Psychological functioning of working on single mothers: correlational effects of childhood truama, emotional resilence and socio-economic status

Abstract

Motherhood confers upon the female gender the responsibility of raising children. However, the absence of the paternal role could create an overwhelming effect on working among single mothers leaving them with huge economic and psychological burden to bear. This motivated an examination of the psychological functioning of working on single mothers, considering the correlational effect of childhood trauma, emotional resilience and socio- economic Status. This study adopted correlational research design. A sample of 268 working single mothers was randomly selected from three local government areas (Akinyele, Ibadan North and Ido) in Ibadan, Oyo State. Four reliable measuring scales (Psychological functioning Scale; α = 0. 740, Childhood trauma scale; α = 0.781, Emotional resilience scale; α = 0.736, Socio-economic Status; a = 0.792) were adapted, validated and used for data collection. Pearson product moment Correlation (PPMC), multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The study revealed that psychological functioning of working on single mothers negatively correlated with emotional resilience (r= -0.309, p<0.05), childhood trauma (r= -0.402, p<0.01) and social economic Status (r= -0.202, p<0.01). Multiple regression analysis revealed that the most potent predictor of working on single mothers’ psychological functioning was emotional resilience (ß =.524, t = 10.241, P<0.001), socio- economic Status (ß = .222, t = 4.507, P<0.01), followed by childhood-trauma (ß = -.127, t = - 2.467, P<0.01).It was recommended that employers include diagnoses of employees' childhood trauma Status as part of the Job selection procedure to identify candidates who need urgent psychotherapeutic Intervention. Working single mothers should be counselled to find better Jobs or combine jobs with businesses to boost their socio-economic Status. Also, the working single mothers should be encouraged to boost their emotional resilience by being optimistic, getting social Support and having resilience role model.