Motherhood at the Margins: Vigilance, Moral Learning, and Identity in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

This study investigated how single mothers navigate parenting and construct maternal identity in disadvantaged neighborhoods shaped by structural and institutional constraints. Drawing on the Family Stress Model and concepts of stigma and institutional surveillance, the study used in-depth interviews with 25 mothers. The analysis identified three central themes: (1) “on-guard parenting”; (2) moral learning and mutual care; and (3) maternal identity negotiated between neighborhood norms and external stigma. The findings suggested that mothers conceptualized vigilance as a moral practice to protect their children and perceived neighborhoods as sites of risk and moral learning. Maternal identity was characterized as a dynamic process shaped by the interplay between neighborhood norms, institutional surveillance, and stigma. The findings demonstrated that single mothers actively transformed structurally deprived environments into spaces of protection and moral significance. This study advanced understanding of parenting under structural marginality by highlighting mothers’ contextual expertise and moral agency.