Single mothers or women in single parenthood (WISP)? A report and reflection on the development of a brief marital metaphor questionnaire (MMQ-10)

Abstract

Metaphor is embedded with representations of both experience and longing and can go far beyond problem representations in exploring marital experience. This paper reports the development of a marital metaphor questionnaire and its use with 123 Chinese single mothers. Lower marital satisfaction does correlate with their ratings of marital experience, but not with their general attitude toward marriage. The implications are discussed as to how marital metaphors could be used as an effective tool to engage clients on sensitive topics, reveal hopes and strengths, and how empirical studies can be conducted in a stigma-free and strength-based orientation.

Keywords:

• marital metaphors
• marriage conceptualization
• single mothers
• Chinese

Acknowledgements

The study is funded by a research grant (FRG1/10-11/042) from the Hong Kong Baptist University and has obtained ethical approval from the Research Committee of the university concerned.