Konstantin and single motherhood

Dug up some literature on single mothers and their children. Caitlin, I think this raises some questions about our givens, relationship as well as our subtext much of the time. The article I read is titled “Family Structure and Children’s Success: A Comparison of Widowed and Divorced Single-Mother Families” from the Journal of Marriage and the Family (May 2000). The citation and website link is below. Following that are some notes I took:
Biblarz, Timothy J., and Greg Gottainer. “Family Structure and Children’s Success: A
Comparison of Widowed and Divorced Single-Mother Families.” Journal of
Marriage and the Family 62 (2000): 533-48. JSTOR. May 2000. 9 Nov. 2008 .

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1566757?&Search=yes&term=structure&term=family&term=children%27s&term=success&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dfamily%2Bstructure%2Bchildren%2527s%2Bsuccess%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26wc%3Don&item=5&ttl=11265&returnArticleService=showArticle

Notes:
• the experience of children raised by divorced mothers is markedly different from the experience of children raised by widowed mothers.
• children raised by divorced mothers are less likely to complete high school and/or college than those of widowed mothers (533)
• children raised by divorced mothers are more likely to have menial and/or unstable occupations than those of widowed mothers (533)
• adult children raised by divorced mothers experience more depression and unfulfilment than those raised by widowed mothers (533)
• in a typical two parent family, children learn about how to function and interact with authority; the children of single parents are more likely to suffer one of two extremes: either great neglect or excessive parental authority (534)
• children with stepfathers (the mother being either widowed or divorced) tend to fare negatively in terms of education and occupational status relative to biological two-parent families (537)
• divorced single mothers will tend to socialize more often with their relatives than widowed single mothers (543)
• divorced single mothers tend to be more dissatisfied with their financial situation than widowed single mothers (544)
Is Konstantin’s father dead? I do not think so, just gone. Therefore, I think treating Arkadina like something closer to a divorced mother makes the most sense. Konstantin was unable to finish at university for “circumstnaces beyond our control” but could this also have had to do with his situation as the neglected child of a single mother? Is part of the reason that Konstantin so resents Trigorin because he has occupied the position of stepfather in his life? Does Konstantin resent both Arkadina and Trigorin for shutting him away from his real father? Arkadina’s readiness to socialize with Sorin and the others at the country estate also points to a status equivalent to that of a divorced mother. Also, her readiness to “dissolve into tears” when someone asks her for money suggests a financial dissatisfaction characteristic of divorced mothers according this study.
These questions of single motherhood, stepfatherhood, and child development will help me as I deepen my objective of “Let me into this family!”

--Alborz