The Role of Race/Ethnicity and Acculturation in the Functioning of Disadvantaged Mothers' Social Support Networks

Informal social support is often necessary among low-income networks in the post-welfare reform era when public supports are less available. Using social capital perspective and reciprocity theory, which recognize that social support necessitates positive social relationships and available resources, the author used data from the Welfare, Children, & Families project, a study of primarily low-income mothers living in disadvantaged neighborhoods (n=2,215), to examine how excess network burden relates to support availability and to consider how the relationship differs by race, ethnicity, and nativity. The findings revealed that mothers with excess burden and other vulnerabilities (e.g., of Mexican or Puerto Rican descent, born outside the U.S. mainland, single-parent households, neighborhood problems) perceived less support, suggesting that perceiving excess burden provides little material and emotional protection and actually may accentuate vulnerability. A significant interaction suggests that excess burdens are less problematic for immigrant mothers' support networks. Policy and practice implications are provided.