Ideal Mother Research Articles

Multiple femininities in two Russian women’s magazines, 1970s–1990s

In both the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods, femininity and beauty were traits often attributed to the ideal working mother portrayed and promoted in state media. But with greater exposure to global beauty ideals in the post-communist era, the sexualized and beautified female body acquired a social value that was independent of its role in the reproductive process. In this paper, I analyse changes in the way care for the female body was represented in two Russian women’s magazines Rabotnitsa and Krest’yanka (1970s–1990s). Over this period, the ideal of the working mother figures less prominently and there is an increasing focus on the ways that women-consumers ought to work on their individual body-projects. This might appear to be a radical change. But by analysing the representations of women more carefully, I show that the move towards the privatization of the body project was already under way in the late Soviet period, but only for some categories of women. That is, non-Slavic women of various ages could be working mothers, but individual consumption was a realm reserved for their Slavic countrywomen.

Vegetative and generative maintenance of self-incompatibility in six accessions of German chamomile

Self-incompatible (SI) plants are able to form ideal mother lines for hybrid crossing in hermaphroditic plants, assuring fertilization from the desired father line. To find out suitable ways to maintain SI was the aim of this study. Among 220 plants of German chamomile (Matricaria recutita (L.) Rauschert) within six accessions SI-genotypes were selected. SI was determined as staying seedless in three flower heads per plant. Initial SI-plants formed the basic paternal generation (P1) of i) maintaining the same genotypes over six months and repeating seed set analysis (P2) and of ii) conducting crossings in three versions (SI × SI, SI × NSI (not SI evaluated plants) and NSI × SI), thereby producing the F1 population. F1 exhibited 78% SI and P2 62% SI, indicating a higher environmental than genetic influence on SI. But heritability, calculated from the results of SI × SI crossings, showed high values (h(2) = 0.71). Within generative propagation, the influence of generation/crossing version was highly significant (p = 0.001) and the cultivar 'Degumille' explored the highest value of SI (86%) after SI × NSI crossings. Therefore, the intra-cultivar combination of 'Degumille' SI mother plants crossed with NSI father plants can be recommended as the most promising version to maintain SI in chamomile.

Is the ideal mother a sensitive mother? Beliefs about early childhood parenting in mothers across the globe

In this article, we test the hypothesis that beliefs about the ideal mother are convergent across cultures and that these beliefs overlap considerably with attachment theory’s notion of the sensitive mother. In a sample including 26 cultural groups from 15 countries around the globe, 751 mothers sorted the Maternal Behavior Q-Set to reflect their ideas about the ideal mother. The results show strong convergence between maternal beliefs about the ideal mother and attachment theory’s description of the sensitive mother across groups. Cultural group membership significantly predicted variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores, but this effect was substantially accounted for by group variations in socio-demographic factors. Mothers living in rural versus urban areas, with a low family income, and with more children, were less likely to describe the ideal mother as highly sensitive. Cultural group membership did remain a significant predictor of variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores above and beyond socio-demographic predictors. The findings are discussed in terms of the universal and culture-specific aspects of the sensitivity construct.

Doing Gender Online: New Mothers' Psychological Characteristics, Facebook Use, and Depressive Symptoms.

Online social networking sites, such as Facebook, have provided a new platform for individuals to produce and reproduce gender through social interactions. New mothers, in particular, may use Facebook to practice behaviors that align with their mothering identity and meet broader societal expectations, or in other words, to "do motherhood." Given that Facebook use may undermine well-being, it is important to understand the individual differences underlying new mothers' experiences with Facebook during the stressful first months of parenthood. Using survey data from a sample of 127 new mothers with Facebook accounts residing in the U.S. Midwest, we addressed two key questions: (a) Are individual differences in new mothers' psychological characteristics associated with their use and experiences of Facebook? and (b) Are new mothers' psychological characteristics associated with greater risk for depressive symptoms via their use and experiences of Facebook? Regression analyses revealed that mothers who were more concerned with external validation of their identities as mothers and those who believed that society holds them to excessively high standards for parenting engaged in more frequent Facebook activity and also reported stronger emotional reactions to Facebook commentary. Moreover, mothers who were more concerned with external validation were more likely to have featured their child in their Facebook profile picture. Mediation analyses indicated that mothers who were more prone to seeking external validation for their mothering identity and perfectionistic about parenting experienced increases in depressive symptoms indirectly via greater Facebook activity.

Everyday dramas of conscience: navigating identity through creative neutralisations

ABSTRACTThe paper seeks to recuperate autonomy within debates around identity as the discursive construction of self through exploring the ‘greening’ of intensive mothering discourse and the emergence of new subject positions and practices of accountability. It argues that facets of ideologies of ethical and sustainable consumption are inscribed within this discourse, authorising identity work and furnishing everyday provisioning routines with significance and urgency; and that related social practices that are marked for ‘greening’ diligence or negligence are not merely situated and productive, but transformative of mothering identities, roles and norms. We report the findings of a study of a group of professional working mothers as they negotiate competing and conflictual spaces of doing ‘green’ mothering. This opens an analytical window on the diversity of signifying practices that characterise how informants play with boundaries and ambiguity in creative ways, using images of responsible consumption and sustainable living to negotiate appeals to social well-being while authorising claims to ‘greening’ competence. Our interviews capture discursive events that rearticulate social messages, mixing them with brand appeals and media content that situate the invention of ‘new’ mothering with regard to flows of ‘greening’ discourse. Inventive appeals and related subject positions speak of a repertoire of strategic messaging practices, themselves consistent with a heightened reflexivity shaping content and presentation through practices we understand as modes of neutralisation – forms of self-governance and accountability that seek to generate resources of resilience that help reinforce green mothering identity claims made to self and others. Through socialising ‘sustainability’ in this way, we contribute to our understanding of the social surrogacy of brands and its problematics.

An (in)visible universe of grief: Performative disidentifications with white motherhood in the We are not Trayvon Martin blog

ABSTRACTThis essay offers a critical rhetorical analysis of social media discourse of white mothers protesting the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer. I argue that through affectively charged performative disidentifications, white mothers contributing to the We are not Trayvon Martin blog worked within and against norms of ideal motherhood to challenge dominant formations of whiteness in ways that exposed the privileged status of U.S. American white motherhood and reconceptualized motherhood as an affective orientation toward antiracism. Unpacking affectively charged performative disidentifications with privileged racial identities is important for enhancing understandings of white antiracist rhetoric and fostering formations of white antiracist consciousness.

Agamben and the political positioning of child welfare-involved mothers in child protective services

In the UK, protecting children from maltreatment is an administrative and juridical system with law as ultimate arbiter of whether a mother may retain care of her child. The primary legal principle is the child’s best interests. This article draws on Giorgio Agamben’s (1995) theory of ‘bare life’ to examine the identity and the political positioning of child welfare-involved mothers in contemporary Western child protection systems to complement the primary focus on their children. A fundamental underlying issue, namely the control of life and its significance for women involved with state bureaucratic administrative and legal child protective services, is examined along with its significance for the biopolitical identity of child welfare-involved mothers in child protective services.

Mothers of children with food allergy: A discourse analysis of occupational identities

ABSTRACTOccupational identity is a central concept within occupational science and exploration of how the occupational identity of mother is shaped by having a child with a disease is an important consideration within this field. Currently up to 550 million people worldwide experience food allergy (Fiocchi, Sampson, Bahna, & Lack, 2011). The majority are children and the disease has been shown to create significant disruption across their occupational repertoire. It has also been suggested that the occupations of mothers of children with food allergy may be affected, however there is a paucity of scientific inquiries into this claim. The purpose of this study was to explore how mothers of children with food allergy represent their mothering occupations. Discourse analysis was used to analyze text of three on-line blogs (356 posts) written by mothers of children with food allergy. Four occupational identities emerged from the data: mothers as change managers, mothers as allergy moms, mothers as warriors, and mothers as advocates. These findings reflect researcher interpretation of how mothers’ occupations were discursively represented following occupational disruption due to food allergy. This study advances the scholarship of food allergy and occupational science by providing the first known exploration of occupations relating to mothering a child with food allergy.

Effects of seed traits variation on seedling performance of the invasive weed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.

Seedling performance can determine the survival of a juvenile plant and impact adult plant performance. Understanding the factors that may impact seedling performance is thus critical, especially for annuals, opportunists or invasive plant species. Seedling performance can vary among mothers or populations in response to environmental conditions or under the influence of seed traits. However, very few studies have investigated seed traits variations and their consequences on seedling performance. Specifically, the following questions have been addressed by this work: 1) How the seed traits of the invasive Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. vary among mothers and populations, as well as along the latitude; 2) How do seed traits influence seedling performance; 3) Is the influence on seedlings temperature dependent. With seeds from nine Western Europe ruderal populations, seed traits that can influence seedling development were measured. The seeds were sown into growth chambers with warmer or colder temperature treatments. During seedling growth, performance-related traits were measured. A high variability in seed traits was highlighted. Variation was determined by the mother identity and population, but not latitude. Together, the temperature, population and the identity of the mother had an effect on seedling performance. Seed traits had a relative impact on seedling performance, but this did not appear to be temperature dependent. Seedling performance exhibited a strong plastic response to the temperature, was shaped by the identity of the mother and the population, and was influenced by a number of seed traits.

Constructions of Mothering in Pentecostal Charismatic Churches in South Africa

This article examines how contemporary forms of the ideal middle-class mother presented in popular South African women’s magazines is taken up and re-coded by three Pentecostal Charismatic Christian churches in Johannesburg to construct their concept of the ideal Christian mother. With the following four biblical texts as a background—1 Timothy 2:13–15, Ephesians 5:21–6:9, Proverbs 31:9–31 and Titus 2:5—this article, which does not offer an exegesis of these texts but rather draws on ethnographic research, shows how these texts are loosely used by these churches to inform their teaching on ideal mothering. All three churches in the study give women extensive support and help to show them that through the power of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of the church, they can attain the ideal of the perfect mother as portrayed in popular culture.

The discrepancy between sensitivity beliefs and sensitive parenting behaviors of ethnic majority and ethnic minority mothers.

The aim of this study was to test the relation between sensitivity beliefs and sensitive behaviors in Dutch ethnic majority and Turkish ethnic minority mothers. Sixty mothers, 30 in the Dutch and 30 in the Turkish group, with a child between the ages of 2 and 5 years participated. Sensitivity belief scores were derived by correlating the Maternal Behaviour Q-Sort (Pederson, Moran, & Bento, 1999), the expertderived profile of the highly sensitive mother, with mothers' beliefs about the ideal mother. For observed sensitive behaviors, mothers and children were observed in a free play situation with the Emotional Availability Scales (Biringen, 2008). Dutch mothers scored higher on sensitivity beliefs and sensitive behaviors than Turkish mothers, and this relation between ethnicity and sensitivity (beliefs and behaviors) was not mediated by socioeconomic status (SES). Sensitivity beliefs were not related to sensitive behaviors in either group, and ethnicity and SES did not moderate this association. Further investigation of the relation between sensitivity beliefs and sensitive behaviors could inform interventions on how to translate improved parenting beliefs into improvements in parenting practices.

"I used to be an ordinary mom": The maternal identity of mothers of women abused by an intimate partner.

Mothers of children who suffer various problems tend to discuss their experience as a crisis in their maternal identity, regardless of whether the children are young or adults. However, the maternal identity of mothers who are aware that their adult daughters are being abused has not yet been explored. This study aims to examine the construction of the maternal identity by Israeli women whose grown daughters have been subjected to intimate partner violence (IPV), in the light of cultural representations of motherhood and domestic violence (DV). Thematic discourse analysis of in-depth interviews with 11 mothers identified discursive strategies that they used to negotiate a troubled maternal identity following their daughters' IPV experience. The mothers asserted a positive maternal identity by referring to common discourses about DV and motherhood, in a bid to bolster their "good mother" identity, to reframe motherhood, and to assign responsibility for the abuse to the abuser, to their daughters, or to the patriarchal social structure. The implications of these findings for motherhood and maternal identity theories and for professionals working in the field of DV are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Vegetative and generative maintenance of self-incompatibility in six accessions of German chamomile.

Self-incompatible (SI) plants are able to form ideal mother lines for hybrid crossing in hermaphroditic plants, assuring fertilization from the desired father line. To find out suitable ways to maintain SI was the aim of this study. Among 220 plants of German chamomile (Matricaria recutita (L.) Rauschert) within six accessions SI-genotypes were selected. SI was determined as staying seedless in three flower heads per plant. Initial SI-plants formed the basic paternal generation (P1) of i) maintaining the same genotypes over six months and repeating seed set analysis (P2) and of ii) conducting crossings in three versions (SI × SI, SI × NSI (not SI evaluated plants) and NSI × SI), thereby producing the F1 population. F1 exhibited 78% SI and P2 62% SI, indicating a higher environmental than genetic influence on SI. But heritability, calculated from the results of SI × SI crossings, showed high values (h2 = 0.71). Within generative propagation, the influence of generation/crossing version was highly significant (p = 0.001) and the cultivar ‘Degumille’ explored the highest value of SI (86%) after SI × NSI crossings. Therefore, the intra-cultivar combination of ‘Degumille’ SI mother plants crossed with NSI father plants can be recommended as the most promising version to maintain SI in chamomile.

Dillemas of Modern Motherhood (Based on Research in Russia)

IntroductionThe concept of globalization is probably one of the most successful frameworks for explaining the dynamic changes within modern societies. Most frequently, the discussion is centred around its positive and negative consequences, and in relation to in the context of globalization, new forms, dilemmas and possibilities to lose unique cultural identity are discussed.This article aims at analysing the opportunities and risks that globalization offers to the institute of family through presenting mothers with unfamiliar dilemmas and influencing the nature of new scenarios. To specify the scale, this work proposes several indicators of the impact of globalization on the private sphere of in three dimensions: economic, sociotechnical and cultural. We will also analyse several local responses to the challenges of globalization.This article is based on ten-year long participants' observation that was held in Moscow and online research through Russia. Being mother of three children herself, the author was able to actively interact with respondents: interviews in kinder gardens, schools, children's educational centers, etc. Gradually the research that at first was substantially qualitative acquired some characteristics of quantitative study. This study covered the analysis of 178 journals made available for public access; 321 semi-structured interviews, conducted by the author via social network www.babyblog.ru over period of time from June 2010 to December 2014. interviews were conducted with Russian women aged from 19 to 64 years from various regions of Russian Federation; non-probability random sampling was used. choice of online method was grounded on the fact that during the maternity leave many women find themselves in social isolation and virtual communications become of great importance for them. Virtual publics and counterpublics provide support, advice and knowledge to women transitioning to motherhood (Johnson, 2015). Author made her own blog with more than 300 followers and it gave chance to start discussions on different questions. For example, on the way of celebration of the first Birthday, time structure, consumption templates, etc. As the result of the research, 321 of semistructured interview were made.Although we understand that this approach can lead to low accuracy in particular indexes due to insufficiently representative sample of respondents, the main goal of the article is to identify the main issues and methods for future research.We start by an attempt to highlight several indicators of the impact of globalization on the private sphere of in three dimensions: economic, sociotechnical and cultural. Thorough analyses of all the globalization tendencies is subject for number of articles, so we will focus just on some of them.We should notice that the participants of our observation choose different strategies, so we summarized them in several Scenarios of motherhood, based on different aspects of Globalization influence on motherhood. The practice of mothering furthers identity changes, particularly because women are faced by the realities of in juxtaposition with their ideals of motherhood (Laney et al., 2015).To date, there is no single, universally accepted definition of globalization. For example, P. Sztompka wrote that ...local norms and values, customs and morality, religious beliefs, models of family life, modes of production and consumption seem to be vanishing beneath the pressure of modern western institutions... Current global scale of cultural unification is determined, mainly, by the mass-media, especially television. Imperialistic means of mass turn our planet into big village, inhabitants of which consume the same cultural product. A. S. Panarin (2003) defined globalization as a process of creating united interconnected world where nations are not separated from each other by usual protectionist barriers and borders that obstruct their communication and at the same time guard them from chaotic external influence. …

The relation to pregnancy, the child, motherhood of women in IVF situation

Research objective - studying of features of the relation to pregnancy, the child, motherhood of women in IVF situation. Selection: 100 married pregnant women aged from 28 till 42 years (the first pregnancy of the first trimester, complications in the anamnesis isn't present) representing two groups on 50 people: 1) after artificial insemination (empirical group); 2) in a situation natural pregnancy (control group). The leading motives of pregnancy, types of the attitude towards themselves, pregnancies, to the child, people around, the prevailing installations in the sphere of the family relations, features of representation of future mothers about themselves and "the ideal parent" are defined by testing. Distinctions in all respects with women from control group are found. It is established that in vitro fertilisation the high level of readiness for motherhood according to its motivational characteristics is observed. Prevalence of constructive motives of pregnancy against concern in the health and aspirations to meet social expectations is revealed. The leading types of a gestational dominant are optimum and euphoric, the hypertrophied positive emotional background of pregnancy is observed. In the future of a bike probability the dependent relations with the child, preference of the sponsoring or authoritative style of family education. Revaluation of own parental qualities when comparing with image of ideal mother is observed. Results allow to carry women to the group of risk demanding psychological maintenance before and after the childbirth.

Ethnic, gender and class identities of Polish migrant mothers: intersecting maternal narratives with transnationalism and integration

ABSTRACTBased on a doctoral study of Polish migrant mothers living in Germany and the United Kingdom, this paper examines women's narratives pertinent to ethnicity, gender and social class, as well as the mutual entanglements of these dimensions. While the ethnic identity matrix often evokes dimensions of transnationalism and integration, the addition of the femininity component illustrates the diversity among contemporary Polish migrant women in Western Europe with regard to their identity practices. The analyses of transnational, translocal and cosmopolitan orientations highlight their binding to a contextualized understanding of femininity – its various markers and corollary epitome of motherhood, particularly in the Polish context. The main findings comprise an ideal-type based typology of migrant mothering, which sheds light on how mobility and gender intersect. The discussions adopt the social class lens in an attempt to focus on the implications of certain maternal and migrant identities among Polish women. By underscoring the value of both integration and transnationalism perspectives, the paper calls for additional aspects of translocality and hybridization, seeing them as noticeable social markers of the Polish female migrants’ biographies.

One Is Not Born A Woman, But Becomes One: Gendered Patterns of Women Subordination in India

One is not born a woman, but becomes one was very correctly put into words by the famous existentialist feminist Simone de Beaviour to explain the gendered patterns of women subordination in society whereby women are assigned the position of subordinate others. Although gender is the secondary construction of patriarchal society, it is intruded over the natural biological sex due to which, men are assumed as the masculine male and women as the feminine female. In the process of gendered construction, men are socialized to dominate because their character is shaped by boldness, roughness and aggressiveness. In contrast, women are socialized to tolerate those dominations, because their character is shaped by softness, shyness and patience. Within the dominant discourses of a patriarchal society like India, gender is internalized by both the sexes through their masculine and feminine traits. This is the reason why women remain submissive throughout their life, sometimes being a traditional good wife who tolerates the tortures inflicted upon her by husband or in-laws in the form of domestic violence and sometimes being an ideal mother who silently accepts the decisions of her son and sometimes as a victim who remain silent even being raped or harassed sexually. These roles are sanctioned socially through various social institutions thereby, glorifying wifehood and motherhood. This paper is an attempt to bring forth the psychological, ideological and cultural bases of this process of naturalization of women subordination in a gendered and patriarchal society like India, where women silently accept their submissive position in state, society and culture.

Postpartum smoking relapse—a thematic synthesis of qualitative studies

Many women quit smoking during pregnancy, but relapse after the baby is born. To understand why and identify ways of preventing this, this study reviewed the qualitative literature on women's experience of postpartum smoking relapse. A systematic review of qualitative studies and process evaluations of trials. We undertook a thematic synthesis of published qualitative data. We screened 1336 papers. Twenty-two papers reporting on 16 studies were included, reporting on the views of 1031 postpartum women. Factors affecting relapse and barriers and facilitators to relapse prevention were identified around the key themes of beliefs, social influences, motivation, physiological factors and identity. Women's beliefs about smoking as a means of coping with stress and the need for social support, especially from a partner, emerged as important. Extrinsic motivation to quit during the pregnancy (for the health of the fetus) appeared to be a factor in prompting relapse after the baby was born. During the immediate postpartum period women believed that physiological changes influence cigarette cravings. The stress of caring for a newborn, sleeplessness and adjusting to a new mothering identity were also reported to be important. Among women who quit smoking during pregnancy, those who relapse postpartum talk commonly about no longer needing to protect the baby and the effects of stress. Partner support and a sense of changed identity are cited as factors preventing relapse.

Still being ‘Mother’? Consumption and identity practices for women in later life

Studies of mothering and consumption have primarily focussed on mothers to be and mothers of young children with little known about the intersection between consumption and mothering beyond the years of childhood dependence. This article argues that performances of mothering enacted through consumption do not end with children leaving home. Many women were consciously ‘Still being mother’, with consumption choices significant in the ways in which mothering identities were performed. The analysis of interviews from three studies of family life, living standards and consumption in older age identified three constructs of the ‘good’ mothering of adult children. Aspects of the ‘provisioning mother’ were evident in providing for children through gifts, material and financial support. Appropriate consumption practices by adult children demonstrated the ‘role model mother’ who has taught her children well. Mothers also framed themselves as ‘independent mothers’ who had sufficient social and financial resources to not burden children, hinting not only at their own ‘controlled’ consumption practices but also at future changes in mothering and consumption that might need to be managed as they aged. These mothering identities were not static and were exhibited differently across a range of living standards. ‘Still being mother’ mattered, but the resources available to women to shape these identities through consumption practices differed according to their material circumstances, expectations and familial relations, which had implications for their identity as independent mothers and children.

Imagens de uma Nova Economia Identitária dos Corpos Grávidos

A ideia orientadora deste artigo é a de que as imagens criam representações relativas às feminilidades, introduzindo uma nova economia identitária dos corpos grávidos. Investigamos a produção discursiva das identidades maternas divulgadas na revista brasileira Pais e Filhos. Como ferramenta teórico-metodológica, fizemos uso dos conceitos de análise de discurso de Michel Foucault. Selecionamos as imagens, observando os movimentos históricos em circulação, que exprimem, mediante transformações do lugar das práticas corporais e esportivas, a intervenção nos corpos, afirmando posições identitárias - a da mãe esportiva, delicada, moderada, equilibrada, forte, firme, preparada, sensual, limpa, sem manchas.