Nothing is going to stop me now: obstacles perceived by low-income women as they become self-sufficient

Welfare Reform, Domestic Violence, and Employment

Welfare reforms enacted in 1996 require that recipients work to receive benefits. Advocates for battered women feared that abusive men would escalate violence in response to independence brought to women by employment. Yet research on employment, domestic violence, and welfare reform has yielded mixed findings. The authors review those findings and propose that a context-sensitive social-psychological perspective identifying relevant dimensions of culture and measuring partner’s employment may be more useful than a focus only on characteristics of women. Findings suggest that inclusion of generous work supportsin welfare legislation may help reducepoverty and domestic violence.

The Effects of Collateral Consequences of Criminal Involvement on Employment, Use of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Health

Criminal convictions are often associated with collateral consequences that limit access to the forms of employment and social services on which disadvantaged women most frequently rely--regardless of the severity of the offense. These consequences may play an important role in perpetuating health disparities by socioeconomic status and gender. We examined the extent to which research studies to date have assessed whether a criminal conviction might influence women's health by limiting access to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and employment, as a secondary, or "collateral" criminal conviction-related consequence. We reviewed 434 peer-reviewed journal articles retrieved from three electronic article databases and 197 research reports from three research organizations. Two reviewers independently extracted data from each eligible article or report using a standardized coding scheme. Of the sixteen eligible studies included in the review, most were descriptive. None explored whether receiving TANF modified health outcomes, despite its potential to do so. Researchers to date have not fully examined the causal pathways that could link employment, receiving TANF, and health, especially for disadvantaged women. Future research is needed to address this gap and to understand better the potential consequences of the criminal justice system involvement on the health of this vulnerable population.

Development of an economic skill building intervention to promote women's safety and child development in Karachi, Pakistan

Violence against women is a global epidemic phenomenon that can result in major mental health problems. Not only are women affected but also the health and well-being of their children are in jeopardy. To prevent violence and promote women's safety, several strategies have been tested in various cultural contexts. This article describes the process of developing and validating an economic skill building intervention for women of an urban slum area of Karachi, Pakistan. The purpose of the intervention is to increase women's economic independence, promote women's safety, and improve the behavioral functioning of their children.

Emotional numbing weakens abused inner-city women's resiliency resources

Conservation of resources theory (S. E. Hobfoll, 1988, 1999) hypothesizes that loss of resiliency resources can contribute to abused women's posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, which, in turn, contribute to a further loss of resources, which can make abused women even more vulnerable to future stressors. This study investigates the impact of PTSD symptoms on abused women's future loss of resources-resources that women both value and need to aid their ongoing adjustment. Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms contributed to future resource loss in abused women, even when controlling for the effects of prior resource loss and depression. Emotional numbing symptoms of PTSD accounted most for women's resource loss. Findings highlight the importance of research and intervention that more directly examines the link between emotions and resource loss.

Community Leaders' Perceptions of Single, Low-Income Mothers' Needs and Concerns for Social Support

Purposes of this study were to (a) assess and describe needs and concerns of single, low-income mothers during their transition to parenthood from the perspective of 16 Midwestern community leaders working closely with families and (b) evaluate social support mechanisms that are available for families. Focus group questions were organized around social support theory to gather information. The following themes evolved from focus group discussions: (a) social support issues (emotional, tangible, informational, and appraisal support; positive and negative support); (b) personal barriers to success (stress, low self-esteem, isolation, and inadequate parenting competence); and (c) system barriers (fear of the system and insensitive and ineffective services). Community health nursing strategies were identified that include assessment and interventions for this vulnerable population throughout their infants' 1st year of life and beyond.

Food choices of low-income women during pregnancy and postpartum

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to examine dietary behavior during pregnancy and postpartum in a multiethnic sample of low-income women.

SUBJECTS

Participants were 149 Medicaid-qualified women (30% white, 24% African American, and 46% Hispanic; median age, 22 years).

DESIGN

Subjects were recruited into a longitudinal cohort design 0 to 1 days following delivery. Dietary choices during pregnancy and the first 6 months postpartum were assessed via validated food frequency questionnaires administered at 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum, respectively.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED

Frequencies and means were used for descriptive purposes. Paired and independent sample t tests were used for continuous variables; chi 2 and McNemar tests were used for categorical variables.

RESULTS

In all subjects, mean daily servings of grains (7.4 vs 6.2, P <.004), vegetables (2.5 vs 2.0, P <.002), and fruit (3.4 vs 1.7, P <.001) declined following childbirth, while the percentage of energy from fat (37.3% vs 38.4%, P <.023) and added sugar (14.4% vs 16.4%, P <.019) increased. Women who breastfed their infants at 6 months postpartum reported lower intakes of total fat (34.2% vs 37.9%, P <.005) during pregnancy and higher fruit (2.2 vs 1.6, P <.05) and vegetable (2.6 vs 1.8, P <.02) intakes in postpartum than those who bottle-fed. Also, a greater proportion of lactating than nonlactating women (66.7% vs 36.9%, P <.05) met recommendations for fruit intake during pregnancy.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that the transition from pregnancy to postpartum may be associated with a negative impact on dietary behavior that could compromise nutritional status in low-income women.

Struggle as the Context of Household Health Work for Mexican American Women

A focused ethnographic study was conducted among 13 moderately to highly acculturated American mothers of Mexican ancestry to determine how they influence the health of their family members. Using the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health (a state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease) as a guide for interview questions, we conducted 32 in-depth interviews with study participants. The thread of struggle ran through each woman's narrative. Women's process of struggle is presented as one way to conceptualize the gendered nature of household health work.