Influence of African-American single mothers' parenting responsibility, social networks and decision-making on family functioning and parent life satisfaction

Using theoretical constructs of symbolic interactionism and the reference-other orientation, this study focuses on the extent to which parenting responsibility influences African-American single mothers' use of social networks for decision-making and the extent to which resulting decisions influence family functioning and parent life satisfaction. A multivariate, multi-method research design was used to analyze the relationships among variables. The major hypothesis tested was: Family functioning and parent life satisfaction are associated with parenting responsibility, use of social networks and decision-making. The major hypothesis was partially supported. Main and interactive effects of family functioning and parent life satisfaction for the 78 African-American single mothers provided mixed results. Controlling for gender of the child, density of social network was significantly associated with family functioning. Multiple Regression analysis showed on association between family functioning and the interactive effects of parenting responsibility. Parent life satisfaction had interactive effects with parenting responsibility, career, child and relocation decisions. The semi-structured interviews captured additional circumstances that influence decision-making, among which was the emotional cost for seeking assistance and the influence of spirituality. In brief, the findings of this study indicate that family functioning is significantly influenced by the interaction of parenting responsibility and how these mothers became single parents, make purchase decisions, their social network density, parenting two or more boys, and age of mother. Parent life satisfaction, however, was significantly influenced by sets of interactive variables: the interaction of social network density and age of mother; social network density and parenting two or more boys; career decisions and age of mother; child decisions and how mothers became single parents; relocation decisions and level of education; parenting responsibility and parenting two or more boys; and parenting responsibility and number of children. Recommendations for practice and future research are discussed.