poor Mothers and Habits of Hiding: Participatory

Methods in Poverty Research

Poor mothers have long-standing habits of

hiding their lives in response to punitive author-

ities and stigma. We identify practices of hiding

daily life, and we describe participatory re-

search approaches for and ethical concerns in

learning more about poor women’s critical in-

sights and survival strategies.

Poor families have long been studied in the

United States and even more so recently during

the era of welfare reform. Yet, gaining accu-

rate representations of life and learning from

people’s knowledge in poor or marginal-

ized communities can be challenging because

low-income and otherwise vulnerable people

hesitate to share their worlds. Experiences with

stigmatization (Goffman, 1963), concerns about

regulatory scrutiny and abuse (Dodson, 1998;

Soss, Schram, Vartanian, & O’Brien, 2001), and

experience with punitive authorities (Scott,

1990) all contribute to habits of hiding daily life.

In this article, we frame a theoretical discus-

sion about poor women and habits of hiding

that examines how othered people exercise cau-

tion in speaking about their lives. We identify

the context in which poor mothers withhold

information that may affect reliability in social

research and even preserve distorted images

of low-income people, in particular, people of

color. We use brief excerpts from our studies to

identify particular habits of hiding that we have

come to see as endemic in low-income com-

munities. Using scholarship on participative

research, we detail our methods in three stages

of the inquiry process that include the develop-

ment of the research design, conducting f‌ield

research, and interpreting data toward gaining

a deeper understanding of family life in contem-

porary low-income America. We conclude with

a discussion about ethical considerations and

the diff‌iculties and importance of these research

methods.

BACKGROUND

Poor women have long been called upon to pro-

vide detailed information about their families

and themselves as they seek income support,

access to health care, subsidized food, housing,

jobs, and child care (Abromovitz, 1996;

Dodson, 2005; Edin & Lein, 1996). Immigrant

and undocumented women are often called

upon to prove their citizenship status as they

seek jobs, education for their children, health

care, and income supports to manage their fami-

lies’ daily needs (Chavez, 1998; Coutin, 2000;

Schmalzbauer, in press). Beyond interviews

with off‌icials in public welfare institutions and

employers, mothers, who generally oversee

children’s everyday needs, are largely responsi-

ble for communicating with teachers and school

Sociology Department, 408 McGuinn Hall, Boston College,

Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (dodsonli@bc.edu).

*Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 2-128 Wilson

Hall, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717-2380.

Key Words: participatory research, poor women, poverty,

stigma.

Journal of Marriage and Family 67 (November 2005): 949–959 949