An Analysis of Black Partnered and Nonpartnered Mothers' Perceptions of Their Children and Single-Mother Effectiveness

Using the culturally variant perspective and symbolic interaction theory, I examined the perceptions of Black partnered and nonpartnered mothers toward their children and how these perceptions shaped their views toward single-mother effectiveness. I conducted secondary analysis of National Survey of American Families [NSAF] (1999) with a sample of Black, non-Hispanic mothers with children between the ages of 6 to 17 years old. Black mothers significantly differed on age, education, income, and perceptions about their child's psychological and social behaviors, religious service attendance, and mental health. Mothers' age, education level, income, viewing child as having difficulty getting along with others and viewing child as harder to care for were significantly related to mothers' opinions toward single-mother effectiveness. Feeling angry toward their child and mothers' mental health score were moderately and significantly related to single-mother effectiveness.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Development

Department dc:contributor.department

Human Development

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Cook, Jennifer Latrell

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Henderson, Tammy L.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Gooden, Susan T.
• Allen, Katherine R.

• Black mothers
• single-mother effectiveness
• perceptions of children

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05232002-212042

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33140