Abstract
The Zimbabwean government implemented its first three-week nationwide lockdown on the 20th of March 2020 as a result of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendations for curbing the spread of the Coronavirus, which impacted many aspects of society, exposing persistent inequalities by income, age, race, sex, and geographic location. Families were not left unscathed by the pandemic. In addition to the challenges brought forth by the pandemic, the Zimbabwean population was already suffering from a severe economic downturn. This study looked at the challenges experienced by and the coping mechanisms of single parents with primary school-going children under Covid-19 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Existing literature on single-parent experiences primarily focuses on single mothers, thus excluding single fathers. This study bridges that gap by looking at the coping mechanisms of both single mothers and single fathers. Theoretically, the study adopted the Revenson and Lepore coping theory to understand how single parents coped under the pandemic.
Additionally, intersectional theory was used to understand how interlocking systems of oppression affected single parents. While employing a qualitative approach, participants were recruited using both purposive and snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve single parents, comprising four single fathers and eight single mothers. The research found that pandemics do not impact women and men in the same way, even if they share other identities like single parenting. Women’s single-parent identity intersects with other identities, such as gender and class, where women are normally more disadvantaged than men. This is in line with the intersectional framework used in the study. The research also found that even during the Covid-19 pandemic, participants continued to utilise social relations to cope, which aligns with the coping theory used in the study. Prayer and social media were among some of the coping strategies that the participants employed. The study, therefore, argues that coping mechanisms depend on many personal and situational determinants and change rapidly as those determinants change. Also, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on single-parent households resulted in heightened financial and emotional challenges when contrasted with two-parent households.