The Kids Still Come First: Creating Family Stability During Partnership Instability in Rural, Low-Income Families

This qualitative study examined the nature of partnerships among 28 rural low-income mothers who experienced partnership transitions across three waves of annual interviews. Guided by lens of uncertainty and boundary ambiguity theory, the authors specifically explored (a) how low-income mothers in rural communities experience partnership transitions over time and (b) how rural, low-income mothers create stability for themselves and their children in the midst of partnership transitions. The narratives of rural, low-income mothers not only featured the uncertainty, unreliability, and instability of their lives but also underscored their resilience and ability to adapt to an impoverished environment. Their decisions to enter into, stay, and leave partnerships, in most cases, were part of their flexible responses to the structural constraints imposed by unemployment, lack of resources, and rural contexts.