As seen on A Current Affair


Get the "best-of" single mum
news & forum posts...
get our monthly newsletter!

Subscribe to our mailing list

We take email privacy seriously




Follow Us! Get Breaking Single Parent News and the latest Single Mum Forum posts in your news feed everyday!


go to Facebook singlemum.com.au go to Twitter singlemum.com.au

Sponsored article - Co-parenting with your Ex

Ballarat University

Single Mother Surveys and Studies

Single Mums Needed!

The positive psychological health of single mothers

*NOW CLOSED*

Hi, my name is Jodie Christie, I am a single mum of three. We would like to contribute some positive research on single mothers, and would appreciate your help.

My research is on the positive psychological health of single mothers. I am a Post Graduate Diploma of psychology student and am conducting the research under the supervision of Dr Shaun Watson, of the School of Behavioural and Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ballarat, Victoria, and the research has full ethics approval.


The title of the research is "The subjective well-being of single mothers:The role of locus of control and social support". Basically we are investigating how the amount of control a mother feels they have over their lives and their level of social support influences how happy and satisfied they are with their lives.

If you could spare a short amount of time to complete some questionnaires your answers will help in the understanding of what helps mothers function well. Could you please follow one of the links below to the questionnaires.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7F97DSZ
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YYNF8SM
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7FTHPBY
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7FXGTR5

Thank you, we appreciate your time and input

If you have any questions, or you would like further information regarding the project titled The subjective well-being of single mothers:The role of locus of control and social support, please contact the Principal Researcher, Dr. Shaun Watson, of the School of the School of Behavioural and Social Sciences and Humanities:
PH: (03) 5327 9622
EMAIL: shaun.watson@ballarat.edu.au


Go to Single Mother Surveys and Studies Index









What does it mean to be a single mum?Of course, the

kids

are the most important thing in a single mum's life. Kids are the focus and always have been. But along with the children, there are other matters that can confuse a single mum's life.

Centrelink

plays a big part of a single mother's life, mainly because this is where a large percentage of single mums get their finances from. Centrelink are the source from where the

single mother pension

, or as it is otherwise known, the single parent payment comes from. The single mother pension is a subsistence amount, but just the same, it is money to live on, and so it is important, no matter if it is called single parent payment, single mother pension or whatever Centrelink welfare classes it at the time

Often, single mums come out of a

divorce

or defacto relationship only to find that their troubles have just begun, and find that their first step leads them towards Family Law - it's time to engage a lawyer.
There are more than just Centrelink finance problems to worry about, as mentioned before, but also

child custody

issues. Child custody is something that hits right at the heart of

single mums

. If a single mother's ex husband or ex partner has been a domestic violence perpetrator, the mum may be greatly worried about child custody. They worry that their kids won't be safe with their spouse, who has already proven to be abusive because they caused

domestic violence

, which resulted in a divorce or separation.

Even so,

Family Court

will often still order a form of child custody named

Shared Parenting

. Shared Parenting is a form of child custody division of time or parental responsibility between the parents. Mother's often look for a good divorce lawyer to try to avoid share parenting with an abusive ex-spouse after divorce, however in many cases Shared Parenting is still the outcome after the divorce, no matter how good the divorce lawyers have been. They will often settle for visitation at a contact centre or access centre where fathers or mothers are supervised during child custody access.

Please remember the bigger font words,because we will use it often in our website.