Giving Up: How Gendered Organizational Cultures Push Mothers Out

Explanations for professional and managerial mothers' departure from paid work concentrate on childcare and women's preferences or choices. In contrast, our study, based on in‐depth interviews with professional and managerial mothers in London, shows that women's experiences within hegemonic masculine cultures play a key role. For example, working time norms require these mothers to work exceptionally long hours, to have permeable time boundaries even if they have negotiated reduced working hours and to ‘socialize’ in the evenings. Mothers are limited in their ability to protest or implement creative working time solutions because they feel they must hide their motherhood, which in itself creates tension. Mothers who are seemingly supported to work fewer hours are sidelined to lower‐status roles for which they are underpaid and undervalued in relation to their experience and previous seniority. Unless mothers mimic successful men, they do not look the part for success in organizations.     

Maternal Affective Expression and Adolescents' Subjective Experience of Positive Affect in Natural Settings

This study investigated the association between maternal affective expression during laboratory‐based interaction tasks and adolescents' experience of positive affect (PA) in natural settings. Participants were 80 healthy adolescents and their mothers. Durations of maternal positive (PA) and negative affective (NA) expressions were observed during a conflict resolution task and a positive event planning interaction task. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) procedures were employed to assess adolescents' momentary and peak experience of PA in daily life. Results indicated that maternal NA, but not maternal PA, was related to adolescents' EMA‐reported PA. Adolescents whose mothers expressed more NA experienced less PA in daily environments. Results suggest that adolescents' exposure to maternal negative affective behavior is associated with adolescents' subjective daily well‐being.     

Intimate Partner Violence and Social Relational Theory: Examining the Influence of Children and Important Others on Mothers' Transition Out of Violent Relationships

Interviews with survivors of intimate partner violence were conducted to gain information on the transition from violent relationships to new non‐violent relationships. A subset of this data was re‐analysed using Social Relational Theory to gain further insight into the roles of children and important others who were identified as impacting this transition for mothers who had exited violent relationships. This paper reviews two major themes discovered during the SRT analysis that were inherent in the women's experiences: (i) agency of children, family, peers and community and (ii) power. In addition, this paper suggests implications for research, intervention and psychotherapeutic practice.     

The Perceptions of Infant Distress Signals Varying in Pitch by Cocaine‐Using Mothers

Perceptual responses to infant distress signals were studied in 16 cocaine‐using and 15 comparison mothers. All mothers rated tape recordings of 48 replications of a newborn infant's hunger cry digitally altered to increase in fundamental frequency in 100‐Hz increments. Cries were rated on 4 perceptual (arousing, aversive, urgent, and sick) and 6 caregiving rating scale items (clean, cuddle, feed, give pacifier, pick up, and wait and see) used in previous studies. Analyses of variance showed that, as cry pitch increased, cries were rated as more arousing, aversive, and urgent sounding. The highest pitched cries received the highest ratings for caregiving interventions. Main effects for cocaine use showed cocaine‐using mothers (a) rated cries as less arousing, aversive, urgent, and sick; (b) indicated they were less likely to pick up or feed the infant; and (c) indicated they more likely to give the crying infant a pacifier or just “wait and see.” A Group x Cry Pitch interaction effect showed that mothers in the cocaine group gave higher ratings to wait and see as the pitch of the cries increased, whereas mothers in the comparison group gave lower ratings to wait and see as the pitch of the cries increased. These ratings indicate that cocaine‐using mothers found cries to be less perceptually salient and less likely to elicit nurturant caregiving responses. These results suggest that maternal cocaine use is associated with altered perceptions of infant distress signals that may provide the basis for differential social responsivity in the caregiving context.     

Whose job is poverty? the problems of therapeutic intervention with children who are sexually violent

Children who commit sexually violent acts have been identified in increasing numbers since the 1980s. Professionals who practise therapeutic intervention with this group have struggled to find explanations for their client's deviant behaviour. Current explanations for, and discourses on, the occurrence of sexual violence minimize the effect of poverty in the therapeutic arena. The most difficult and worrisome child clients for participants of this research are the poor ones, yet the practice of counselling is unable to address structural disadvantage. This leads to a poverty culture explanation for sexual violence and child abuse which recognizes poverty yet pathologizes the individual. The identification of a new problem—children's sexual violence—the individualized case‐based approach to intervention and current social policy minimize the continuing and persistent problem of poverty. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Infants' Transitions out of a Fussing/Crying State Are Modifiable and Are Related to Weight Status

Currently, about 10% of infants have a weight for length greater than the 95th percentile for their age and sex, which puts them at risk for obesity as they grow. In a pilot obesity prevention study, primiparous mothers and their newborn infants were randomly assigned to a control group or a Soothe/Sleep intervention. Previously, it has been demonstrated that this intervention contributed to lower weight‐for‐length percentiles at 1 year; the aim of the present study was to examine infant behavior diary data collected during the intervention. Markov modeling was used to characterize infants' patterns of behavioral transitions at ages 3 and 16 weeks. Results showed that heavier mothers were more likely to follow their infants' fussing/crying episodes with a feeding. The intervention increased infants' likelihood of transitioning from a fussing/crying state to an awake/calm state. A shorter latency to feed in response to fussing/crying was associated with a higher subsequent weight status. This study provides preliminary evidence that infants' transitions out of fussing/crying are characterized by inter‐individual differences, are modifiable, and are linked to weight outcomes, suggesting that they may be promising targets for early behavioral obesity interventions, and highlighting the methodology used in this study as an appropriate and innovative tool to assess the impact of such interventions.     

The meanings and motives for women's use of violence in Canadian college dating relationships: Results from a national survey

Data from a Canadian nationwide representative sample of 1,835 female college students were used to test a variety of propositions about women's use of violence in dating relationships. It has become progressively common in both Canada and the United States to argue that women are as violent as men. Although in a crude counting of violent acts these data confirm the contention that women commit a large number of such acts, a further investigation of the women's motives shows that a substantial amount of their violence was in self‐defense, or “fighting back.” The more these women had been victimized, whether physically or sexually, the more likely they were to report that they had used self‐defensive violence. The finding that a substantial amount of women's     

Poverty,Welfare, and the Livelihood Strategies of Nonmetropolitan Single Mothers*

Abstract Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we document nonmetropolitan and metropolitan single mothers' economic livelihood strategies. We have three objectives: (1) examine differences in employment, cohabitation, co‐residence with other adults, and welfare receipt; (2) evaluate how these livelihood strategies are associated with economic well‐being; and (3) identify key metro‐nonmetro differences in the effectiveness of these livelihood strategies in improving the economic well‐being of single mothers. We find surprisingly similar livelihood strategies in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan areas. Employment, cohabitation, and co‐residence are strongly associated with economic well‐being. However, nonmetro single mothers are less likely than metropolitan mothers to benefit economically from full‐time employment. Given our results, “work‐first” policies are likely to be less efficacious in nonmetropolitan areas. Indeed, nonmetropolitan single mothers are often “triply disadvantaged” compared to their metro counterparts; they experience higher rates of poverty, higher barriers to welfare receipt, and lower economic returns from other livelihood strategies.     

Inner‐City Children's Exposure to Community Violence: How Much Do Parents Know?

This study examines the psychological impact of children's exposure to violence and the influence of mothers' knowledge about their children's encounters with violence. Our sample consists of a poor, multiethnic sample of 104 fourth‐ or fifth‐grade children and their mothers. Children in this sample were exposed to rather high levels of community violence, and on the whole, mothers greatly underestimated their children's exposure to violence and feelings of psychological distress. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that children's exposure to violence was associated with greater psychological distress. Our findings suggest that the detrimental effects of community violence are present for all children, irrespective of their racial background. Further, greater mother‐child agreement about children's exposure to violence was related to better psychological functioning. The implications of these results for effective parenting strategies and community‐based interventions are discussed.     

How Does Juvenile Offending Relate to Mothers' Aspirations and Expectations for Their Sons?

Mothers of 317 first‐time juvenile offenders (M = 15.35 years old) were interviewed over 2.5 years about their expectations and aspirations for their sons' futures. Mothers' expectations were lower than their aspirations, reflecting a discrepancy between what mothers felt was important for their child's future and what they considered likely to happen. As their children continued to engage in delinquent acts, mothers' expectations for their sons' future success diminished. Youth age moderated the association between delinquency and maternal expectations, such that when perceived delinquency was high, expectations were lower for mothers of young sons compared to mothers of older sons. These findings carry implications for practice and intervention, as parent expectations and aspirations are both directly and indirectly associated with youth achievement.     

Passivity in Childminded Children: Problem or Prejudice?

SUMMARY. Many people still believe that healthy social and emotional development in very young children depends upon the presence of maternal care. Some research work in the UK has also suggested that childminded children, when away from their mothers, typically manifest withdrawn and passive behaviour. Drawing on findings from unpublished research and illustrations from an exploratory study in which childminded children and childminders' own children were videotaped and compared, it is argued that such conclusions cannot easily be demonstrated empirically. Rather, they may result from observational and interpretative biases which overlook the role of factors such as children's age and social experience. Further, it is suggested that attempts to quantify and measure theoretical constructs such as passivity may be less informative than observations focused more specifically upon the behaviour of individual children in day care.     

Internalising and externalising children's behaviour problems in Britain and the US: relationships to family resources1

A large sample of British children (n=994) of varying ages (7–18 years) and a large sample of American children (n=886) of varying ages (7–16 years) were rated by their mothers using respectively the Rutter Child Scale A and the Behaviour Problems Index both of which cover a variety of behavioural problems. Factor analysis of the behavioural scales distinguished externalising and internalising dimensions of behaviour in both countries. We examined whether children's experiences of family change, cognitive ability and family adversity including economic deprivation were associated with differences in the prevalence of the behavioural dimensions. Mean cognitive scores decreased significantly with increasing level of externalising behavioural problems in British and American children but showed no significant relationship to levels of internalising behaviour problems in either sample. Among American children internalising and externalising behavioural problems were related to experience of non‐intact family structures and measures of family adversity. Externalising behavioural problems were related to measures of family adversity among British boys and girls but were only related to experience of non‐intact family structures in the sample of British girls. Among British girls, internalising behavioural problems were also related to non‐intact family structures. The associations between non‐intact family structures and behavioural problems were independent of measures of economic deprivation in both samples of children. This study documents some of the background factors which affect children's behavioural and cognitive outcomes. Unlike children's family structure economic deprivation can be influenced through policy intervention, and the analysis supports the view that relieving economic deprivation would help improve children's behavioural outcomes. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Invitations to Collusion: A Case for Greater Scrutiny of Men's Behaviour Change Programs

Men's behaviour change groups have been operating in Victoria since the early 1980s. Unlike their criminal justice‐based counterparts in the USA, Canada and the UK, groups in Victoria arose as stand alone voluntary programs within the community health and family support sectors. Their focus on therapeutic engagement, education and invitations to responsibility has at times failed to include consequences for men who continue to use violence and abuse while attending the group. This article argues that unless facilitators build in consequences for men whose violence continues, they can inadvertently collude with the violent behaviour. Including women partners in ongoing evaluation is one means of reducing this collusion. This view is drawn from research into behaviour change groups in Melbourne over the last decade.     

Temporal Responsiveness in Mother–Child Dialogue: A Longitudinal Analysis of Children with Normal Hearing and Hearing Loss

Dialogue between conversational partners, including mothers and their children, is precisely timed. The predictability of this timing is important for establishing and maintaining interaction, communication, and learning. This longitudinal study examines changes in the response latency of utterances in dialogue between mothers and their normal hearing and hearing‐impaired children between 4 and 60 months of age. Mothers and their children showed parallel developmental trends, responding to each other more quickly at older ages. Beyond these age‐related group effects, significant dyadic effects were found in which individual children's latencies were related to those of their mothers, and vice versa. Developmental patterns did not significantly differ across hearing status groups, which may reflect the role of early identification and intervention in promoting positive developmental outcomes.     

Low‐Income Latina Mothers' Expectations for Their Pregnant Daughters' Autonomy and Interdependence

Forty‐five pregnant Latina adolescents and their mothers (23 English‐speaking, 22 Spanish‐speaking) were videotaped conversing about feelings and plans related to the adolescent's pregnancy. The prevalence of the mothers' messages about the daughter's reliance on the family unit (interdependence) and the daughter's self‐sufficiency (autonomy) were related to adolescents' reported and observed feelings about their pregnancies, pending motherhood challenges, and their relationships with their mothers. Increased interdependence messages appeared to denote positive family relations among Spanish‐speaking dyads, in that these adolescents reported more positive feelings about their pregnancy, perceived that their mothers felt more positive, and perceived more maternal social support and open communication. The role of interdependence messages was less clear for adolescents from English‐speaking families. Higher levels of maternal autonomy messages had positive associations for both groups, in that it was related to higher disclosure about concerns about childcare needs among adolescents from English‐speaking families, and about educational goals for adolescents from Spanish‐speaking families.     

Adolescents' and Mothers' Understanding of Children's Rights in the Home

Adolescents' and mothers' understanding of children's self‐determination and nurturance rights was examined in the context of the home. In individual interviews, 141 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders and their mothers responded to hypothetical vignettes in which a child story character wished to exercise a right that conflicted with parental practices. For each vignette, participants were asked to judge whether the story character should have the right in question and to provide a justification for their decision. Generally, eighth and tenth graders were more likely than their mothers to endorse requests for self‐determination and less likely than their mothers to support requests for nurturance. Mothers of tenth graders were more likely to support requests for self‐determination and less likely to favor adolescents' request for nurturance in the home than were mothers of sixth and eighth graders. In terms of reasoning, adolescents and mothers were more likely to consider the individuals' rights when discussing self‐determination situations, whereas nurturance situations elicited responses pertaining to participants' understanding of familial roles and relationships. Furthermore, mothers' reasoning about childrenà s rights reflected sensitivity to the developmental level of their children. The findings are discussed in terms of previous research on the development of children's understanding of rights and adolescent autonomy.     

Doing It All? Mothers' College Enrollment,Time Use,and Affective Well‐being

The rising share of women in college with dependent children and growing emphasis on two‐generation policies for reducing socioeconomic inequality have galvanized research aimed at determining whether mothers' increased education can improve their and their children's well‐being. Yet as part of this effort, scholars have overlooked signs that mothers' college enrollment may not be unequivocally good for families. This research brief aims to bring greater attention to this side of the story. The authors analyze time diary (2003–2015) and well‐being data (2010, 2011, 2013) from the American Time Use Survey. The authors find that mothers in college experience a time squeeze that limits their time in caregiving, self‐care, and work, on one hand, and school‐related activities, on the other. This time squeeze may explain why mothers enrolled in college (compared with mothers who were not in school) also reported less happiness and more fatigue during activities with their children.     

Immigrant Children: Their Experience of Violence at School and Community in Host Country

This article describes our qualitative sociological study of immigrant children's life experiences of violence. We conducted interviews with 42 first‐generation immigrant children from any country, aged 9–13 years old, living in the Quebec City region (Canada). Results from three main themes are presented: representations of violence and concrete violent acts experienced; perceived effects of violence on children health and well‐being; and reactions and coping strategies. Overall, the narratives show that they may experience racist peer violence in school that leads to suffering situations, and they consequently have to develop strategies to maintain their well‐being. Social implications are discussed.     

The meanings of migration,remittances and gifts: views of Honduran women who stay

In this article we examine the non‐economic, emotional meanings that men's economic migration has for the wives and mothers who stay in two rural communities in Honduras. Combining the literature on economic sociology and on the social meanings of relations within transnational families, we identify three areas that allow us to capture what the men's migration means for the women who stay – communication between the non‐migrant women and migrant men, stress and anxiety in women's personal lives, and added household responsibilities. Through interviews with 18 non‐migrant mothers and wives and qualitative fieldwork in Honduras, we find that women's interpretations of men's migration are not simple, black‐and‐white assessments. Instead, these are multifaceted and shaped by the social milieu in which the women live. Whereas the remittances and gifts that the men send improve the lives of the women and their families, these transfers also convey assurances that the men have not forgotten them and they become expressions of love.     

Mothers’ Goals for Adolescents in the United States and China: Content and Transmission

This research examined children's socialization toward culturally valued goals during adolescence in the United States and China. Two hundred and twenty‐three mothers listed and ranked their five most important goals for their children (mean age = 12.85 years). Children ranked the importance of the goals listed by their mothers and explained why they were or were not important to them. American mothers placed heightened emphasis on their children maintaining feelings of worth and pursuing what they enjoy. Chinese mothers stressed their children achieving outcomes, as did African American mothers. European American children's rankings of importance were the least similar to those of their mothers, and they gave the fewest autonomous reasons for importance, suggesting that their adoption of mothers’ goals was weakest.