Perspectives on being mothered and on negotiating the transition to motherhood

A qualitative study of low-income single mothers in Botswana

Bibliographic Data

ID9972874
AuthorsTumani Malinga (0000-0002-0466-2234, University of Botswana, Botswana, corresponding author), Teresa Ostler (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Teresa Ann Ostler (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Year2022
Volume67
Issue1
Pages255-268
Publication date2022-08-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Social Work (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8728 • E-ISSN: 1461-7234
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00208728221116784
OpenAlexW4292595959
LanguageEN
References cited23

This study explored the different circumstances that single, low-income women from Botswana had to navigate in childhood with their own mothers and how they experienced and negotiated motherhood as single mothers living in poverty. Grounded in a constructionist paradigm and in literature on motherhood as a practice, discourse, and social identity that is constructed in the intersecting contexts of culture, class, ethnicity, and gender, in-depth data were gathered in semi-structured interviews with 15 women living in a rural region in Botswana. Women felt unprepared for motherhood and struggled in this role, yet they also viewed motherhood as transforming

Developmental psychology · Ethnic group · Grounded theory · Identity (music · Lived experience · Low income · Negotiation · Political science · Poverty · Qualitative research · Single mothers · Single parent · Social constructionism · Social science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges

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