Title: The Experience of Unmarried Mothers Raising their Children in Residential Facilities: A
Phenomenological Qualitative Study
Version: 2 Date: 02 Feb 2022
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review this qualitative study.
Please consider the following recommendations.
-Abstract-Conclusions: The sentence “It is necessary to help them form social relationships that
can replace father-child relationships that are missing” seems to be a conclusion that is not based
on the results of this study, so please delete it.
-p.3, the first sentence: Citation of proper reference is needed.
-p.3. In the Background of the study, the authors said that unmarried mothers on facilities are
mostly young mothers in their teens to early 20s, so they are socioeconomically vulnerable.
However, why did the authors collected the participants for 20-37 YO unmarried mothers who
could not represent the target group even though it was a purposive sampling? Appropriate
discussion is required.
-It seems that the abbreviation ‘UMiF” does not need to be used here.
-p.4. “However, studies of unmarried mothers conducted to date have failed to provide relevant
information” This sentence is ambiguous and the evidence is not clear.
-p.5. “The methodological principle of the current study was based on the philosophy of
hermeneutic phenomenology, which focuses on scientific rigor and validity” needs reference.
-The Aim sentence overlaps with the last sentence in the Background, so avoid duplication.
-Participants: The selection criteria for this study were 19years of age or older (mean age of
28.7, ranged 20-37), and it seems that teenagers were excluded from the beginning, and it is
contrary to the main characteristics of this target group described in the Background. What is
the reason for the age limit in the selection criteria? Can the participants be called representative
for the group?
-Please provide exclusion criteria clearly, too.
-How many facilities were the data collected from? In which regions were the data collected?
What is the reason (evidence) for the number of recruits of 9 people?
-“Participants’ mean age… and the mean age of the children… participants’ employment, etc.”
should be moved to the Results section.
-The sentence of “A total of 1, 1 and 7 participants were ….” should be rewritten.
-Data collection: The description in this section is very vague. A clearer description is needed.
It is said that four researchers conducted the interview for the study. How were they trained on
the methodology so that they could do the same method of the interview? And how were they
able to confirm the concordance of their interviewing method? Have they conducted one-on-
one interviews? Did all the researchers review and discuss the results of the interview together
just after each participant’s interview? How did they determine the data saturation of the results
of the interview? What do you mean the place by the “lab”?
-p.8. “Data were collected until the data was saturated”. Who decided the saturation of the
data? How did they decide the saturation or not? Needs more detailed and clearer description.
“Meetings between researchers were held regularly” seems vague. Need clear description, too.
-COREQ: needs full name first. And also needs more explanation what the authors used COREQ
for the study.
-Data analysis: Regarding “The guidelines of IPA by Smith, Flowers, and Larkin”, it is required
more detailed and kind explanation about this guideline for the readers.
-Results: Overall, the participants’ statements given as examples do not seem to be properly
matched to the each theme. For instance, I don’t see the vertatims of “I have never received any
help… I was grateful.. when I was in the first facility… “ and “I attended the academy to study..
diploma…” are not matched to the theme of “Life focused on proper child-rearing”. Where’s
the child? or child-rearing in the verbatims? It is necessary to reselect the overall participants’
verbatim, which is appropriate and includes the wording itself in the theme.
-What is the meaning of the words in parentheses that sometimes appear in verbatim? It is
confused.
-Please reconsider the name of the theme of “An unstable journey towards being a good mother”
based on the participants’ statements. (They said “I’m sorry to my child… feel like a bad
mother”, “all because of me.. ruin my babies… I fear a lot.”)
-The theme of “An uncertain future with a child” needs more example statement from the
participants to help understand. Also, I wonder if the statement here already presented is an
appropriate example for this theme.
-Discussion: The first paragraph here seems like a bit jump that is not based on the results of
this study. (“they were willing to become good mothers and sought a brighter future for their
children while attempting to be self-reliant”?? I don’t see on the Results priorly)
-Overall, please write a more relevant discussion only based on the results of this study. (Hope
that the authors turn the volume of the Discussion down a bit for irrelevant contents).
-For instance, regarding the first theme “life focused on proper child-rearing”, there’s discussion
only about the facility.. facilities for the mothers are positive factor… It needs relevant discussion
related to the Theme. Also in the page 18, the first paragraph, why did the authors discuss about
maternal transition here? I don’t see any relevancy.
-Table 1: Please add the participants’ economic status. (since the authors said the participants
are socioeconomic vulnerable group)
-Please consider deleting Table 2. Looks like redundant.