South Korean mothers’ parenting experiences in divorced mother-headed families

ABSTRACT

These multiple case studies show what in divorced mother-headed families of South Korea, mothers experience with regard to parenting their children aged 6 to 12 years. Data were collected from participant observations and semi-structured interviews with the participants, including mothers and their children in four divorced mother-headed families in South Korea, for a span of 11 months. Each case shows how divorced mothers’ parenting experiences are mobilized through their financial status and post-divorce coparenting patterns. The findings of this study are as follows. First, the mothers’ relationships with their children were formed by their current relationships with the ex-spouse. Secondly, mothers showed low expectations of children’s academic achievement and future career. Thirdly, mothers had ambivalent feelings towards their children due to financial difficulties and cumulative stress with the added strain of single parenting. Financial stability as well as cooperative parenting with ex-spouses after divorce helped lighten the mothers’ burdens of raising children in a divorced family and thereby reduced psychological vulnerability. Fourthly, mothers’ different communication styles differently played out in their relationships with children, which further affected interactive occasions in children’s in-home experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Divorced mother-headed family
• mothers’ parenting experience
• mother–child relationship
• mothers’ communication styles
• multiple case studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Kyung Eun Jahng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7251-7864

Seung Hee Song http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5818-6889

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2012S1A5A8023719), as well as by a grant from the Kyung Hee University in 2012 (KHU-20120490).