Single mother-trained Sara McLanahan dies at 81


Dr. Garfinkel said the results of the Fragile Families study “provided no support for families.” culture of poverty thesisIt assumes that different values ​​and behaviors among the poor trap them in self-perpetuating cycles of deprivation. Instead, he said, “conditions and opportunities”, not differences in value, have the greatest impact.

While her findings line up some advocates for single mothers, Dr. McLanahan continued to publish books and articles on the subject.

Dr. “We reject the argument that people shouldn’t talk about the negative consequences of single motherhood for fear of stigmatizing single mothers and their children,” McLanahan and researcher Gary Sandefur wrote in their 1994 book.Growing up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps?“While we appreciate the compassion behind this position, we ultimately disagree. We truly believe that not talking about these issues will do more harm than good.”

Sara Frances Smith was born on December 27, 1940 in Tyler, Texas. His father, Norman Smith, was the general manager of a local oil company. His mother, Iredell (Brown) Smith, was a housewife.

He attended Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler, now known as Tyler Legacy High School. A talented pianist, he studied for one summer at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. He attended Bennett Junior College in Irvington, NY and went to Smith College. After a year at Smith, he dropped out in 1962 and married Ellery McLanahan. They had three children, Sara, Ellery, and Anna Bell, who all survived. The family moved to Houston and the couple divorced in 1972.

McLanahan returned to school and graduated from the University of Houston in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. He earned his MA and PhD degrees in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.

He began his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in 1979. There Dr. She met Garfinkel and focused her research on single motherhood. (He avoided this topic in his doctoral thesis at the University of Texas because he said it was too close to home.) He and Dr. Garfinkel married in 1982.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *