<i>Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Richard Altschuler &amp; Associates, Inc./ Gordian Knot Books</i> <i>Hope Springs Maternal</i> is a book about the young mothers who live in New York City’s shelters. Through extensive interviews with twenty-four young women of color living in temporary shelters who either were pregnant or had very young children, Jill Gerson sought to learn about the shelter users’ background, current living experiences, and subjective views of home, family, and parenting. Gerson also employed the life history approach to focus on the ways the mothers’ individual and collective biographies were shaped by both socioeconomic context and interpersonal experiences. The interviews reveal that most of the mothers had experienced a range of disruptive experiences in childhood and adolescence and that their shelter use was closely related to the adverse economic realities with which many poor women of color are forced to contend. Based on the interview data and life history approach, Gerson concludes that the mothers living in shelters had engaged in a determined search for a safe haven that could help them complete their transition into an adult role and become parents able to consider the needs of their children. Their narratives speak to the capacity of the individual to use limited social resources as a self-righting developmental opportunity. The mothers’ transitional shelter use often resonated with a normative maturational thrust to create opportunities to develop economic and residential security and caring interpersonal and family relationships.

Hope Springs Maternal: Homeless Mothers Talk About Making Sense of Adversity

Politics & Social Sciences

Gerson, Jill

Social Sciences

Gordian Knot

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Richard Altschuler & Associates, Inc./ Gordian Knot Books This revised and updated edition of Hope Springs Maternal incorporates the latest data on homeless mothers, changes to laws and policies regarding the homeless nationally and in New York, and an expanded discussion of their implications for social workers, planners, politicians, and shelter administrators concerned with helping homeless mothers establish independent lives for themselves and their children. Through extensive interviews with twenty-four young women of color living in temporary shelters in New York City who were either pregnant or had very young children, Dr. Jill Gerson analyzes the shelter users’ backgrounds, current living experiences, and views of home, family, and parenting. Employing a life-history approach, she focuses on the ways the mothers’ lives were shaped by both socioeconomic context and interpersonal experiences. Gerson finds that most of the mothers had experienced various disruptive experiences in childhood and adolescence and that their shelter use was closely related to the adverse economic realities faced by many poor women of color. These shelter experiences were actually part of the mothers’ search for a safe haven that could help them become self-sufficient adults and competent parents. The narratives reflect each individual’s capacity to use limited social resources for personal development. Such transitional shelter use often coincided with efforts to achieve economic stability, obtain appropriate housing, and develop caring personal relationships.

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Books by Gerson, Jill

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gerson, Jill. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Hope Springs Maternal: Homeless Mothers Talk About Making Sense of Adversity

Hope Springs Maternal: Homeless Mothers Talk About Making Sense of Adversity