Linked Lives: The Process of Becoming a Mother, Becoming Homeless and Negotiating the Space between

Background: Most homeless women have children, although many have lost custody; moreover, early family violence is a primary risk factor for female homelessness (Crawford et al., 21100). Thus, women’s experiences of homelessness are complicated by unresolved childhood trauma and disrupted relationships with their own children. The current study reports on a narrative analysis of women’s stories about growing up, becoming homeless, and becoming mothers. We utilized life course theory (Elder, 1998) to answer the following question: how did the women’s relationships with their families and events at critical developmental stages influence their trajectories into homelessness and motherhood?

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 mothers (42% African American; Mean age = 38.25, SD = 9.38) purposively recruited from transitional housing or emergency shelter programs. Interview transcripts were uploaded into Atlas.ti and coded using holistic-content analysis within narrative theory (Lieblich et al., 2011); we used linked lives, a key tenet in life course theory, as a sensitizing topic (Blumer, 1969).

Results: The cycle of fragmentation emerged as a key theme; only two were raised by both parents, and even then, parental addiction poisoned these memories. The women described two paths to fragmentation. Four of the women found their “typical middle class” families coming apart due to either divorce or parental death in their pre-pubescent years. As one woman said, “things went downhill” when she was seven and her parents divorced; she, her mother, and brother ended up homeless. In the more common story, fragmentation “seemed normal”. One woman whose father committed suicide when she was a very young explained, “The fact that the dads are not there. There’s like no support system within my household.” For all of the women, fragmentation in their formative years led to early and unexpected pregnancies, and all but one had given birth by the age of 20. One woman recalled, “I was common-law married… from 14 until I turned 20. I lost my first baby when I was 20.” Homelessness, for most, began after the first pregnancy, driven by broken and abusive romantic relationships, limited employment experience, and addiction. One woman recalled: “I was with my second ex-husband, and he basically told me I couldn’t come home anymore…I met another man who is my last child’s daddy. We were homeless…We’d sleep in the car.”

Conclusion and Implications: Findings provide contextual evidence for prioritizing policies and funding that support young mothers and single mothers. The majority of the women interviewed were born into single-parent families with weak support systems. The untreated abuse and addiction witnessed and experienced in childhood, stayed with them into adolescence. Many entered abusive relationships and motherhood before leaving adolescence; by emerging adulthood all but one had children, and most had a drug habit and were working either in the sex industry, for minimum wage, or were unemployed. By feminizing poverty and isolating motherhood, we put women and their children at risk for becoming trapped within environments that engender and transmit trauma and dysfunction across generations.