Coping patterns of mothers of poor boys

Using the same 201 impoverished, urban dwelling black and Cuban refugee mothers from their previous study ""Psychopathology & Fatherlessness in Poor Boys,'' Adams and Horovitz examine the coping sytles of these women. The differing groups of mothers were classified according to their firstborn son's ages, their ethnicity and the presence or absence of a father in their household. Scored according to scales L, F, K, 1--4, and 6--9 of the MMPI, the women were profiled and a descriptive comparison employed. In most instances the null hypothesis was confirmed: mothers of fathered boys did not differ in their coping strategies from mothers of fatherless boys regardless of the family's ethnicity and the boy's psychopathology or age. Of note was the high scores in the ""paranoia'' scale of MMPI, indicating that it may be functional and adaptive to use projection in an urban slum.