Activities of the children stigmatize their mother: perceptions, consequences, and coping in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study attempts to explore the perceptions, consequences, and coping strategy of mothers subjected to social stigma due to their children’s activities in rural Bangladesh. A questionnaire-based survey was carried out among 218 mothers to investigate social stigma targeted at the mothers stemming from children’s negative traits, behaviors, and activities. It has been learnt from the study that the community people relate children’s behavior with their parents especially blame their mothers and affair case of the children alone represented 69.49% of the respondents. Almost all the stigmatized and non-stigmatized respondents (91.94% of the stigmatized and 100% of the non-stigmatized) perceived that it is very justified that mothers are naturally stigmatized due to children’s negative activities. Stigma often harms network building and social capital as empirical data (53.22%) also revealed that the possibility of building new relationships as exemplified by marriage especially of the daughters were reduced and found difficult. Coping strategies involved a compromise with the rural power structure materialized through fiscal loss of the stigmatized and forced children as expected to the society.