Resilient self‐efficacy and transformative growth of poor single mothers and their children: Higher education

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• Author: Brenda Geiger
• Date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12872

RESEARCH

Resilient self-efficacy and transformative growth

of poor single mothers and their children:

Higher education

Brenda Geiger

Western Galilee College, Acre, Israel

Correspondence

Brenda Geiger, Department of Criminology,

Western Galilee College, P.O. Box 2125, Acre

2412101, Israel.

Email: brendag@wgalil.ac.il

Abstract

Background: Poor single mothers in Israel are stigmatized

in public discourse as lazy and relying on the taxpayers’

money yet are seldom given the opportunity to access

higher education to achieve economic independence.

Objectives: This work sought to find (a) the sources of

empowerment and resilient self-efficacy motivating poor sin-

gle mothers to pursue a degree and (b) examine the transfor-

mative growth of mothers and children in the process of

acquiring knowledge.

Participants and settings: Twelve poor single mothers

enrolled in the Katzir antipoverty program who were

about to graduate.

Methods: In-depth private interviews and content analy-

sis examined the similarities among these women’s

experiences.

Results: Motivations to pursue a bachelor’s degree included

mothers’desire to prove to themselves that they could com-

plete a degree and secure a better future for their children.

Although initially overwhelmed, they developed resilient self-

efficacy as they passed their exams and surmounted financial

andothercrisesrelatedtotheirchildren’s health and lack of

childcare. Relationships with their children had improved,

and by sharing their progress and achievements with their

children, they had become a proud team, motivating each

other to achieve.

Conclusion: Given the centrality of children well-being

in mothers’motivation to study and complete a degree,

children’s needs for subsidized daycare and after-school

programs cannot be ignored.

Implications: Two-generation programs that assist mothers

to pursue a degree while providing daycare and after-

school programs for children must be implemented to offer

Received: 16 December 2021 Revised: 31 July 2022 Accepted: 31 December 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12872

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

2410 Family Relations. 2023;72:2410–2428.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

fair opportunities for poor single mothers in Israel to com-

plete a bachelor’s degree.

KEYWORDS

child poverty, higher education, resilient self-efficacy, single mothers,

transformative growth

This study examines the sources of empowerment, resilient self-efficacy, and transformative

growth of Israeli single mothers in poverty who decided to pursue a BA degree to secure a better

future for their children. The National Insurance Institute of Israel (2018) reported that 1.8 million

people in Israel live under the poverty line, with 33%, or 842,300, of them being children, and

28.8% being single-parent families with mother heading the family in 94% of cases. Even though

this study was conducted in 2017, before COVID-19, the pandemic exacerbated the gender gap in

income in Israel and the feminization of poverty (Amir, 2020; Auksanberg, 2020; Goodwin, 2021;

Kurlander, 2010).

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) recognizes the intimate connection

between serving children’s best interest and assisting parents to perform their primary responsi-

bility for the upbringing and development of their children (Art. 27), while ensuring childcare

services and facilities for eligible children with working parents (Art. 18). Similarly, among its

17 goals, the UN Sustainable Developmental Goals report (2015) lists achieving a better future

by ending poverty in all its forms (Goal 1) and achieving gender equality and empowerment of

all women and girls (Goal 5). Given the interlinkages among poverty, gender inequalities, and

lack of educational opportunities, this report recommends increasing educational technical and

vocational initiatives at all levels to achieve a better future.

Drawing from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the 2015 United

Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals report, education, training, and quality daycare and

after-school care services are fundamental targets to empower single mothers to escape poverty

and achieve equal opportunities in the job market (Duffee et al., 2016; McLanahan

et al., 2014). Studies conducted in the United States and Israel provide evidence that higher edu-

cation and skill acquisition and training are major long-term solutions to empower single

mothers in poverty to achieve economic independence (Armour, 2004; Deprez & Butler, 2001).

The Israeli government data indicated that 71% of the single mothers who had graduated with

a bachelor’s degree had successfully integrated into the job market (Horesh, 2004). Further-

more, up to 70% of poor women participating in work-skills development and training

programs operated by feminist organizations such as Shdulat Nashim and Vitzo had success-

fully gained and sustained employment (Kurlander, 2010).

Despite the strong correlation between higher education, job market integration, and eco-

nomic independence, social services in Israel and the United States seldom facilitate poor single

mothers’access to higher education and seldom account for the structural barriers preventing

these mothers to complete a degree. Among these barriers are the lack of academic and

financial support and lack of low-cost, quality childcare and after-school care alternatives for

children (Hobson et al., 2002; Pulkingham et al., 2010).

Empowering single mothers in poverty to access higher education and complete a bachelor’s

degree has been addressed within a Foucauldian perspective. Foucault (1978,1980) argued that

power and knowledge join in the top-down dominant discourse of the powerful to produce a

body of apparent self-evident truths—knowledge that controls the mind of the oppressed groups

and persuades them to participate in their own domination. Furthermore, Nader (1997) empha-

sized that mind-control mechanisms are also pervasive in Western societies, with experts in psy-

chology, medicine, and social work permeating all realms of social life to restructure the public

understanding of “reality”in general, and, for the purposes of the present study, the “truths”

TRANSFORMATIVE GROWTH 2411