Are Lone Mothers Also Lonely Mothers? Social Networks of Unemployed Lone Mothers in Eastern Germany

Abstract

Lone mothers have often been described from a deficit perspective as women who lack a partner, an additional income provider, and a co-parent. Newer research has focused more on the agency and coping competencies of lone mothers, showing that most deal with their lone motherhood quite well, receiving support from family and friends. However, we still know little about the actual networks of personal relations lone mothers are embedded in: What is the structure and composition of these networks, and how is social network integration related to individual well-being? To address these questions, in this research we a) focus on an especially vulnerable group of lone parents, i.e., single mothers who are long-term unemployed; and b) use a mixed-methods design in order to analyze systematically their network structures, and to perform an in-depth investigation of how their social contacts relate to their well-being. We conducted qualitative problem-centered interviews and collected structured network data on a sample of 26 unemployed lone mothers from eastern Germany. The interview data were analyzed using the strategy of qualitative content analysis, while the social network data were studied by means of social network analysis. The results from both analyses were brought together to develop a network typology. Our findings show that even mothers in the vulnerable group of women who had no partner and were unemployed could not be described as fully socially isolated. The variation in the extent of their social contacts was, however, large, ranging from women with large and heterogeneous networks that provided them with considerable support and contributed substantially to their well-being, to women with very small networks who had little access to support and a very challenging living situation. A typology of networks distinguished between four network types according to their composition: networks dominated by the family of origin, networks centered on a conjugal relationship, extended networks, and restricted networks. These networks had interesting associations with well-being: first, the network composition was not only a precondition for the provision of support, but was also a consequence of the strains the respondents were under; second, the social network types identified fostered well-being to differing degrees. In terms of the structural features, we find that networks that included the woman’s own or her partner’s mother and/or sisters, and heterogeneous relations, were associated with well-being; as were networks of large or medium size and of high multiplexity. However, purely relying on these structural features is not sufficient. Not the pure existence of supportive network matters, but also their meaning to the respondent: only if the ties are not perceived as conflictual and if the support provided is evaluated as adequate, these ties can foster well-being.