Becoming an employed mother: Conceptualising adult identity development through semiotic cultural lens

Ecological factors influencing parenting self-efficacy among working mothers with a child under 36 month old in South Korea: a cross-sectional and correlational study

BACKGROUND

Parenting self-efficacy is an essential component for parents to successfully perform their role and is important for mother and child well-being. To support parenting self-efficacy amongst working mothers, it is necessary to understand the factors influencing parenting self-efficacy amongst this group. However, the majority of previous studies regarding factors influencing parenting self-efficacy did not focus on working mothers. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors influencing parenting self-efficacy of working mothers using an ecological framework.

METHODS

The research design was a cross-sectional, correlational study. The participants were 298 working mothers with a child under 3 years of age, who were recruited from ten nurseries. Data were collected from August 8 to September 22, 2017 using structured questionnaires, including the Parenting Sense of Competency scale, a one-item Short Form Health Survey scale, the Maternal Role Satisfaction scale, the Parenting Stress Inventory, the Work and Parent Role Conflict scale, the Parenting Alliance Inventory, the Social Support scale, and the Childbirth and Parenting Friendly System scale. The study process of this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS 23.0 Win program with descriptive statistics, t-test, one way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression.

RESULTS

Working mothers who were the primary caregiver had higher parenting self-efficacy compared to those who were not the primary caregiver (β = .13, p = .022). At the individual level, the higher maternal role satisfaction, the higher parenting self-efficacy of working mothers (β = .27, p < .001). In the micro-system level, higher parenting support by a spouse was associated with higher parenting self-efficacy of working mothers (β = .19, p = .002).

CONCLUSIONS

Educational interventions for increasing the awareness and satisfaction of maternal role and various strategies for fathers' active participation in parenting should be developed. In addition, practical interventions that reduce the burden of parenting while supporting parenting self-efficacy of working mothers who are the primary caregiver should also be considered.

Reading men’s experiences of balancing work and family life through the lens of semiotic cultural approach to life-course transitions

Becoming a parent is one of the most important transitional experiences in adulthood that has significant implications for new parents’ mental and physical health and psychosocial development. A growing body of research examines how men transition to fatherhood and balance their work and family obligations in complex contemporary societies. However, this phenomenological evidence remains under-theorised from the life-course development perspective. In this paper, a semiotic cultural approach to life-course transitions is used to explore how a sample of educated and employed Australian men in heterosexual relationships experienced and made sense of their fatherhood and work and family conflicts. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 20 fathers highlights how these fathers attempt to navigate between multiple, ambiguous and sometimes contradictory societal expectations about fatherhood, while also struggling to balance their desires to be a ‘good father’ with their wives and partners’ attempts to be a ‘good mother’, thus evidencing the weak cultural guidance of transition to fatherhood. The analysis shifts the focus away from developmental outcomes and moves towards understanding the semiotic processes through which development occurs in the complex intertwinement between person and their environment. The discussion of men’s dilemmas about fatherhood also underscores the future orientation of human development and highlights how persons are actively and intentionally involved in this movement towards an unpredictable but imagined future.

“Meus hormônios me enlouquecem”: investigação psicanalítica com mommy blogs brasileiros

Resumo Esta pesquisa objetiva investigar psicanaliticamente imaginários coletivos de mães sobre sofrimentos maternos, na perspectiva da psicologia psicanalítica concreta. Justifica-se como busca de conhecimento compreensivo que pode trazer subsídios para a clínica psicológica contemporânea e para debates de movimentos sociais e sociedade civil que tenham por foco a melhoria das condições de cuidados a mães e filhos. Organiza-se ao redor do método psicanalítico, utilizando como material postagens provenientes de mommy blogs brasileiros. A leitura do conjunto de postagens, em estado de atenção flutuante e associação livre de ideias, permite a produção interpretativa do campo de sentido afetivo-emocional “Meus hormônios me enlouquecem”. Este campo se organiza ao redor da fantasia segundo a qual afetos ansiosos e depressivos, vivenciados por mães durante o puerpério, seriam determinados por hormônios e/ou neurotransmissores. O quadro geral indica uma tendência imaginativa a priorizar o valor da esfera biológica em detrimento da dramática da vida relacional-vincular.