Abstract
Women who suffer to take care of their children and barely survive materially have little opportunity to devote attention to their psychosocial wellbeing. These women are kept alive by grants, but no attention is paid to their psychosocial health. This article reports on research aimed to investigate social and economic exclusion among a sample of single mothers living in a rural community to gain insight into the resultant impact of these exclusions on their psychosocial wellbeing. The study collected data through 16 semi-structured interviews with participants who were purposively selected. The interviews were conducted in isiZulu by social workers. A qualitative interpretive methodology was used to understand their experiences of social exclusion and the resultant psychosocial wellbeing of the sample. The interviews were transcribed and translated before being analysed with thematic analysis. The findings reveal that these single mothers are socially and economically excluded, with little opportunity for employment or upward financial mobility. The primary survival strategy of participants was dependent on the receipt of monthly cash transfers from the state, but this did not reduce the detrimental psychosocial impact. The psychosocial impacts of these circumstances included isolation, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, hopelessness, mental illness, substance abuse and loss of autonomy. Social workers must prioritise developmental social welfare interventions and implement micro, meso and macro developmental social work programmes to intervene in addressing the psychosocial well-being and economic needs of single mothers in rural South Africa.