Understanding Chinese Single Mothers’ Communicative Resilience Enactment Across Three Types of Social Interactions

Recent social changes in China have contributed to a growing number of single mothers raising dependent children on their own. However, deep-seated cultural norms continue to stigmatize single motherhood, placing many of these women under considerable psychological and social strain. The well-documented challenges of single motherhood underscore the importance of understanding ways to mitigate these adverse effects. Drawing on the communication theory of resilience, this study examines how three forms of social interactions-parental disclosure to children, social support from family and friends, and contact with former or divorced partners and in-laws-shape resilience enactment among single mothers in China, and how communicative resilience enactment facilitates coping outcomes. Using two-wave data collected from 229 single mothers, our findings underscore the critical role of relational resources and social interactions in fostering resilience among Chinese single mothers. The three types of interactions exerted distinct effects on resilience enactment, with disclosure to children demonstrating the strongest positive association. Both continuity- and change-related resilience processes contributed to better mental health, while change-related processes facilitated post-separation forgiveness. These results contribute to theoretical understandings of relational resources of resilience enactment and provide practical insights for developing culturally sensitive support interventions for single mothers in China.