AH ANALYSIS ^>F SELECTED CASES IN WHICH A DIVORCED MOTHER APPLIED TO AN ADOPTION AGENCY FOR HELP IN PLANNING FOR HER CHILD A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Social Work The University of Southern California - In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Social Work by Lois Ann Davis June# 1950 UMI Number: EP66335 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertaliffft Publishing UMI EP66335 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 3 t 1 *4f 0 *f D & *2- This thesis, written under the direction of the candidate’s Faculty Committee and approved hy all its members} has been presented to and accepted by the Faculty of the Graduate School of Social Work in partial fulfilment of the re­ quirements for the degree of MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK Dean Date. Thesis o/... LQIS..MM..M?!S Faculty Committee Chairman / TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE PROBLEM, SCOPE AND METHOD............... 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . ............. 1 The problem ....................... 2 The setting .............................. 5 Scope and method of inquiry .............. 6 II. PRESENTATION OF CASES . . .................. 9 Group I - Those completing an adoptive plan 12 Case 11 « * . » . . . . . « . . . . . . 12 Case I I I ......................... 15 Case V • • • • 17 Case VI . . . ........................... 21 Case V I I ........................... 23 Group II - Those not completing an adoptive plan . . . . . . ............. . . . . . 27 Case I ..................... 28 Case I V ............................. 31 Analysis.................................. 34 III. THE MOTHERfS FEELINGS TOWARD FORMER HUSBAND, FATHER OF THE BABY, AND HER ABILITY TO FACE SEPARATION FROM THE CHILD .......... 40 Feelings toward former husband • • • • • • 41 Feelings toward the father of the baby • • 51 ill CHAPTER PAGE Ability of the mother to face separation from her child • • • • • • .......... * . • 63 17. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS .................. . 72 BIBLIOGRAPHY . .................................... . 79 CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM, SCOPE AND METHOD INTRODUCTION The divorced mother ?/ho applies to the adoption agency for help in planning for her child is faced with problems in some ways similar to, in some ways different from, those of the unmarried mother who applies for similar help.'*' If the child is an out-of-wedlock child, or if the legal husband is not the natural father, the divorced mother is caught in a complicated situation in which her feelings about her husband, about the father of the child, about the child himself, catch her up In a maelstrom of emotions* The respon­ sibility of the case worker in an adoption agency is to help her meet her feelings as realistically as possible in planning for her child* Thus far, however, the problems of the divorced mother who comes to an adoption agency for such help have not been studied apart from those of the unmarried mother. It was felt that such a study might give some understanding of the In this thesis the term unmarried mother will apply to those mothers who have not been married. The term divorced mother will apply to those mothers who have been married, and who have obtained an interlocutory or a final divorce decree at the time of their application to the agency for help in planning for a child conceived out of wedlock. problems with which the divorced mother is faced, and also would serve to make us increasingly aware of what factors should be considered as we try to help her* II. THE PROBLEM There has been little research done In reference to problems of post-divorce adjustment. As pointed out by Goode, ”this lack of field research seems surprising, since it is generally agreed that divorce is a major personal crisis* Further, this personal crisis is the prospective experience of one-fifth to one-fourth of all American adults who live an average life span*” Goode continues by bringing in the thinking of Willard Waller in his book The Old Love and the New, in regard to ad­ justment to divorce. Waller compared the divorce situation to bereavement, noting that although many of the structural components are similar - for example, absence of former spouse, cessa tion of sexual relations with spouse, usually lowered in­ come, ambivalence of sorrow, perseveration of old habit patterns, and so on - the divorcee lacks the institution­ alized patterns which shape and ease the reactions of the widow. As a consequence, the divorcee is placed in several sets of either undefined or incompatible roles. Some of the former center about friends of both spouses. The incompatible roles, however, are related more closely to o William J. Goode, ^Problems in Postdivorce Adjust­ ment,” American Sociological Review, 14:394, June, 1949. the fact that the divorcee may be very unhappy about the marital failure, and even attached to the former husband, but must instead show little sorrow or continued affec­ tion*^ The postdivorce adjustment in itself presents many dif­ ficulties* In addition, in our culture, the expectation of permanency in marriage is still great enough to brand every 4 impermanence as a failure, if not a sin* if the divorced woman becomes pregnant out of wedlock (whether or not this, is a result of her attempt to adjust to the divorce), she is then faced with still another problem— that of a failure to live up to the standards of our social morality* It can not be determined to what extent the divorce and the problems of adjustment to it may have been contributing factors in the pregnancy. Certain factors possibly enter in* such as the cessation of sexual relations with the husband, seeking of other affectional ties, etc* Although it is possible that there was a causal rela­ tionship between the divorce and pregnancy in these cases, no attempt was made in this study to analyze the cases in order to determine motivation or to inquire into the reasons why this divorced mother found herself faced with the problem of 3 Ibid., p. 396. 4 Margaret Mead, Male and Female (New York: William M* Morrow and Company, 1949), p* 356* 4 planning for a child who did not fit into the accepted social pattern. The motivations for human behavior can be extra­ ordinarily complex* and no single or simple explanation can 5 account fully for a psychological phenomenon. Marian Nicholson in writing on unmarried motherhood stated: It is very easy to become too psychological about these things. Having a child represents to any woman* married or unmarried* a profound experience* unless she represses or denies part of herself. It is one of those natural experiences* like being born one’s self, like death* which seems to carry a freight of significance derived from countless past ages of human experience - more in the sense of Jung’s unconscious than of Freud’s. At this level nothing can be verbalized* little can be comprehended. Shapeless fears* a sense of connection with vague some­ things beyond the self - such feelings as these are often part of the experience and are beyond psychological anal­ ysis by anyone, even the woman bearing the child.® The purpose of this study was to analyze the cases selected in terms of those areas with which the divorced mother was primarily concerned in her contacts with the agency. She applied to the agency because she was considering an adoptive plan for her child, and therefore the focus of case work was on her decision in regard to future planning for her 5 Florence Clothier* 11 Psychological Implications of Unmarried Parenthood*11 American Journal of Orthopsychiatry* 3:531, July, 1943. ® Marian Nicholson* ,fThe Decision to Relinquish for Adoption*M (unpublished paper read before the Institute on Adoption Practice in Social Work* School of Social Work* University of Southern California, August 26, 1949), p. 4. 5 child. The constellation of factors entering into her deci­ sion constituted the framework of service. Necessarily inter­ woven with these factors were her feelings in regard to the father of the child, her husband, the child himself, and what * separation from the child meant to her. These feelings, which perhaps did not consciously affect her decision, were neces­ sarily an integral part of this decision. These, therefore, were considered in this study, as well as the constellation of factors which she consciously recognized as contributing to her decision to keep or to relinquish the child. THE SETTING This study was conducted at the Southern District Office of the Children’s Home Society of California in Los Angeles. The Children’s Home Society is licensed by the state of California to place children for adoption. It is a state­ wide agency serving children of all races and creeds. Until 1943 the Society provided some care and protective services to children in need of temporary help apart from adoption, as well as a small maternity care program for un­ married mothers. The program was reorganized in 1943 since which time the agency’s services have been limited to adoptions. Its case-work services include services to parents wishing to consider adoption for their children, study and temporary care of children who seem eligible for adoption,