Walking through a yellow-brick road: the relationship between resilience factors and family adjustment among poor single mothers
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chen, Yu-Chih
Abstract
Poverty is an enduring social problem in the human history, and female-headed families with children are currently the most vulnerable population suffering of economic risks. The past literature has indicated that the resilience factors can buffer negative impact of economic strains and enhance family adjustment among single mothers according to Patterson’s Family Adjustment and Adaptive Response Model. However, the model was rarely tested in a quantitative sense. Therefore, this paper aimed to examine protective effect of the resilience factors in buffering economic strains among poor single mothers.
The study purposively sampled 190 participants from three non-profit organizations and one governmental agency at Taipei. Hierarchical regression analysis method was used to test the proposed model. LISREL 8.80 was used to test the measurement validity of the resilience factors used in the model, including economic strains, personal coping ability, social support, and family adjustment. Results indicated that economic strains were negatively associated with family adjustment, but family support and personal coping ability conversely had positive effects on family adjustment. The resilience factors also had moderate effect on family adjustment using simple slope analysis. Furthermore, family support and personal communication skill among the three resilience factors had protective-enhancing effect on family adjustment among these single mothers. However, single mothers with higher self-esteem had lower level of family adjustment in the situation of higher economic strains. Policy and practice implications in strengthening single mother’s resilience to cope with poverty situation are included in this research.
Subjects
poverty
single mothers
resilience
protective factors
moderate effect
Type
thesis
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