Exploration of psychosocial coping strategies towards parental role-changes in single parenthood among Montsiwa Stad clinic parents in Mafikeng North West Province

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the coping strategies used by single parents to adapt to parental role changes. An exploratory and descriptive design with quantitative method was used. The study population consisted of fifty single parents. Convenience method of sampling was used. It selects the members of a sample as and when such members present themselves The measunng instrument used- Ways of copmg Scale was administered only once permission had been obtained from both the clinic and single parents. In this version there are 32 items measure of three types of coping strategies: Active Behavioral Strategies, Active Cognitive Strategies and Avoidance Strategies. The reliability indices for the scale of the measuring instrument were calculated using the Cronbach-alpha reliability coefficient. The study found that more use of behavioral strategies of coping seemed to be more prevalent with differences along gender, location, employment, level of education. The study also showed that there is a significant relationship between single parents' religion and the use of both cognitive and behavioral coping strategies. Highest level of education was associated with behavioral strategy of coping whilst occupation was found to be associated with cognitive strategy of coping. This means that religion occupation and level of education have some influence on the single parents' way of using coping strategies. Finally the last section of this investigation provides recommendations for further studies and the implementation of findings were made.