Strategies of single-parent families in coping with poverty: A case study of Sultanbeyli̇

With the advent of globalization, family structures have undergone evolution and change in Turkey, mirroring trends observed globally. Factors such as death, separation, divorce, and incarceration have further catalyzed this transformation, resulting in the prevalence of single-parent family dynamics. The likelihood of a household head being left alone with a child and encountering phenomena such as poverty has consequently heightened. In this context, poverty has been reconceptualized not merely as the deprivation of basic needs but also through Amartya Sen's Capability Approach, which posits that monetary values are not the sole metric for evaluating poverty but rather as multidimensional poverty. Within this framework, the aim of the study was to examine the poverty experiences of single-parent families, elucidate the pathways to poverty, explore the impact of poverty on individuals' daily and social lives, identify coping strategies with poverty, evaluate the services received by families, and ascertain their awareness. To this end, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 individuals, comprising 8 single mothers and 7 single fathers residing within the boundaries of Sultanbeyli, who benefited from the social support provided by various aid organizations. Employing a phenomenological approach as the foundational framework, in-depth interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview format. The collected data were subsequently analyzed through content analysis. The findings of the study revealed that all interviewed families exhibited low socioeconomic status, high household unemployment rates, and low levels of parental education. Nearly all emphasized the significance of education in enabling their children to escape poverty. Furthermore, rent support was perceived as equivalent to alleviating poverty. Generally, the study observed a lack of long-term planning, limited participation in social activities, reliance on day-to-day strategies, and the partial alleviation of poverty through social assistance, although it did not entirely eradicate poverty among disadvantaged families. Instead, social assistance was found to mitigate poverty and facilitate crisis management.