Is Public Support a Key Causative Factor of Single Motherhood Decisions?

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Author fAMILY NAME. A1
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Keywords. Single mothers, minority groups, high school completion, single-motherhood, poverty
1 Introduction
Conservative Charles Murray, the author of Losing Ground, argued that single motherhood is a harmful societal phenomenon and that public support is a significant inducement for unwed women’s decision to have children (McLanahan 2001). When such statement is part of the public discourse in a society where conservatives hold key government and political decisions, it dissuades policy support for single mothers especially from minority groups. Murray’s opinion that public support is a significant inducement factor for single motherhood decisions provokes thoughts on factors that lead to single motherhood, especially when studies have consistently shown that single motherhood is more likely to lead to poverty (Lu, Walker, Richard, & Younis 2020) and low life satisfaction (Ollmann-Schult 2017). Contrary to Murray’s assertion, public support is not a key causative factor that leads to single motherhood. Indeed, lack of public support manifests itself through the stigmatization that single mothers face in the current societal settings (Lu, Walker, Richard, & Younis, 2020). The finding is also supported by the current paper outcomes where single mothers do not consider public support as motivational factor to the single motherhood decision.
Former President Clinton’s advisor William Galston asserted that avoiding poverty in the United States required youth to make three core decisions: finishing high school, marrying after 20 years, and marrying before getting a child. These decisions are far more likely to be effective and practical in the middle- and upper classes because women can seamlessly transition to stable relationships. On the other hand, in the underprivileged classes, romantic relationships less often end in stable relationships with a high probability of out-of-wedlock births (Ollmann-Schult 2017). Therefore, the research question is: is public support a key causative factor of single motherhood decisions?
The paper postulates that public support is an insignificant motivational factor for single-motherhood decisions in the United States among minority single mothers. Further, the paper intends to determine the prevalence of single mothers in minority groups who accomplished Galston’s three decisions. In this aspect, the paper hypothesizes that a single mother from an underprivileged group is less likely to have achieved the three decisions. Current paper research outcomes are vital because they will further inform the public on the need to support single mothers without stigmatizing them based on age, marital status, and educational progress, and debunk Murray’s assertions. Therefore, the study examines the causative factors of single-motherhood decisions from the point of view of single mothers in minority groups.
2 Methods
In examining the causative factors of single-motherhood decisions among women in minority groups, I conducted two separate hour and half-long interviews, approximating three hours. The interviews w...