Perceptions of family of origin health, self-esteem, and the divorced single mother among college students

• Main Author: Burke, Susan J.
• Other Authors: Sugawara, Alan I.
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Divorced mothers > Public opinion; College students > Attitudes
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/35251

This study sought to determine the contributions of college students' perceptions of family of origin health and self-esteem to their perceptions of the divorced single mother. It was hypothesized that individuals who hold more positive views of their family of origin health will also view themselves and, consequently, the divorced single mother more positively. Participants were 170 college students, 113 of whom lived only with their biological parents, and 57 of whom lived at sometime in their lives with a divorced single mother. Four instruments were used to collect the data, including the Family of Origin Health Scale (Hovestadt et al., 1985), the Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), the Perception of Divorced Mother Scale (Ganong & Coleman, 1983), and a demographic questionnaire. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were used in data analyses. Generally, results indicated that family type made no major impact on participants' perceptions of the divorced single mother. Among participants in the biological parent group and the divorced single mother group, family of origin health significantly predicted more positive perceptions of the divorced single mother. In this analysis, the regression model for the biological parent group was significant, while for the divorced single mother group it was not. Self-esteem was not found to contribute significantly to participants' perceptions of the divorced single mother, and thus did not mediate the relationship between family of origin health and perceptions of the divorced single mother. Finally, among the biological parent group, amount of interaction with single parent families headed by a divorced single mother significantly predicted more positive perceptions of the divorced single mother. Among the divorced single mother group, however, amount of time lived in a single parent family headed by a divorced mother did not significantly predict their perceptions of the divorced single mother. === Graduation date: 1995