“How Could I Have Done This?” Thoughts of Mothers of Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Biological mothers of children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) must cope with the struggles of parenting a child with special needs with the knowledge that their children’s problems are due to their alcohol use during pregnancy. Qualitative interviews were conducted by telephone with 11 biological mothers of children with FAS. This group of mothers understood their use of alcohol during pregnancy through reliance on the disease model, inaccurate or incomplete knowledge of the consequences of drinking during pregnancy, the advice of others, and a lack of awareness of the pregnancy.     

Unwanted childbearing, health, and mother-child relationships.

This paper investigates the relationships among unwanted childbearing, health, and mother-child relationships. We hypothesize that unwanted childbearing affects mother-child relationships in part because of the physical and mental health consequences of unwanted childbearing. Impaired mental health hampers women's interaction with their infants, and these poor neonatal relationships translate into poor mother-adult child relationships. Using the Intergenerational Panel Study of Mothers and Children--a 31-year longitudinal survey of a probability sample of 1,113 mother-child pairs begun in 1961--we demonstrate that mothers with unwanted births have lower quality relationships with their children from late adolescence (age 18) throughout early adulthood (ages 23 and 31). Furthermore, these lower quality relationships are not limited to the child born as a result of the unwanted pregnancy; all the children in the family suffer. Using the 1987-88 wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, a survey of a national probability sample of U.S. households, we show that mothers with unwanted births suffer from higher levels of depression and lower levels of happiness. We also demonstrate that they spank their young children more and spend less leisure time with them. We conclude that experiencing unwanted childbearing reduces the time and attention that mothers give their young children and that these early mother-child interactions set the stage for long-term, lower quality relationships.     

The use of injections for treating childhood diseases: determinants and consequences for preventive health care in developing countries

The author reports findings from an assessment of the extent to which injections are used by mothers in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe to treat cough and fever in their children as well as the factors which influence their use. Two rationales are presented for conducting the study. First, the prevalence of HIV infection in many countries and the potential for infection using contaminated needles points to the need to minimize injections except when necessary and under only the most sterile conditions. Second, participation by intended groups in immunization programs has been less than complete, partly due to mothers' fear of the link between injections and subsequent paralysis in children documented in the literature since 1950. Knowledge on which factors determine parents' use of injections for treating childhood diseases could be used to help convince parents that injections for immunization against childhood diseases are beneficial. The author applied the Andersen Behavioral framework of predisposing, enabling, and need factors to Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data collected in the four countries during 1988 and 1989. Nationally representative sample sizes ranged from 4201 respondents in Zimbabwe to 7150 respondents in Kenya. Morbidity data were collected from the mother for all living children under five years of age using a standard questionnaire. The percentages of children reported to have had cough or difficult breathing in the four weeks preceding the survey are as follows: 20.6% in Ghana, 17.5% in Kenya, 22.2% in Uganda, and 48.0% in Zimbabwe. Children aged 6-11 showed the highest prevalence of respiratory symptoms followed by children aged 12-23 months. The prevalences of fever during the four weeks preceding the survey were 36.4% in Ghana, 42.7% in Kenya, 44.2% in Uganda, and 7.0% in Zimbabwe. The prevalence rates of fever were higher among children aged 6-11 months and markedly lower among children aged 1-5 months. Prevalences of respiratory problems and fever were both considerably higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Approximately 20% of children with respiratory problems and 30% of children with fever were treated with injections. Multivariate analyses found that the effects of predisposing and enabling characteristics upon the use of injections were consistently higher than those of the need component, suggesting the existence of great inequities in the health care system. Previous research has found that such injections are often given by various people including untrained health personnel, itinerant drug peddlers, traditional healers, and new forms of injection doctors who specialize in giving all types of injections. Such practice combined with the fact that injection drugs can be bought over the counter demands the tighter control of drug sales and drug reform in these countries. Health education programs for consumers are also called for.     

Parenthood and dynamics of life satisfaction in times of COVID-19

We analyze data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, including a pre-pandemic baseline and seven survey waves between May 2020 and September 2021. Fixed effects panel regression models are run over more than 11,000 individuals, distinguishing among women and men with young children (<5 years), older children (5–15 years), or no children in the household. We hypothesize that declines in life satisfaction during the first lockdown are sharper among parents, whose domestic demands increase, than among the childless. We develop competing hypotheses that parents might be resilient and have higher life satisfaction during the later phases of the pandemic (Adaptation Hypothesis) or that the pandemic stressors accumulate, leading to even lower satisfaction over time (Accumulation Hypothesis). The results only support the Accumulation Hypothesis among mothers. Whereas mothers fared comparatively well during the first lockdown, further pandemic stressors have seemingly exhausted their resilience, leading to stronger declines during the winter 2020/2021 lockdown. Among men with older children and without children, life satisfaction decreased during the first and subsequent lockdowns. Men with young children were the only group with almost unchanged life satisfaction throughout the pandemic.     

Work Hours,Schedules, and Insufficient Sleep Among Mothers and Their Young Children

Studies have linked parents' employment, work hours, and work schedules to their own sleep quality and quantity, but it is unclear whether these associations extend to children. The authors used data from the 5‐year in‐home survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,818) to examine the associations between maternal work hours and schedule and insufficient sleep among disadvantaged mothers and their young children. They found that mothers who worked more than 35 hours per week were more likely to experience insufficient sleep compared to mothers who worked fewer hours, whereas children were more likely to experience insufficient sleep when their mothers worked between 20 and 40 hours. Nonstandard work schedules were associated with an increased likelihood of insufficient sleep for mothers but not their children. The results highlight a potentially difficult balance between work and family for many disadvantaged working mothers in the United States.     

The Unnecessary Nudge: Education and Poverty Policy in a Cairo Slum

Drawing on data collected from 2008 to 2013 in a low‐income Cairo neighborhood, this article examines the impact of a poverty alleviation program, a conditional cash transfer (CCT ) that attempted to incentivize poor mothers, through a direct cash transfer, to send their children to school. The program met its goal. The mothers did send their children to school. I argue that only observing this outcome of school access, however, black‐boxes the causal pathway of how mothers sent their children to school in the Egyptian context, and how the program mattered. Public schools in Egypt are free on paper but expensive in practice due to an informal system of “private lesson” and “study group” fees imposed by teachers. Mothers had always managed this expense, using scarce gendered household resources, before, during, and after the program. Through ethnographic, interview, and survey data, this article shows that while the cash—transferred to the mothers and labeled for education—enabled the mothers to send their children to school, the program conditions were unnecessary. The mothers did not need to be nudged to send their children to school. This Egyptian case study has implications for the use of behavioral incentives and for the importance of qualitative methods to the study of policy impacts.     

Pregnancy Acceptance,Parenting Stress,and Toddler Attachment in Low‐Income Black Families

Questionnaire items tapping feelings about pregnancy were administered to 173 young, low‐income primiparous Black mothers who either were pregnant or had delivered within the past year. A factor analysis indicated that 11 items together measured mothers’ acceptance of the pregnancies that resulted in the births of their first children. Links to mothers’ later parenting stress, warmth, and their toddlers’ attachment security were explored. Pregnancy acceptance was a negative predictor of one aspect of maternal parenting stress (distress resulting from feelings that parenting is burdensome) and a positive predictor of toddler attachment security. It did not, however, predict another aspect of parenting stress (feelings that interactions with children are not enjoyable) or maternal warmth.     

Social support and outcome in teenage pregnancy

This paper presents information on the role and significance of social support for the occurrence of health and birth problems among adolescent mothers and their babies. Pregnant teenagers (N = 268) were interviewed during the course of pregnancy and again approximately four weeks after delivery, and hospital records were abstracted. The significance of family support, friend support, and partner support, assessed during the pregnancy, were examined in relation to infant and mother outcomes assessed at or after the birth. Infant outcome was indexed by birth weight, with gestational age controlled; mother outcome in terms of psychological adaptation was indexed by depressive symptomatology among adolescent mothers. Socioeconomic background was found to influence relationships between social support and both infant and mother outcomes.     

Maternal Self-Efficacy of Mothers of Children with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities,Down Syndrome,and Autism in Kuwait

This study aims to identify the perception of maternal self-efficacy among 95 Kuwaiti mothers of children with Developmental Disabilities (DD) to determine the differences in perception of maternal self-efficacy variables among the mothers based on demographic variables: Child’s age, Gender, Type of disability, Leisure time, and Mother’s age. A survey was conducted using Kandari’s (2005, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Simmons College, Boston) Arabic version of the Caregiving Self-Efficacy Scale. The mothers were selected from different special education settings in Kuwait. They had 33 children with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (IDD), 41 with Down Syndrome, and 21 with autistic disorder. The children included both males and females, and ranged between the ages of 6 and 15. The findings showed that (1) mothers of children with DD did not differ in their beliefs about aspects of maternal self-efficacy according to the Child’s age, Child’s gender, and the Mother’s age; (2) mothers of children with IDD, when compared to other mothers, had negative beliefs of all aspects of maternal self-efficacy; (3) mothers of children who did not attend a respite facility for an afternoon had negative beliefs of all aspects of maternal selfefficacy except for the child’s behavioral management; and (4) all mothers’ groups had negative beliefs about their ability to control their child’s behavior and their own emotions. Implications are discussed to provide services for mothers to help them develop their adaptive skills and meet their children’s needs, as well as their own.     

Children’s Mental Disorders and Their Mothers’ Earnings: Implications for the Affordable Care Act of 2010

Children with emotional and behavioral problems (EBP) may have a negative effect on their mothers’ earnings because they require additional time for treatment. On the other hand, children with EBP require additional financial resources, which may increase their mothers’ earnings through an increase in work activities. This study examined the impact of children’s EBP on parental earnings, while accounting for omitted variable bias. This study found significant reductions of single mothers’ wage rate/annual earnings if their children have EBP. Conversely, children’s EBP increased their married mothers’ hourly wage. These results have important implications in terms of public policy such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 in terms of expanding health insurance coverage to children with EBP to have access to appropriate treatment.     

Teen mothers who are daughters of teen mothers: Psychological intergenerational dimensions of early motherhood

IntroductionResearchers have shown that being a daughter of a teenage mother is a risk factor regarding the possibility of having early, unprotected sexual intercourse and of falling pregnant. The experiences of young mothers in such situations and the aspects of intergenerational transmission in the mother–daughter relationship have not been well investigated.ObjectivesThis study analyses the experience of motherhood in young mothers (18–20 years at the time of the interview/15–16 at the time of their pregnancy) who are daughters of teen mothers themselves from the psychodynamic perspective of intergenerational transmission.MethodsSix young mothers from Southern Italy were selected and interviewed. A semi-structured interview was used to explore the early experience of pregnancy and motherhood and their relationship with their own mothers. The interviews were analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).ResultsFive superordinate themes emerged: I didn't want, I didn't see and I didn't feel; Adolescence? I suddenly became a mother; History repeats itself again and again; Confused Spaces and How difficult is coming into the world?ConclusionAdolescent mothers, who themselves are daughters of teen mothers, seem to have difficulty in representing the meanings associated with their experience of pregnancy and motherhood. A lack of narrative transmission of the experience of pregnancy from mothers to daughters emerged. The implications for research and social policies will be discussed.     

Social skills training and parent education programs for aggressive preschoolers and their parents in South Korea

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate social skills training and parent education programs for aggressive young children and their parents in South Korea. Participants consisted of intervention group I, which included six children and their mothers in the social skills training and parent education programs; intervention group II, which included seven children and their mothers in the social skills training; and control group, which consisted of six children and their mothers. Pre-test-post-test control group design was used. Participants in both intervention groups reported a significant decrease in aggression and on improvement in pro-social behavior, emotional regulation, and social skills, while the control group reported an increase in aggressive behavior. Mothers in the intervention group I also reported an increase in warmth/acceptance. The findings indicate that both programs are highly effective in reducing aggressive behavior among young children and in fostering positive parenting behaviors.     

Positively Impacting Maternal Stress and Parental Adjustment through Community-Based Relationship Education (RE)

Relationship education (RE) is a brief, strength-based psychoeducational intervention for couples that demonstrates strong outcomes to decrease individual and couple stress. The current study examined changes in relationship and family adjustment for expectant mothers following RE intervention. Participants included 91 pregnant women (64.8% racial or ethnic minorities) who participated in a community-based RE program. In examination of pre and post-intervention relationship assessment scale and parental stress and coping inventory results, RE intervention contributed to increased relationship satisfaction, and reduced parental distress, as well as to improved social support and family-based support scores among participants. In addition, relationship stress is a major contributor to stress during pregnancy that adds vulnerability for the health of low-income and ethnic minority expectant mothers and their children. Findings indicate the effectiveness of RE to significantly reduce stress for expectant mothers. Therefore, the use of RE as a low-cost and accessible intervention to combat stress provides positive implications for this vulnerable population.     

Enhancing parent-child interaction during foster care visits: experimental assessment of an intervention

Mothers of young children recently placed in foster care participated in an intervention to enhance parent-child interaction during visits. The mothers all reported substantial loss and trauma histories. Immediately prior to the visits, the mothers were coached on strategies for separating from their children at the visit's end. The mothers displayed more behavioral strategies for supporting their children when the visit was over, but were less engaged with their children during the leave-taking sequence and displayed fewer ways of maintaining the child's involvement in mother-child interaction during leave-taking than those in a comparison group. This article discusses consideration of parents' trauma history in designing interventions to enhance parent-child interaction.     

The provision of education and opportunities for future employment for pregnant schoolgirls and schoolgirl mothers in the UK

This paper will report on the results of three recent surveys into educational provision for pregnant schoolgirls and schoolgirl mothers: these surveys have examined the position in England and Wales, and for the first time, in Scotland and in Northern Ireland. As well as reporting what is currently available for young mothers in the UK, the paper will raise issues of entitlement to a full education for these young women, issues of equal opportunity and issues of access. It will seek to point to questions that need to be considered in terms of policy for young mothers and their children. The political debate in the UK has recently centred on the notion of these young women being a drain on the national purse. This paper will seek to address this notion, and will point to the need for access to credible courses leading to employment and childcare in order to increase the chances of these young women becoming taxpayers, and good parents.     

Acceptance and Caregiving of Married and Divorced Custodial Mothers and Fathers

The study examined whether differences in gender and family status affect parental caregiving disposition and acceptance of children among parents of children in mid-childhood. The number of participants were 122 divorced-custodial fathers, 107 married fathers, 85 divorced-custodial mothers, and 82 married mothers (n?=?398). A comparison among four groups of parents revealed the following gender differences: mothers scored higher on anxious caregiving and parental acceptance than fathers, and lower on avoidant caregiving. Regression analysis indicated that the higher the caregiving avoidance or anxiety, the lower the parental acceptance. Family status moderated parental acceptance, as avoidant caregiving was associated with reduced parental acceptance among married parents, but not among divorced custodial parents. The finding that avoidant caregiving was not associated with reduced acceptance among divorced custodial parents implies that their parental acceptance behaviors toward their children are affected by their parental status as sole custodial parent, and the associated responsibilities, rather than by gender.     

Scaling Back and Finding Flexibility: Gender Differences in Parents' Strategies to Manage Work–Family Conflict

Studies show that fathers report work–family conflict levels comparable to mothers. The authors examine gender differences in work‐related strategies used to ease such conflicts. The authors also test whether the presence of young children at home shapes parents' use of different strategies. They address these focal questions using panel data from the Canadian Work, Stress, and Health study (N = 306 fathers, 474 mothers). The authors find that mothers with young children are more likely to scale back on work demands when compared with fathers with young children, but mothers and fathers with older children are equally likely to pursue these strategies. Furthermore, women with young children and men with older children are more likely to seek increased schedule control as a result of work–family conflict when compared with their parent counterparts. The authors situate these findings in the vast literature on the consequences of work–family conflict.     

Mothers and deployment: Understanding the experiences and support needs of deploying mothers of children birth to five

ABSTRACT

Military deployments can demand long separations of service members and their families. The strain of separation is particularly acute for mothers of very young children. This study aimed to better understand the deployment and reintegration experiences of service members who are mothers of young children. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with 12 service member mothers who deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan when one or more of their children was younger than age 6. Discussions explored experiences before, during, and after deployment; needs and challenges at each stage; available support resources and gaps in support. Thematic data analysis was conducted, drawing on principles of grounded theory. Disruption and continuity were central themes as participants illuminated the challenges they faced and their profound dedication to sustaining strong family relationships across the deployment cycle. Relinquishing, reassuming, and balancing multiple roles and responsibilities are additional themes that were frequently evoked. Participants noted a lack of formal resources responsive to their needs and circumstances and highlighted a need for services tailored to mothers who are deploying. Military mothers, particularly mothers of young children, face distinct challenges surrounding deployment. Better understanding their experiences and support needs can inform tailored services to meet their needs.