The strategies single parents employ to enhance the resilience of their school-going children

Abstract

This study aims to explore the strategies single parents employ to enhance the resilience of their school-going children. The study further seeks to fill a current gap in family resilience literature on the strategies of South African single parents. The study forms part of a broader research project that predominantly focuses on the determinants of family resilience. The research study followed a qualitative approach to enable the researcher to explore the strategies single parents employ to enhance the resilience of their school-going children. The conceptual framework for this study was Walsh’s family resilience framework (Walsh, 2016), which aims to understand factors that contribute significantly to family resilience processes. Walsh (2012) identified nine key transactional strategies categorised into three key processes that families could use to improve their resilience: family belief systems, organisational patterns, communication, and problem-solving. The sample consisted of five single parents, mothers or fathers, from Mamelodi Township, who were selected by the researcher, supervisor and the management team working with single-parent families at a non-governmental organisation and drop-in centre in Mamelodi. Data was collected through focus group interviews, field notes, observation, and audio recording for documentation. The transcripts were analysed using thematic data analysis to deduce themes or patterns that emerged from the participants’ experiences. Keywords: • Single parents, parents, resilience, family resilience, support, school-going children