Please note that there are two different conference venues: June 14/15 - Century City Conference Centre June 16 - Kirstenbosch Conference Centre (transportation available)
Conceptualizing Resilience: Lone mothers’ understanding and experiences of resiliency Presenter: Sara Cumming (Sheridan College, Canada) Co-Authors: Lea Caragata, Elizabeth Watters Introduction: Women in Canada currently face a gendered labour market and a decrease in the availability of state benefits. In spite of these realities, some cope exceptionally well with very significant levels of adversity. Understanding what contributes to these resilient and adaptive behaviours is critical to effective and targeted policy formulation. Methods: This study examined resilience among immigrant and Canadian-born lone mothers living in poverty. It drew upon earlier research (2005-2010) conducted as part of five-year community university research alliance (CURA), and involved new data collection with 38 lone mothers in three cities across Canada. Eighteen lone mothers women who were involved as research assistants in the CURA project participated in focus groups to explore the meaning of resilience as well as perceived protective factors and types of adversity. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with a total of 20 lone mothers in the three sites. Findings: The findings support Masten’s (2007) understanding of resiliency as related to three kinds of phenomena: good outcomes despite high-risk status, sustained competence under threat, and recovery from trauma. However we argue that there is a fourth phenomenon which we label ‘overcoming a setback’.
