Dr. Kefalas’ paper focused on analysis of repeated open-ended interviews with low-income single mothers ranging in age from 15 to 50, paying particular attention to their childrearing strategies and philosophies in raising children in high crime and high poverty inner city communities (Camden NJ, and Philadelphia, PA). Her study investigated these women’s accounts as to what mothers “do” for their children, how they protect their children, the role education plays in their lives and what hopes and dreams they hold for their children.

She found that while middle-class observers often focus on what low-income mothers cannot provide for their children these mothers celebrate the everyday heroics required to keep their children safe, fed, clothed and out of trouble. In a philosophy mothers describe as "being there" mothers who know the odds are stacked against them understand that a good mother is someone who “holds” on to her children and supports them no matter what the future might hold.

So while these women struggle and strive in order to have their children succeed, a woman can still be a good mother in her own eyes and in the eyes of her community even when her children lose their way (because of drugs, violence, criminal behavior, school failure, or early childbearing). After all, a good mother's primary goal is to "hold on" and "be there" for her children no matter what their outcomes.

Dr. Kefalas along with her co-investigator, Kathy Edin will be publishing the results of their study in a book entitled, Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. It is being published by the University of California Press in 2004.