The Unmarried Mother: Factors Affecting a Delayed Decision of Unmarried Mothers; Spence-Chapin Adoption Service, 1964-1965
Abstract
This study will seek to discover if there are specific social, situational, and personality factors which characterize situations where unmarried mothers who place their babies in boarding care do not make a decision to surrender the baby for adoption within six months. Within this group there will be differentiation between those situations where the parent makes a decision, either for surrender or for keeping the baby but has not yet carried out the plan, and those situations where the parent has reached no decision. The study is not a probe of unmarried mothers per se, but is limited by the purpose of the study, to those mothers who are known to the agency and are making use of its boarding care service. The following three working hypotheses were formulated: 1. In situations where mothers fail to make a decision, it will be possible to identify certain social, situational, and personality factors which reappear frequently in the various cases. The nature of the agency's activity will also follow a distinguishable pattern in the various cases. 2. In situations where the mother has made a decision, the social, situational, and personality factors, and agency activity will not show any patterns such as those which distinguish cases where mothers prolong decision making. 3. By knowing which social, situational, and personality factors are more frequently found in situations where mothers fail to make a decision, the agency will be in a better position for appraising service.
Subject Area
Womens studies|Individual & family studies|Social work
Recommended Citation
DiPrima, Mary Louise, "The Unmarried Mother: Factors Affecting a Delayed Decision of Unmarried Mothers; Spence-Chapin Adoption Service, 1964-1965" (1966). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI29281883.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI29281883
