Gallery Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Against all Odds: Assessing the Effect of Social Support on Single-Mothers’ Perceptions of Parental Role Functioning during the COVID-19 Pandemic (#116)

Keisha M Bailey 1 , Zoe E Taylor 1 , Fabiola Herrera 1 , Nayantara Nair 1 , Abrianna Adams 1
  1. Purdue University, Lafayette, IN, United States

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has exponentially increased family stressors, which in turn, disrupts positive parenting perceptions and behaviors. Single-mothers may be especially vulnerable due to the already complex and demanding job of parenting with fewer economic and emotional resources than two-parent families (Taylor & Conger, 2014, 2017).  Perceptions of parental role functioning are critical to determining energies parents utilize in parenting (Bornstein, et al., 2018); and are thus central to child adjustment (Bornstein, 2015). While stressors may distort or damage parents’ perceptions of how they are functioning within their parenting role (Brown, et al., 2020, the extent to which mothers perceive support within their social networks may mitigate these distortions. Perceived social support can lead to feelings of self-worth, self-esteem, and positive affect (Lee et al., 2009).

Objective: This study aimed to understand how familial social support and external stressors longitudinally related to parental role functioning (guilt and role-overload) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants: Participants were 200 single-mothers (Mage = 36.74, 88% White, mean income = $30-40,000) living in Indiana. Mothers were divorced (54%), never married (38%), widowed (1.5%) and separated (6.5%) with on average 1.69 children. Mothers had high school/some college (46.5%), Bachelor’s degree (34%), and post-secondary degree (19.5%).

Results: We examined associations between self-reported stressors, familial social support, and parental role functioning pre-covid (T1) and during the COVID19 pandemic (T2) using SEM. T1 Stressors negatively predicted T2 positive parental role functioning and T2 social support, controlling for prior levels. Qualitative data broadened our understanding of how family social support contributed to parenting and buffered against stressors.

Implications: Understanding how stressors impact perceptions of parental role functioning, and factors that may buffer against adversity, provides an opportunity to contribute to strategies that strengthen single-mother’s wellbeing

  1. Taylor, Z. E. & Conger, R. D. (2017). Promoting strengths and resilience in single mother families. Child Development, 88(2), 350-358. doi:10.1111/cdev.12741
  2. Taylor, Z. E. & Conger, R. D. (2014). Risk and resilience processes in single mother families: An interactionist perspective. In Z. Sloboda & Petras, H. (Eds.) Defining Prevention Science, Advances in Prevention Science, pp. 195- 217. Springer Science, New York.
  3. Bornstein, M. H., Putnick, D. L., & Suwalsky, J. (2018). Parenting cognitions → parenting practices → child adjustment? The standard model. Development and psychopathology, 30(2), 399–416. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579417000931
  4. Brown, S. M., Doom, J. R., Lechuga-Peña, S., Watamura, S. E., & Koppels, T. (2020). Stress and parenting during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Child abuse & neglect, 104699.
  5. Bornstein, M. H. Children’s parents. In: Bornstein, M. H., Leventhal, T., editors. Ecological settings and processes in developmental systems. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley; 2015. p. 55-132.Handbook of child psychology and developmental scienceR. M. Lerner (Editor-in-chief)
  • Keywords: Family, Parenting