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Living Poor: Family Life Among Single Parent, African-American Women

Living Poor: Family Life Among Single Parent, African-American Women This article uses qualitative interviews from a sample of never-married African-American mothers to describe the ways that poor women dynamically adapt to economic marginality. The empirical data serve to expand on structural explanations that correctly demonstrate the link between economic factors and family patterns among the poor, but ignore non-nuclear family arrangements and omit personal agency in understanding poverty. Findings from the study highlight the viability of alternative family patterns and the active roles that women play in mediating the effects of poverty. They also suggest direction for a broader research agenda. This content is only available as a PDF. Author notes * The research reported here was funded by a small grant from the Spencer Foundation and a Rockefeller Minority Group Post-Doctoral Award. Additional funding was provided by the Russell Sage Foundation and a Faculty Scholar Award from the William T. Grant Foundation. Support from Professor Richard Taub and the Department of Human Services also made the research possible. Saadia Adell, Margaret Breslau, Deanne Orput, Chris Schiller, and Pat Summers skillfully transcribed and assisted in the coding of the focus group interviews. Lorraine Mayfield-Brown, M. Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, and members of the Social Science Research Council's Working Group on Communities and Neighborhoods, Family Processes, and Individual Development offered helpful comments on an early draft of this paper. Silvia Pedraza, Robert Perrucci, and anonymous reviewers provided useful comments on later versions. Special appreciation goes to the women whose enthusiastic participation made this study possible. © 1994 Society for the Study of Social Problems, Inc. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Social Problems Oxford University Press

Living Poor: Family Life Among Single Parent, African-American Women

Jarrett, Robin, L.
Social Problems , Volume 41 (1) – Feb 1, 1994
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References (51)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© 1994 Society for the Study of Social Problems, Inc.
ISSN
0037-7791
eISSN
1533-8533
DOI
10.2307/3096840
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article uses qualitative interviews from a sample of never-married African-American mothers to describe the ways that poor women dynamically adapt to economic marginality. The empirical data serve to expand on structural explanations that correctly demonstrate the link between economic factors and family patterns among the poor, but ignore non-nuclear family arrangements and omit personal agency in understanding poverty. Findings from the study highlight the viability of alternative family patterns and the active roles that women play in mediating the effects of poverty. They also suggest direction for a broader research agenda. This content is only available as a PDF. Author notes * The research reported here was funded by a small grant from the Spencer Foundation and a Rockefeller Minority Group Post-Doctoral Award. Additional funding was provided by the Russell Sage Foundation and a Faculty Scholar Award from the William T. Grant Foundation. Support from Professor Richard Taub and the Department of Human Services also made the research possible. Saadia Adell, Margaret Breslau, Deanne Orput, Chris Schiller, and Pat Summers skillfully transcribed and assisted in the coding of the focus group interviews. Lorraine Mayfield-Brown, M. Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, and members of the Social Science Research Council's Working Group on Communities and Neighborhoods, Family Processes, and Individual Development offered helpful comments on an early draft of this paper. Silvia Pedraza, Robert Perrucci, and anonymous reviewers provided useful comments on later versions. Special appreciation goes to the women whose enthusiastic participation made this study possible. © 1994 Society for the Study of Social Problems, Inc.

Journal

Social Problems – Oxford University Press

Published: Feb 1, 1994

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