The Role of Trust in Low-Income Mothers' Intimate Unions*
Recent scholarship concerning low rates of marriage among low-income mothers emphasizes generalized gender distrust as a major impediment in forming sustainable intimate unions. Guided by symbolic interaction theory and longitudinal ethnographic data on 256 low-income mothers from the Three-City Study, we argue that generalized gender distrust may not be as influential in shaping mothers' unions as some researchers suggest. Grounded theory analysis revealed that 96% of the mothers voiced a general distrust of men, yet that distrust did not deter them from involvement in intimate unions. Rather, the pivotal ways mothers enacted trust in their partners were demonstrated by 4 emergent forms of interpersonal trust that we labeled as suspended, compartmentalized, misplaced, and integrated. Implications for future research are discussed.
Burton
Linda M
LM
Sociology Department, Duke University, 255 Soc-Psy Bldg., Durham, NC, 27708, lburton@soc.duke.edu , 919-960-5609 (office), 919-660-5623 (fax).
Cherlin
Andrew
A
Winn
Donna-Marie
DM
Estacion
Angela
A
Holder-Taylor
Clara
C