Paula Paajanen

• Postdoctoral researcher in Social Psychology
• University of Eastern Finland

Tutkimusten mukaan ulkomaalaistaustaiset pienten lasten äidit voivat kokea enemmän hyvinvoinnin ja työllistymisen haasteita kuin suomalaistaustaiset pienten lasten äidit. Erityisesti hyvinvoinnin edistämisessä sosiaalisilla suhteilla on tärkeä merkitys. Tässä artikkelissa esittelemme kootusti Mamanet-tutkimushankkeemme tuloksia. Hankkeessa on selvi...

Although informal segregation often persists in multiethnic neighbourhoods, local institutions offering public services may act as an important setting for intergroup contact. Therefore, we studied how immigrant mothers of young children discursively construct institutional intergroup contact with workers of public playgrounds and kindergartens. We...

Becoming a mother is often accompanied by a loss of social connections, which can reduce the availability of social support. This can increase maternal stress with negative health outcomes. Therefore, we examined how mothers' social contact with other mothers living in the same neighborhood can form a compensative source of social support and wellb...

Although the benefits of contact for positive intergroup relations are widely acknowledged, less is known about how group members construct the agency and responsibility of contact participants in intergroup encounters. Using critical discursive psychology, we analysed the interpretative repertoires that Finnish majority mothers (N = 13) and mother...

Informal segregation has been widely studied in various public settings but not on public playgrounds. Drawing on an 11-month ethnography among mothers of young children, we examine how informal segregation is (re)produced on public playgrounds in two ethnically diverse neighborhoods in Finland. Our findings reveal different normative practices. Fi...

Research on intergroup contact has considered how the occurrence and experience of contact is affected by ingroup members. Qualitative studies of contact in real-life settings have additionally highlighted how multiple actors can affect the manifestation of contact. This article shows how the presence of one’s child can shape immigrant mothers’ con...

Mothers' social integration with other mothers in the same residential area has been shown to be beneficial for their health and well-being. The socio-psychological resources afforded by other mothers aid the transition to motherhood. However, much less is known about the processes whereby mothers integrate with other local mothers. Therefore, we a...