Maternal Single-Parent Family in Social Risk Situation. Psychosocial and Behavioral Characteristics

Abstract

This paper aims to explore some relevant aspects of the intra-family dynamics, to reveal the meanings and analyze the evolution of maternal single-parent families that are socially vulnerable, as it is described in the scholarly literature, and to present the specific characteristics of this family type. It also includes some results of a qualitative study carried out among single-parent families in social-risk situations, from Brasov County. One of the main ideas of the study is that the lack of future prospects and the restricted possibilities to escape from a difficult situation, in which they are, induce to single-parents the feeling of fatality, perpetuating undesirable coping styles.