Single Mothers and Disabled Kids in the Age of Neuroscience

• In Event: 208 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Paper Session. Hard Times for Families in Hard Social Spaces

Abstract

Part of a larger qualitative project on mothers and mother-blame in our era of neuroscientific authority, this paper explores the experiences of 23 single mothers raising kids among the burgeoning number diagnosed with mild to moderate invisible disorders (ADHD is the most prevalent, but this group also includes Asperger’s syndrome, emotional disorders like depression and anxiety, and also other behavioral and learning disorders). The paper suggests that the presence of an unruly child together with the absence of a husband puts such lone mothers in a distinct cultural location despite wide differences in class and ethnoracial location. In the context of attitudes, stereotypes, and suspicions raised by the increase in “fatherless” homes, such mothers may even be held responsible for burgeoning rates of childhood medicalization. The paper also finds evidence that such negative attitudes fall hardest on single mothers of color. Media analysis also found that single mothers are often portrayed negatively -- when they are portrayed at all. Thus there is good reason to credit the sense expressed by the single mothers interviewed that it is especially difficult for them to navigate professional waters on behalf of unruly children.

Author

• Linda M. Blum, Northeastern University