Rebecca, J. S, & Meredith, A. (2017).

The impact of Financial Hardship on Single Parents: An

Exploration of the Journey from Social Distress to Seeking Help. Journal of

Family and Economic Issues.

The author in this paper aims to understand the financial struggle of the single mothers

raising children in modern society. In order to get an accurate finding, the researcher targeted

single mothers from an English single parent and charity network in the United Kingdom. The

eligible participants are those mothers parents who are having at the very least one dependent

child with them. In the first procedure, the author interviewed with 15 single parents one on one

by employing semi structured interview through a scheduled interview. The data collected from

the interview was analyzed using thematic analysis. The participant age group is from 18 to 55

years old. The findings of the research are that, firstly, the parents are hugely burdened with

stress of being a single provider for the family. As the market become inflated constantly, the

need for the family increases, with same wage they earn annually, the stress and the

responsibility multiplies drastically, leading huge stress on the mother. Because of the financial

shortcomings and the stress they had to carry, one impact is on the physical health. When they

are the lone provider, they have to overwork their body beyond its capability to earn some extra

money and it caused great distress on the physical condition of the parents. As much as physical

health, their mental health are also plunging. With extreme stress, it triggers depression, anxiety

and in extreme case, psychosis. The author concluded that just like the stereotypical concept of

single parents family, single parents have to make huge sacrifice to make a living and raising

their child. They make great compromise to provide food, heating and shelter to their children

and literally, the focus of their resources is all on their children.