Profile of single mothers in southern Malaysia and issues afflicting their lives

Abstract

Becoming a single mother is a traumatic experience due to the stress incurred in shouldering innumerable responsibilities encompassing providing financial means, managing the household and raising the children. These issues afflicting single mothers may inadvertently result in negative implications. This is because some of the troubled single mothers might take an easy way out by committing suicide or becoming prostitutes in attempting to overcome the challenges and crisis faced. Hence, this study aimed to identify issues and challenges faced by single mothers, and compile a profile of single mothers. The study was conducted in Johor, a Southern State in Malaysia, involving 100 randomly selected single-mother respondents. Data were collected via questionnaires comprising question items on the background of the respondents and the challenges they face, measured from the aspect of the economy, family, social stigma and emotional psychology. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 16.0) software was used in analysing the data, where descriptive analysis, namely, frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research objectives. The results showed that single mothers aged 41 years and above dominated the study, comprising 87% of the respondents, compared to 2% from the 21-30 age group, and 11% from the 31-40 age group. The main problem afflicting single mothers was economic problem (M = 28.85. This was followed by emotional and psychological problems (M = 27.09), social stigma ( M = 25.17) and family issues (M = 23.92).