Exploring Maternal Resilience among Predominantly Low-Income and Minoritized Women

Research has increasingly explored maternal resilience or protective factors that enable women to achieve healthier maternal and child outcomes. However, it has not adequately examined maternal resilience using a culturally-relevant, socio-ecological lens or how it may be influenced by early-life stressors and resources. The current study contributes to the literature on maternal resilience by qualitatively exploring the salient multi-level stressors and resources experienced over the lifecourse by predominantly low-income and minoritized women.

Data are from 19 women who were either adult mothers with children under 18 years of age living at home or reproductive-aged. Respondents completed semi-structured interviews, and grounded theory analyses identified themes related to stressors experienced and resilience resources utilized over the lifespan.

Four domains relating to maternal stress and resilience, including stressors (caregiving stress, family conflict, and deaths in the family), traumas (abandonment, domestic violence, child abuse, and substance misuse), coping mechanisms (positive mindset, faith, activities, and movement, healthy eating, self-regulation, and self-love/care), and supports (family, friends, spouses/partners, community members, and religious institutions), emerged from the data. Familial relationships were perceived as the most significant support as well as the biggest source of stress and trauma.

As proposed by the socio-ecological framework, our findings suggest that components of maternal resilience exist at the individual (i.e., positive mindset, faith, self-regulation, self-love, and positive health behaviors), interpersonal (i.e., support from family, friends, and partner), and community (i.e., support from community members and religious organizations) levels.