The experience of motherhood for alienated mothers

This qualitative study examined the alienated mothers' experience of motherhood. Data were collected by in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with 10 women whose children refused any contact with them. Findings revealed one main theme, ‘Merging vs. detachment’, consisting of four subthemes or motifs in these women's narratives: (i) marriage as an illusion of salvation from an abusive home; (ii) giving birth to a child as compensation for chaotic childhood experiences; (iii) husband exploiting and abusing their sense of failing motherhood; and (iv) the husband and mother‐in‐law expelling the mother. These findings were interpreted within the framework of Bowen's theory. The interpretation suggests that impairment in the mothers' and ex‐husbands' differentiation of the self is manifest in the shattered mother–child relations and in the mothers' loss of their children in the struggle with their mothers‐in‐law. Implications for practice are included.     

Legal Parenthood and Continued Parent-Child Relationships—The Moral and Experiential Aspects of Parenting

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a construct of parenting which provides criteria for differential solutions in cases of child protection, i.e., confidential adoption, adoption with contact and out-of-home placements. It is proposed that the moral aspect of parenting be central in judicial proceedings regarding the protection of the child. In addition a distinction between the moral and the experiential aspect of parenting should be made. The presentation of this construct is based on the author's assessments of parents when acting as an expert witness to the court (in Israel), in three cases in which compulsory adoption was petitioned by the state. The assessment of the moral aspect of parenting is based on the parent's own evaluation of his/her own parenthood, and the assessment of the experiential aspect is based on the parent-child relationships with a particular emphasis -on the child's responses to the parent. This construct may allow experts to tread the fine line between assessing parents and accusing them and provides a base for negotiation between parents' conceptions of their parenthood and the court's.     

青少年对父母权威的认知及其与父母教养方式的关系

青少年对父母权威的认知是青少年社会认知研究领域的重要内容,它对青少年的行为、社会适应和青少年期的亲子关系具有重要作用。本研究采用整群随机抽样法,运用父母权威认知问卷和父母教养方式问卷对640名初一、初三和高二年级的青少年进行了调查,结果发现:(1)总体而言,青少年对父母的权威较为认同,认为父母“可以”或“基本可以”对其行为作出规定,但不同年级与性别的青少年又表现出相对不同的特点。(2)与父亲权威相比,母亲权威更为青少年所认同,而且这种特点不随青少年年龄与性别的变化而变化。(3)不同教养方式下的青少年对父母权威的认知显著不同。     

Mothers' and Fathers' Use of Internal State Talk with their Young Children

The present study extends previous results demonstrating a relation between maternal discourse and child social understanding to include paternal discourse. Emotion understanding (EU) and theory of mind (ToM) were considered as two distinctive aspects of social understanding. Participants were 106 children (54 boys and 52 girls) studied at 3.5 and 5 years. Discourse measures came from separate parent–child conversations during a picture‐book task; measures of EU and ToM came from children's performance on social cognition tasks. Differences in parental talk translated into important differences in the influence of each parent on children's social‐cognitive understanding. Mothers' references to emotion and emotion causal explanatory language predicted children's concurrent EU. Fathers' use of causal explanatory language referring to desires and emotions predicted children's concurrent and later ToM. These results highlight important differences between mothers and fathers in their use of internal state language and its impact on children's social‐cognitive understanding.     

激活优势:家长主义浪潮下家长参与的群体差异

基于对同一城区两个初中班级的跟踪调查，本文考察了中国家长参与的特征以及不同群体在适应上的差异。文章发现，通过资源激活、能力塑造和责任伦理，城区学校在新的教育情势下建构起有关家长参与的话语。家长参与在学校空间的公共事务上发育缓慢，在家庭空间的私人事务上却发展迅猛，不同群体之间差异较大。基于参与意识、参与能力和参与行为的差异，不同群体的家长参与表现为：外来务工群体被唤起教育失败者的经验，采用被动应对的策略；城市普通工薪群体激发出难以胜任的经验，采用模仿依循的策略；中产群体则激活出教育成功者的经验，采用主动建构的策略。由此，家校之间成为阶层运作的重要场域空间。     

家庭社会经济地位对青少年自我效能感的影响——父母参与的中介作用与独生状况的调节作用

使用教育部直属A大学的新生基线调查数据,以1 107名大一新生为被试,构建了一个有调节的中介模型,并重点考察学生高中阶段父母参与对青少年自我效能感的影响机制。结果发现:(1)学生家庭社会经济地位存在显著性别差异,女生家庭社会经济地位高于男生;独生子女在家庭社会经济地位、父母参与以及自我效能感等方面都明显优于非独生子女;(2)父母参与对青少年自我效能感具有显著正向预测作用;(3)在家庭社会经济地位对青少年自我效能感的影响中,父母参与起到了部分中介作用;(4)独生状况调节了家庭社会经济地位→父母参与→自我效能感的后半段,即相对于非独生子女而言,独生子女父母参与对自我效能感的促进作用更为明显。     

Paternal Involvement with Children: The Influence of Gender Ideologies

Although prior social science research has established the ability of gender ideologies to influence the domestic division of labor, it has neglected to disentangle their potentially unique influence on paternal involvement with children. Past research examining the influence of gender ideology on parenting behaviors does not acknowledge potential differences that may result from accounting for each parent's gender ideology. Using both waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 1,088), I assess the effect of both mother's and father's gender ideology on two measures of paternal involvement. Whereas egalitarian fathers demonstrate greater involvement than traditional fathers, mother's gender ideology failed to predict paternal involvement. Egalitarian mothers do not appear to negotiate greater father involvement successfully.     

Parental substance misuse and child care social work: findings from the first stage of a study of 100 families

Parental misuse of drugs or alcohol is known to be a common issue for child care social workers, yet there has been surprisingly little British research on the topic. The study reported here attempts to address this gap. All files going for long‐term allocation in four London boroughs over on average 1 year were examined (290 files). Parental substance misuse (PSM) emerged as a major feature of social work caseloads. Of the 290 cases, 100 (34%) involved concerns about parental substance misuse. The families involving substance misuse were more vulnerable on a variety of measures: the children were younger, the parents had more individual problems and the families lived in more difficult social situations. PSM cases tended to be ‘heavy end’ at the point of allocation: they accounted for 62% of all children subject to care proceedings and 40% of those placed on the child protection register. There was a fairly even spread between alcohol and drug misuse, and a number of cases involved both. Substance misuse specialists were rarely involved in working with families, primarily because parents said that they did not think that they had a problem. Suggestions for ways in which policy and practice with PSM might be improved are made in light of these findings.     

Parental involvement and young women's contraceptive use

Young adult women in the United States tend to delay family formation, pursue higher education and professional jobs, and become sexually active before marriage. Using effective contraception is the best way to ensure that nonmarital parenthood does not disrupt educational and career plans. Because parental involvement in education shapes teenagers’ attitudes about school and work by encouraging achievement and by providing a home environment that values education, this study assesses whether it may also influence contraceptive choices during early adulthood. Analysis of data from 3,828 young women who participated in the National Education Longitudinal Study indicates that parental involvement not only increases the odds that young adult women use contraception, but it is also tied to the likelihood of using specific birth control methods.     

父母教养方式与中学生自尊的相关研究

采用父母教养方式评价量表(EMBU)和自尊量表(SES),分别对初一、初二、初三194名初中生进行了自尊和父母教养方式团体测验,将测验结果进行相关统计,并对研究结果进行分析发现,(1)不同性别学生所感受到的父母教养方式存在差异。(2)不同性别学生的自尊没有差异;不同年级学生的自尊有差异。(3)中学生的自尊与其所感受到的来自父母的情感温暖与理解有显著的正相关,而与父母的惩罚、严厉,拒绝、否认以及父亲的过度保护有显著的负相关。