The document provides demographic data on single motherhood among Black women nationally and locally. It discusses a research question on factors predictive of intergenerational notions of single motherhood. The theoretical framework draws on literature about street life and a model of sites of resilience. Methodologically, the study involves a community sample, surveys, interviews, and participatory action research with a street organization. Preliminary survey findings are presented. The project aims to better understand experiences of Black women in the streets through secondary analysis of qualitative interviews. Human: Thank you for the summary. It effectively captures the key elements and purpose of the document in 3 concise sentences.

1. 
“Brenda’s Got a Baby”
Single Motherhood in the Streets
Presenter: Brooklynn K. Hitchens

2. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

National
- About 44% of Black women have never been married (US Census
Bureau, 2008);
- 70% of professional Black women are unmarried (US Census Bureau,
2009);
- 65% of Black births are to single parents (US Census Bureau, 2000); &
- More Black children are reared in impoverished, single mother families
than any other race (Rendall, 1999)

3. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

Local
- 58% of Black births in New Castle County are born to teenage Black
mothers (Delaware Health Statistics Center, 2009);
- 71.6% of Black babies born in New Castle County are born to single
mothers (Delaware Health Statistics Center, 2007); &
- 85.7% of Black births in Wilmington, DE are to single mothers
(Delaware Health Statistics, 2009)

4. RESEARCH QUESTION

To what extent are family composition,
criminal record or street activity, and
educational level predictive of
intergenerational notions of single
motherhood?

5. LITERATURE REVIEW

 Single motherhood: State of being a female single-parent, or dominant caregiver
for one or more children without the physical assistance of the father in the home
 Black women and motherhood viewed phenomenologically (Collins, 1987 &
1990; Crenshaw, 1991; Chunn & Gavigan, 2004; Richie, 2012)


Family Composition
Criminal/Street Activity
 Preparing Drugs for Sale, Selling or Holding Drug Money
 Prostitution and “Selling Sex”
 Reshaping notions of “fatherless” homes (Collins, 1987; Payne, 2008 & 2011;
Livingston & Parker, 2011)
 Intergenerational Transmission of attitudes and temperament (Blau & Duncan,
1967; Antel, 1992; Corcoran, 1995; Butterfield, 1995)
 Rejects “Cultural pathology” of Black mothers and Black teenage mothers
(Rowley, 2002; Cherlin, Cross-Barnet, Burton, & Garrett-Peters, 2008; Sharp &
Ispa, 2009)

6. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Yasser A. Payne (2011). Site of Resilience: A Reconceptualization of
Resiliency and Resilience in Street Life-Oriented Black Men. Journal of
Black Psychology, 37, 4, 426-451.

7. What is Street Life?
(Payne, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2011)

 Street Ideology – centered on personal & economic survival.



Passed on by older Black male generation; and
(2) More connected to the code or the better a person understands the ideology the
more resilient a person is considered by men in the streets.
(3) Black women are also informed by this street ideology and code.
 Set of Activities


Bonding activities extends to joking, “playing the dozens”, hanging on the
“corner” or “block”, rhyming (or rapping), playing basketball amongst each other
to name a few activities. Also Black women may hang on the “corner” or house
stoops, braid or “do hair,” or prepare meals together; &
( 2) Illegal activities are generally employed to confront the effects of economic
poverty. Black women in the streets generally engage in the following street
activities: (a) prostitution, (b) preparing drugs for sale, (c) selling or holding
drugs, (d) gambling, & (e) bookkeeping

8. Sites of Resilience Theoretical Model
(Brown, Payne, Green & Dressner, 2010; Payne, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2011)

FUNDAMENTAL PRISM
INDIVIDUAL
CONDITIONS
Phenomenology
SOCIAL
STRUCTRAL
CONDITIONS
Relational
Coping
History
LOCAL
GENERAL
CONCEPTUAL PRISM
PSYCHOLOGICAL
S.O.R.
PHYSICAL
S.O.R.
Street
Life
Social
Injustice
Social
Structural
Systems

9. Wilmington Street PAR Family


10. What is Participatory Action
Research?

(I.) Participatory Action Research (PAR) projects includes on
the research team, who are members of the population
under study. Once such members are identified, they
then are offered the opportunity to participate in all
phases of the research project (e. g. theoretical framing,
literature review, analysis, publication, presentation,
monetary compensation, etc.); &
(II.) PAR projects require an social justice based response to
be organized in response to the data collected by the
study.
Research + Social Activism = PAR

11. 

12. METHOLOGICAL DESIGN
of LARGER STUDY

Community
Sample
(age range)
Community
Survey Packet
Individual
Interviews
18 – 21
173
12
22 – 29
205
12
30 – 35
142
12
41 – 53
----
-----
Group Interviews
1
(5 participants)
1
(5 participants)
1
(5 participants)
1
(7 participants)
United Brothers of
9th Street

13. Survey Sample
n = 520


14. Summary of Survey Data

 310 total women surveyed from the larger 520 sample (n=310)
 Most of the women currently reside and grew up in the Eastside or Southbridge
sections of Wilmington, DE
 Over 65% of the women currently live in low-income or multi-family homes
 Over 43% of the women have less than a high school diploma
 Almost 62% of the females in the sample are unemployed
 Less than 5% of the women are legally married
 Over 64% of the women have children
 Almost half of the women have been arrested, and over 1/3 have been incarcerated
at some point
 Of those incarcerated, 55% of the women’s prior primary hustle was
drugs/narcotics (selling, holding, preparing, etc.)
 Over 15% of the sample has been attacked or stabbed with a knife at some point.
 Over 53% of the women have had a relative killed with a gun

15. Mikesha Washington
shows several stab wounds on her back that she got
in Wilmington


16. Neighborhood children gather around as the PAR
team walk around the neighborhood getting
residents to fill out an eighteen page survey.


17. 
Secondary Analysis on
Black Women in the
Streets…

18. Project Design
Interview/Qualitative Data

Age Range
Individual
Interviews
Age Range
Dual
Interviews
Group
Interviews
18-21
1
18-22
---
---
22-29
3
27-29
---
1 (3
participants)
30-35
2
28-35
3 (6
participants)
1 (2 females
and 1 male)

19. n = 17

Age
cohort
Female
18-21
1
22-29
9
30-35
7

20. n = 17


21. n = 17


22. n = 15


23. n=9


24. n=5


25. n = 14

29.4%
17.6%
17.6%
5.9%
5.9%
5.9%

26. n = 16

35.3%
23.5%
17.6%
11.8%
5.9%

27. Coding Scheme

1st Phase of Qualitative
Coding
2nd Phase of Qualitative Coding
3rd Phase of Qualitative
Coding
Broad Domain
Core Code
Sub Codes
(1) Family
(1) Family
Childhood Home Experiences (Nonresidential Biological Fathers of
Women)
Present Home Experiences (Nonresidential Biological Fathers of
Children)
(1) Substance Abuse
Sales and Use
(1) Incarceration
(2) Anger
(1) Substance Abuse
Sales and Use
(1) Incarceration
(2) Anger
(3) Personal safety of child

28. Interrater Reliability

1st Phase of
Qualitative
Coding
2nd Phase of
Qualitative Coding
Interrater
3rd Phase of Qualitative
Coding
Interrater
Broad
Domain
Core Code
Coding
Alpha
Subcodes
Coding
Alpha
(1) Family
(1) Family
Childhood Home
Experiences (Nonresidential Biological
Fathers of Women)
Present Home
Experiences (Nonresidential Biological
Fathers of Children)
0.93
0.72
Substance Abuse
-Sales and Use
Incarceration
Anger
.75
1.0
.93
Substance Abuse
-Sales and Use
Incarceration
Anger
Personal safety of child
.72
.66
.83
.88

29. What’s it like raising children
in your community?

Aneshia (29): Now you scared to let your child be
born…it's a strain on your youth, and when your child
goes outside. It's a shame…that they can’t walk outside
because you're afraid. When we first moved over here it
was the Wild-Wild West. The first three days over in
Southbridge was the Wild-Wild West. I mean, the movie
scene, they were ducking on the basketball courts, and it
was like a war zone. Like they were literally shooting in
broad daylight like they were in the Wild-Wild West, I
thought I was on TV.
CODE: Childhood/Personal Safety

30. How would you describe the home life
of the average youth in Southbridge?

Yadira (31): Single, parent, mothers raising children on
their own…
CODE: Fatherless Homes

31. 
Childhood experiences of Black
Women in the Streets…

32. n = 12


33. “Motherless” home?

Michelle (31): Like, my mom left when I was
2…She didn't want nothing to do with me and
my brother. So my dad…took on what he had
to do. So from then on it's been me, my dad
and my brother. My dad raised me from age 2
and that's it…
CODE: Opposite of Fatherless
Homes

34. n = 12


35. Tell us about your experiences
with your father?

Brandy (29): My dad went to jail when I was 5
years old, got 25 years [in prison]. [He] came home
when I was 25. I’m 29 now. He got out when I was
25, he went back when I was 27 and got life…So
basically I know his first and last name.
CODES: Fatherless Homes; Incarceration; Anger

36. n = 11


37. How would you describe your
relationship with your father?

Tisha (27): Me and my father’s relationship is fair, you
know? He was always around as far as somebody to
talk to. You feel me? Me and my dad got…more like a
brother and sister bond. We can laugh, we can talk
about whatever…he always made it clear to me…‘I’m
the only man that’s going to love you
unconditionally, so you can come to me with
whatever.’
CODE: Fatherless Homes

38. n=8


39. n = 15


40. 
Present home experiences of
Black Women in the Streets…

41. n = 13


42. Are any of your children’s
fathers in their lives?

Leslie (31): No.
Q: No. Now how does that make you feel?
Leslie (31): It makes me feel bad because there's no, it's
like, hard raising 'em all by myself with no help.
CODE: Fatherless Homes

43. How do you feel about your
child’s father not in the home?

Aneshia (29): …If the white man gotta make you take
care of my child, then we don't need you…it made
me really dislike men too. 'Cause it started with my
dad…Yeah, I'm a male basher…Like I was hurt by a
man, really badly, deeply-rooted hurt by a man so
that [has] a great impact on me to this day.
CODE: Fatherless Homes; Anger

44. n = 11


45. Substance Abuse…

Brandy (29): My children’s father is not around, not
in the household, sells drugs everyday…Like you
live about a 20 minute walk from Southbridge, and
it’s been months since you looked my kids in their
face…So no…I don’t believe you love them.
CODES: Fatherless Homes; Substance Abuse; Anger

46. Negative Relationship with
Mother…

Tasha (29): Some fathers feel like these days, if
they're not with…the mother of their child then
they don't want nothing to do with the child…
CODE: Fatherless Homes

47. n = 15


48. How do you feel about fathers
in the home?

Lanise (34): ..the authority of a [male] voice and just the
male presence…The nature of men…their authority…
CODE: Fatherless Homes

49. What’s it like being a single
mother?

Tisha (27): It's hard to be a single mother out trying to
raise your kids on your own. So the best thing you can
do is just hold them tight and let them know
everything's gonna be alright… you know, don't run to
the streets.
CODE: Fatherless Homes

50. What’s it like being a single
mother?

Chantel (30): I'm…being a strong black single
parent. I gotta like, you know, straighten up and
don't be too depressed around my daughter, you
know?
CODE: Fatherless Homes

51. What’s it like being a single
mother?

Tisha (27): My daughter, she's a year, and I felt like I
wanted to do something different, and I wanted to
show her that her mom can get it. I don't need no
drug, I don't need no man, 'cause that's how I want
my daughter to look up and always say, 'Oh my mom
did it.’
CODE: Fatherless Homes

52. What’s it like being a single
mother?

Chantel (30): As long as my baby's stomach never
growl, I'm good...I just learned to be grateful about a
lot of stuff.
CODE: Fatherless Homes

53. What Have We Learned?
-
-

Evidence of Intergenerational transmission and
Social reproduction
- Fatherless homes
- Substance Abuse (Sales and Use)
- Childhood/personal safety (present)
Anger
Need for more research that is “useful” for Black
women living in the streets

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