ABSTRACT
The experience of being a single mother with custody following divorce is influenced by many variables across several levels of interaction, such as age of mother and child, potential for remarriage, coping skills, social networks and income changes. Cross-sectional studies have examined additional variables such as time since divorce and level of family religiosity and subsequent impact on individual well-being. Whereas most studies took a categorical approach to examining the experience of divorce, a few refreshing studies were based on an ecological systems model. As divorce also involves building a new life, longitudinal research provides the best picture of how divorced women accomplish this task. Long-term research clearly points to the fact that divorce is an event whose impact is individual and very often life long. Researchers have provided valuable information to build meaningful programs of intervention for divorced mothers. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to design flexible programs which can grow and change with the needs of the divorced mother. Future research will be most beneficial when it addresses the divorced mother family as a healthy family unit.
190Some research variables, such as social networks and individual adjustment, are more pivotal in influencing the recovery process than others (Bronfenbrenner, 1990). Changes in the family responsibilities, adult relationships, social support and networks, adjustment to divorce, custody arrangements, parent/child relationships and social policy were key variables which were examined over the decade of the 80s. Research studies illuminating how these factors influence the experience of single mothering are critically reviewed in this article. The implications of divorce and new ways of looking at single mothers are discussed.
