This article explores the social support needs of African American men as they become fathers in early parenthood. Although becoming a father is often viewed as a common life event, it can be a stressful for fathers---especially for those lacking adequate social support. Social support is defined as emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support. Using the Critical Incident Technique, qualitative data was analyzed to identify helpful and unhelpful types of social support received by fathers. The findings highlight the importance of health care providers and social systems in offering meaningful supportive care in early parenthood.

New mothers actively adapt to new demands and challenges in the mothering role but some may find this adjustment difficult and distressing, depending on their perceptions and resources. Previous research on maternal distress is primarily concentrated on needs of mothers with depression but nonpathological approaches of viewing difficulties in early parenting should be explored. A secondary analysis of a descriptive, qualitative study was completed on new, low-income mothers in early parenthood to determine how maternal distress influences mothers’ transition to becoming a mother and to validate the use of the Maternal Distress Concept in the clinical setting. Findings reveal new mothers experience maternal distress on various levels: stress, adaptation, functioning, and connecting. Implications for practice and education are discussed.

Background: This study compared the psychosocial factors, self-esteem, sense of mastery, life stress, and social support among first-time married and single mothers in early parenthood.

Methods: A cross-sectional comparative design was used to study secondary data. A convenience sample of 80 first-time mothers completed self-report instruments on self-esteem, sense of mastery, social, and life stress at 6–8 weeks after birth. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and ANOVA. A statistically significant difference was found between married and single mothers on self esteem (F = 9.314, df = 1, p = .003) and sense of mastery (F = 4.919, df = 1, p = .030).

Results: There were no statistical differences found between married and single mothers on social support and life stress. Findings support Citationtheoretical assertion that personal psychological resources are most indicative of successful parenting.

Conclusion: Further, interventions directed toward enhancing single mothers' sense of mastery and self-esteem may be needed to facilitate maternal role transition.

Parenting stress has shown to affect relationships between mothers and their infants. Single mothers may experience more exposure to parenting stress due to their stressors in their environment. The purpose of this comparative, secondary analysis study was to determine the differences between married and single mothers’ parenting stress, using Abidin’s (1995) 36-item Parenting Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF). A convenience sample of 22 single and 52 married mothers were recruited from two large metropolitan hospitals in southeastern United States, and instrument packets were mailed to participants at six weeks after childbirth with return, stamped envelopes. Inclusion criteria required full-term births (> 37 weeks gestation) with no maternal or neonatal complications.
Results indicated significant statistical differences between groups. Single mothers consistently scored higher on the Parental Distress subscale (t = -3.468, p = .001), the Difficult Child subscale (t = -2.032, p= .046), and the Defensive Responding subscale (t = -3.720, p = .000), however, no statistical differences were found on the Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction subscale (t = -1.290, p = .201). These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to reduce parenting stress in single mothers.

Perceived maternal competence during early parenthood is associated with greater comfort in infant care. This study surveyed a convenience sample of 58 married, first-time mothers and 22 single, first time-mothers at six to eight weeks after childbirth to determine differences of mothers’ maternal competence levels. The 17-item Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC; Gibaud-Wallston, 1977) was used to measure parental role competency across two subscales: a) Skill/Knowledge, and b) Valuing/Comfort.
Statistically significant differences were only found in the Valuing/Comfort subscale, with single mothers reporting lower levels of comfort and perceived value in the maternal role (t = 2.128, df = 30.713, p = .037), compared to married mothers. These findings suggest that health care professionals should develop interventions aimed at enhancing feelings of value and comfort among single mothers during early parenthood.