Date of Award
5-2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
PhD of Social Work
Department
Social Work
Dissertation Chair
Janelle Bryan-Bradshaw, MSW, PhD
Faculty Advisor
Crystal Hayes, PhD, MSW
2nd Reader
Ciara Zachary, MPH, PhD
Abstract
The United States child protection system (CPS), organized around safety, permanency, and well‑being, often produces harmful outcomes for Black families, particularly mothers of infants and toddlers during critical developmental periods. Despite longstanding evidence of racial disproportionality, social work and CPS research rarely centers Black mothers’ lived experiences, reinforcing deficit‑based assumptions grounded in white, middle‑class norms.
This critical phenomenological study centers the perspectives of twelve first‑time Black mothers in Boston who are not currently involved with CPS. Guided by structural social work theory, intersectionality, and Black feminist thought, the study examines how mothers navigate decision‑making within the early childhood ecosystem and how awareness of systemic inequities and mandated reporting shapes those decisions.
Findings reveal that Black mothers engage in values‑driven, culturally grounded decision‑making while simultaneously practicing hypervigilance within systems shaped by surveillance and unequal power. Black mothers described sustained emotional and psychological labor as they navigated primarily white institutions where they felt simultaneously hypervisible and unsupported.
This study introduces two conceptual contributions: MotherNoir, which captures the structural conditions of normative deviance, racialized and gendered scrutiny, institutional surveillance, and the threat of family separation shaping Black motherhood, and Black maternal calculus, which names the values‑driven, strategic, and emotionally intensive decision‑making Black mothers use to assess risk and navigate institutional power. Together, these frameworks challenge Eurocentric social work paradigms by centering Black maternal epistemologies and illuminating the structural realities shaping Black motherhood in the United States.
Implications call for shifts in social work education, practice, and policy toward anti-racist, relational, and structurally informed approaches that prioritize trust, transparency, culturally grounded care, and Black family preservation. The findings also support reframing mandated reporting through an ethical, equity-centered lens, while emphasizing structural investment over punitive surveillance systems.
Recommended Citation
Warren-Barnes, K. (2026). “It only takes one time, and they will open a file on you”: Black maternal decision-making, values, vigilance, and the emotional toll of parenting young children under systemic scrutiny [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Sacred Heart University.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Comments
A PhD in Social Work project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD of Social Work, Sacred Heart University College of Arts and Sciences.