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Intensive mothering and informational habitus: Interplays in virtual communities
Abstract
Objective:This study aimed to explore how virtual communities of mothers shape the informational habitus in the context of the intensive mothering ideology.
Background:Mothers’ involvement and dedication are perceived as essential to children’s development. Some mothers join virtual communities for health information to ensure that they are doing the best for their child.
Method:An online ethnography in three virtual communi-ties of mothers was conducted, in addition to individual interviews with 16 mothers of young children (18 months and below).
Results:Mothers use virtual communities for emotional and informational support. Experiential knowledge and referenced information are highly valuable. Furthermore,mothers are reflexive and choose what information they integrate based on their educational capital and their personal skills. Finally, choice appeared to be the practical operator of the informational habitus.
Conclusion:Our results suggest that the sense of belonging developed in virtual communities shapes a new informational habitus based on the importance of being an informed mother.
Implications:Mothers want to make the best possible decisions for their child’s health. To do so, they deploy reflexive practices to process information. This suggests that other than their physicians, they also trust an important array of sources of information.
... 39 Many valuable studies have been conducted online that analysed online content of immunization websites as well as explored online mothering sites using both an online ethnographic and content analysis approach. 40,41 Other studies have focussed on the influence of social media on vaccine uptake. 9 This study continues the exploration of the impact of social media-based virtual communities on vaccine decision-making for parents and is the first to utilize a netnographic approach, a methodology designed for research of online data. ...
... 34,35 This is despite these forms of information seeking existing simultaneously and evidence to suggest that parents will look for information online despite receiving information from a healthcare professional. 40 Trust in an information source and the desire to make the best possible decision as a parent has been shown to drive information seeking practices. 40 Through enhancing trust in the information provided by healthcare professionals in the context of effective therapeutic relationships, it may be possible to mitigate the effects of social media-acquired misinformation in vaccine decision-making. ...
... 40 Trust in an information source and the desire to make the best possible decision as a parent has been shown to drive information seeking practices. 40 Through enhancing trust in the information provided by healthcare professionals in the context of effective therapeutic relationships, it may be possible to mitigate the effects of social media-acquired misinformation in vaccine decision-making. ...
Background
Immunization is one of the most significant health initiatives of recent times. Despite this, vaccine hesitancy is increasing and was listed as one of the top 10 threats to global health by the World Health Organization in 2019. A major factor associated with vaccine hesitancy is thought to be the viral spread of misinformation by a small but active anti-vaccination movement.
Objectives
The purpose of this study was to explore the influences of social media on vaccine decision-making in parents.
Design
This study is part of a larger body of research that explored vaccine decision-making in parents. Other methods included were an online survey and semi-structured interviews. This study investigated the influence of cyberculture on parents in an online environment.
Method
This study employed netnography, a form of qualitative inquiry with its roots in ethnography as methodology and a purpose-designed Facebook page as the means of exploring a purpose-designed online community with a particular focus on the culture, belief systems and influences present. Both manual and computer-assisted thematic analyses were used to analyse the data obtained.
Results
Three key themes were identified in this study. These included vaccine safety concerns, the emotional debate and COVID-19-specific issues. The results indicated the presence of strong anti-vaccination sentiment combined with an ‘infodemic’ of conspiracy theories, misinformation and vitriol with the potential to negatively impact parents seeking immunization information.
Conclusion
Given the popularity and accessibility of social media and the ready access to misinformation present online, it is evident that parental vaccine decision-making may be impacted adversely. Therefore, it is important that healthcare professionals are aware of this and provide adequate and timely education prior to parents seeking information on social media.
... For example, unfair treatment of racialized minority groups by the police could explain their lower levels of trust in this institution (Murphy et al., 2022;Wilkes & Wu, 2018). Informational habitus, i.e., the habitual ways of individuals of accessing and using information (Vivion & Malo, 2023) could further influence how individuals appraise the performance of institutions. A recent review highlights cross-sectional evidence for a link between internet use and lower levels of trust in political institutions and news media, possibly reflecting the effect of polarizing online contents and, in the context of authoritarian regimes, freer circulation of anti-government information (Lorenz-Spreen et al., 2023). ...
Objective
Trust in institutions such as the government is lower in the context of mental health problems and socio-economic disadvantage. However, the roles of structural inequality, interpersonal factors, and mental health on institutional trust remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the associations of social and mental health factors, from early life to adulthood, with institutional trust.
Method
Participants (n=1347; 57.2% female) were from the population-based Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (1997-2021). Trust in 13 institutions was self-reported at age 23. Predictors were 20 social and mental health factors during early life, adolescence, and adulthood. Associations were examined with linear regressions corrected for false discovery rate. Pathways were explored using the temporal Peter-Clark algorithm.
Results
Early-life factors associated with lower levels of trust were male sex, racialized minority status, low household income, and maternal history of depression and antisocial behaviors. After adjusting for early-life factors, adolescence factors associated with lower levels of trust were internalizing and externalizing problems, bullying exposure, and school difficulties. Independently of early-life or adolescence factors, adulthood factors associated with lower levels of trust were perceived stress, psychotic experiences, suicidal ideas, and seeking professional help, whereas greater social capital was associated with greater trust. Temporal Peter-Clark analyses identified social capital and psychotic experiences as potential proximal determinants of institutional trust.
Conclusion
This study identified factors associated with institutional trust reflecting an interplay between structural inequality, interpersonal relationships, and mental health over development. Interventions aimed at promoting social inclusion may improve institutional trust and population wellbeing.
... Empathy and support from "experientially similar others" are effective for stress-coping (Thoits, 2021, p. 643). Compared to connections with family and close friends, disposable weak ties between experientially similar strangers in online communities alleviate participants' potential burden of feeling attached to and liable for one another (Aston et al., 2021;Small, 2017;Vivion & Malo, 2023). Under exceptional circumstances, online communities also provide crucial lifelines for many families. ...
The internet and digital technologies have penetrated all domains of people's lives, and family life is no exception. Despite being a characterizing feature of contemporary family change, the digitalization of family life has yet to be systematically theorized. Against this backdrop, this article develops a multilevel conceptual framework for understanding the digitalization of family life and illustrates the framework by synthesizing state‐of‐the‐art research from multiple disciplines across global contexts. At a micro level, as individuals “do” family online, digitalization influences diverse aspects of family practices, including family formation, functioning, and contact. How individuals “do” family online is not free‐floating but embedded in macro‐level economic, sociocultural, and political systems underpinning processes of digitalization. Bridging the micro–macro divide, family‐focused online communities serve as a pivotal intermediary at the meso level, where people display family life to, and exchange family‐related support with, mostly nonfamily members. Meso‐level online communities are key sites for forming and diffusing collective identities and shared family norms. Bringing together the three levels, the framework also considers cross‐level interrelations to develop a holistic digital ecology of family life. The article concludes by discussing the contributions of the framework to understanding family change and advancing family scholarship in the digital age.
Objective
The study aimed to explore how different groups of people perceive good mother ideals in China and the cultural and sociodemographic profiles of these groups.
Background
Good mother ideals have changed over time and become increasingly complex. The prevalence of intensive mothering has been supported mainly by media representation research and dominated by Western‐focused studies. How tensions between Confucianism and neoliberalism alter the good mother ideas in contemporary China requires further investigation.
Method
First, we used an open‐ended survey to collect good mother attributes. Then, we conducted a latent profile analysis with an online survey ( N = 449) to divide people into subgroups according to their latent perception structures. Later, we ran multinominal logistic regressions to explore whether cultural values and sociodemographic variables can predict group membership.
Results
Collected attributes ( N = 1,162) were organized into five categories: neutrality (37.87%), femininity (25.39%), motherhood (11.53%), family responsibilities (6.71%), and childcare responsibilities (18.5%). Moreover, we identified three groups holding different motherhood beliefs: Whatever, Average, and Perfectionist. Young people had higher odds to be in the Whatever group and held more flexible good mother ideals, and married women were 6.69 times more likely to be in the Perfectionist group than single men. Our findings also indicated that people in the Perfectionist group scored higher on attitudes toward family and Asian values.
Conclusion
Our research suggested that researchers must distinguish between dominant motherhood representation and lay perceptions of motherhood as well as pay attention to the cultural sensitivity of good mother ideals.
Objective
Drawing on the theory of polymedia and on the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in (re)defining the articulation between the private and the public, this introduction reflects on what ICT does to and for families around the world.
Background
Through the development of networking platforms, video call applications, personal sites, and collaborative information platforms, ICT has changed the way people live, love, and interact. It has also afforded new ways to “do family.”
Method
By featuring studies from a variety of national and regional contexts (Canada, Chile, Ghana, Greece, Moldova, South Korea, Ukraine, the Netherlands, United States, and Turkey), it establishes a dialogue between disciplines and a fruitful cross‐fertilization of research topics, methodologies, analyses, and theoretical perspectives.
Results
This special issue explores (a) the nexus among family life, relationships, and ICT and (b) the relation between the everyday lived experiences of family members and the broader social structures that circumscribe the width and breadth of those experiences.
Conclusion
The contributions show the porosity of the boundary between public and private spaces. Alternative forms of expertise and parenting norms are emerging online. ICTs are integrated into parents' information‐seeking and sharing practices, and emotional support. They sustain relationships between family members across distance. However, inequalities regarding access to the Internet and computer literacy still jeopardize digital citizenship and democratization.
Implication
The contributions in this special issue highlight the need for better structuring of interventions and policies to support families by using up‐to‐date ICT systems and creating mentorship programs and digital mediation for family professionals and beneficiaries.
The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods" serves as a comprehensive guide to navigating the intricacies of conducting research in digital environments. This seminal work delves into the foundational concepts of online research methods, tracing their evolution and significance in contemporary scholarly inquiry. It explores diverse topics such as research design, data collection, ethical considerations, and data analysis techniques tailored to online contexts. Moreover, the handbook addresses emerging trends and future directions in online research, providing invaluable insights for researchers across disciplines. With its breadth of coverage and depth of analysis, "The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods" stands as an essential resource for scholars seeking to harness the power of digital technologies in their research endeavors.
Use of online health information is positively associated with citizen knowledge, empowerment, self-care, health outcomes, and quality of life. However, little is known about how mothers with incomes below the poverty threshold and with education levels of high school or less use and interact with the Internet as a key source of lay knowledge and skills for infant care and childrearing. Our objective in this study was to understand mothers’ perceptions of their experience in using online information for these purposes. To obtain a rich and nuanced understanding of their experience, we used a qualitative study approach based on 40 individual semi-structured interviews with mothers. Adopting Freidson’s concept of “lay referral system” to grasp mothers’ experience with online parenting information, we found that they relied on this information source extensively. Our findings showed that Internet-based information and online interactions were part of their lay referral system and modified to some extent how they interacted with their lay consultants (family and friends). Three major themes emerged in relation to how the Internet functioned as a component of the mothers’ lay referral systems: (1) strategic use of the Internet for better parenting; (2) critical stance towards the Internet; and (3) strengthening of autonomy, skills, and self-confidence. Mothers with spouses and an active social network were more likely to use online information to complement information obtained from their entourage or from professionals than were mothers with a less active social network or who were more socially isolated.
Background
Maternal vaccination is key to decreasing maternal and infant mortality globally. Yet perceptions about maternal vaccines and immunization among pregnant women are often understudied, particularly in low- and middle- income countries. This qualitative study explored trust, views, and attitudes towards maternal immunization among pregnant women in Mexico. A total of 54 women from Mexico City and Toluca participated in the in-depth interviews and focus groups. We explored participants’ experiences with maternal vaccination, as well as how they navigated the health system, searched for information, and made decisions around maternal immunization.
Results
Our findings point to issues around access and quality of maternal healthcare, including immunizations services. While healthcare professionals were recognized for their expertise, participants reported not receiving enough information to make informed decisions and used online search engines and digital media to obtain more information about maternal healthcare. Some participants held strong doubts over the benefits of vaccination and were hesitant about the safety and efficacy of maternal vaccines. These concerns were also shared by pregnant women who had been vaccinated. Some participants disclosed low levels of trust in government and vaccination campaigns.
Conclusion
Pregnant women, soon to be parents and making vaccination decisions for their child, constitute an important target group for policymakers seeking optimal maternal as well as childhood immunization coverage. Our findings highlight the importance of targeted communication, trust-building and engagement strategies to strengthen confidence in immunization amongst this group.
Maternal guilt has been a longstanding concern for mothers in the Western world. Literature around mother's experiences of maternal guilt has allowed researchers to understand maternal guilt from a mother's perspective. In this paper the authors aimed to systematically review this literature, to declare a more unified understanding of what the experience of maternal guilt is, from a mother's perspective, and what role the "motherhood myth" has in maternal experiences of guilt. Our thematic analysis found the following themes relating to maternal guilt experiences: the motherhood myth, breastfeeding difficulties, essentialism/responsibility, division/depletion and connection. The motherhood myth was present in all the included articles, providing an unattainable ideal of motherhood from which mothers compare themselves and their actions to, contributing to their sense of maternal guilt. Mothers experienced many difficulties in their mothering roles, including difficulty breastfeeding, feeling a great sense of responsibility to their child, feeling divided in wanting to take time for themselves and depleted in having many tasks to complete and coping with a multitude of emotions, and feeling a profound sense of connection to their child(ren), which was experienced as both positive and negative.
This open access book examines everyday practices in an asylum administration. Asylum decisions are often criticised as being ‘subjective’ or ‘arbitrary’. Asylum Matters turns this claim on its head. Through the ethnographic study of asylum decision-making in the Swiss Secretariat for Migration, the book shows how regularities in administrative practice and ‘socialised subjectivity’ are produced. It argues that asylum caseworkers acquire an institutional habitus through their socialisation on the job, making them ‘carriers’ of routine practices. The different chapters of the book deal with what it means to methodologically study administrative practice: with how asylum proceedings work in Switzerland and with the role different types of knowledge play in overcoming the uncertainties inherent in refugee status and credibility determination. It sheds light on organisational socialisation processes and on the professional norms and values at the heart of administrative work. By doing so, it shows how disbelief becomes normalised in the office. This book speaks to legal scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, human geographers and political scientists interested in bureaucracy, asylum law, migration studies and socio-legal studies, and to NGOs working in the field of asylum.
Laura Affolter is a postdoctoral researcher in the Research Group Sociology of Law at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, Germany, and Associate Researcher at the Institute for Social Anthropology in Bern, Switzerland. Her (co-authored) publications include Taking the ‘Just’ Decision (2019) and Keeping Numbers Low in the Name of Fairness (2020).
Netnography originated in ethnography and evolved following the advances in data transmission technology. The netnographic method is distinguished by its axiological orientation residing in recognition of online social experiences. The main method for data collection adopted by the netnographer is participant observation. One premise that must be observed is the necessary estrangement, which means that the researcher must be a layman as regards the object of study. In the field of administration, netnography emphasized the area of marketing and consumer behavior. The goal is to understand the consumer culture of online communities. One of its main challenges consists of how to conduct ethical research. The current article reviewed the available literature about the netnography method, bringing a brief explanation about its emergence and evolution, as well as its characteristics and application. The article also presents the advantages, challenges, and trends of this modern research method and also suggests topics for future research.
Background:
Traditionally, guidance and support to new parents have come from family, friends, and health care providers. However, the internet and social media are growing sources of guidance and support for parents. Little is known about how the internet and social media are used by parents of young infants and specifically about parental perceptions of the internet and social media as sources of parenting and infant health information.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to explore, using qualitative methods, parental perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of the internet and social media as sources of parenting and health information regarding their infant.
Methods:
A total of 28 mothers participated in focus groups or individual interviews. Probing questions concerning parenting and health information sources were asked. Themes were developed in an iterative manner from coded data.
Results:
The central themes were (1) reasons that mothers turn to the internet for parenting and health information, (2) cautionary advice about the internet, and (3) reasons that mothers turn to social media for parenting and health information. Mothers appreciated the ability to gather unlimited information and multiple opinions quickly and anonymously, but recognized the need to use reputable sources of information. Mothers also appreciated the immediacy of affirmation, support, and tailored information available through social media.
Conclusions:
The internet and social media are rapidly becoming important and trusted sources of parenting and health information that mothers turn to when making infant care decisions.
Background:
In contemporary society, due to the exponential growth of technology and the online platform, data acquisition has never been so effortless. Subsequent accessibility to health information has been reported as having many positive and negative effects. Health anxiety is the apprehension of experiencing or developing an ailment due to symptomology misinterpretation. One such lifetime occurrence which causes increased anxiety is becoming a new parent. New parents often use the online platform to seek information which will educate them on how best to care for their child and to keep their child's health at the optimum level.
Methods:
The online Pregnancy Questionnaire used within this study was inclusive of the Short HAI Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI) and was tailored for both pregnant women and new parents. This study focuses specifically on the results provided by the new parents. The research was disseminated and advertised on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and a purpose-built website named "A Healthy Search" which provided all information relevant to the study and participation. Quantitative data were analysed using a regression and qualitative data were thematically analysed.
Results:
Results shows that medical complications in pregnancy did not significantly predict health anxiety however medical care within the past year did. It can also be seen that frequency of searching online for self, did not significantly predict health anxiety, yet searching online for child did significantly predict health anxiety. Anxiety specific to pregnancy ceases when gravidity comes to an end and feelings of health anxiety then tend to be transferred from the mother (parent) to the child when one becomes a new parent. New parents strive to expand their own knowledge base, in regards to typical and atypical symptomology, so that they are better equipped to monitor development, care for, and make decisions on behalf of their child. The online platform was used as opposed to offline provisos due to inexperience, judgement and anonymity. Online health information seeking behaviour also has the probability of both increasing and decreasing levels of anxiety in new parents.
Conclusions:
This research recognised and reinforced positive and negative aspects of online health information seeking behaviour. It is recommended that further research be carried out into relevant, efficacious interventional techniques that may relieve health anxiety within new parents as contemporary technology has become a pivotal aspect of life.
Background
A range of digital technologies are available to lay people to find, share, and generate health-related information. Few studies have directed attention specifically to how women are using these technologies from the diverse array available to them. Even fewer have focused on Australian women’s use of digital health.
Objective
The Australian Women and Digital Health Project aimed to investigate which types of digital technologies women used regularly for health-related purposes and which they found most helpful and useful. Qualitative methods—semistructured interviews and focus groups—were employed to shed light on the situated complexities of the participants’ enactments of digital health technologies. The project adopted a feminist new materialism theoretical perspective, focusing on the affordances, relational connections, and affective forces that came together to open up or close off the agential capacities generated with and through these enactments.
Methods
The project comprised two separate studies including a total of 66 women. In study 1, 36 women living in the city of Canberra took part in face-to-face interviews and focus groups, while study 2 involved telephone interviews with 30 women from other areas of Australia.
Results
The affordances of search engines to locate health information and websites and social media platforms for providing information and peer support were highly used and valued. Affective forces such as the desire for trust, motivation, empowerment, reassurance, control, care, and connection emerged in the participants’ accounts. Agential capacities generated with and through digital health technologies included the capacity to seek and generate information and create a better sense of knowledge and expertise about bodies, illness, and health care, including the women’s own bodies and health, that of their families and friends, and that of their often anonymous online social networks. The participants referred time and again to appreciating the feelings of agency and control that using digital health technologies afforded them. When the technologies failed to work as expected, these agential capacities were not realized. Women responded with feelings of frustration, disappointment, and annoyance, leading them to become disenchanted with the possibilities of the digital technologies they had tried.
Conclusions
The findings demonstrate the nuanced and complex ways in which the participants were engaging with and contributing to online sources of information and using these sources together with face-to-face encounters with doctors and other health care professionals and friends and family members. They highlight the lay forms of expertise that the women had developed in finding, assessing, and creating health knowledges. The study also emphasized the key role that many women play in providing advice and health care for family members not only as digitally engaged patients but also as digitally engaged carers.
Purpose:
To explore women's experiences participating in an online forum during the postpartum period.
Study design and methods:
All women participating in an online postpartum "birth club" on Babycenter.com during the first 6 months postpartum were invited to participate. Participant characteristics and baseline mental wellbeing data were obtained along with response to three open-ended questions about their experiences participating in an online mothers group. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis were used to analyze data.
Results:
Women (N = 393) who responded to open-ended questions were 29.2 (SD = 5.3) years old, Caucasian (85%), married or in a committed relationship (81%), and lived in the United States (75%). Ninety percent (n = 354) completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Screening Scale of whom 18% (n = 65) scored ≥13, indicating risk of developing postpartum depression. Data analysis revealed five themes. The themes were integrated under the holistic concept of community and included 1) social support; 2) anonymity; 3) in-groups; 4) drama; and 5) entertainment/pastime.
Clinical implications:
Findings suggest online forums can provide social support for new mothers. They can facilitate sharing of information, act as a source of entertainment, and provide a sense of community for participants who might otherwise feel isolated due to the demands of new motherhood. Nurses working with childbearing women should be aware of the positive and negative aspects of online forums so they can support new mothers who choose to participate.
Background and aims: Intensive mothering norms prescribe women to be perfect mothers. Recent research has shown that women’s experiences of pressure toward perfect parenting are related to higher levels of guilt and stress. The current paper follows up on this research with two aims: First, we examine how mothers regulate pressure toward perfect mothering affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally, and how such regulation may relate to parental burnout. Second, we examine how feeling pressure toward perfect mothering may spill over into mothers’ work outcomes.
Methods: Through Prolific Academic, an online survey was sent to fulltime working mothers in the United Kingdom and United States with at least one child living at home (N = 169). Data were analyzed using bootstrapping mediation models.
Results: Feeling pressure to be a perfect mother was positively related to parental burnout, and this relation was mediated by parental stress, by a stronger cognitive prevention focus aimed at avoiding mistakes as a mother, and by higher maternal gatekeeping behaviors taking over family tasks from one’s partner. Moreover, pressure toward perfect mothering had a positive direct effect on career ambitions; and a negative indirect effect, such that mothers with higher felt pressure toward perfect mothering experienced lower work-family balance, which in turn related to lower career ambitions.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that intensive mothering norms might have severe costs for women’s family and work outcomes, and provide insights into where to direct efforts to reduce motherhood hardships and protect women’s career ambitions.
The increasing use of social media has changed communication habits among parents and provides the opportunity to access social support online. This paper explored parents’ use of different social media sources and examined potential factors that motivate parents’ use of social media for parenting support. A total of 523 parents completed the Australia-wide online survey. Results indicated that parents endorsed Facebook, parenting websites and blogs as the most frequently used social media sources. Getting specific information and advice were the top ranked reasons parents accessed social media for parenting purposes. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate predictors of social media use (Model 1) and parents’ perceived level of online social support (Model 2). Analyses of Model 1 revealed that after controlling for demographic variables, parents’ social media use was predicted by internet self-efficacy, perceptions towards the social media and online support. Analyses of Model 2 revealed that after controlling for demographic variables, parents’ perceptions toward social media, and their use of social media predicted levels of online social support, such that the more parents used social media, the greater the online support they reported receiving. Child maladjustment and parenting self-efficacy did not predict either social media use or online social support. The results indicate that parents do use social media for parenting purposes, and that it can serve as a type of social support.
Pierre Bourdieu is known for his research in the areas of education and cultural stratification that led to a number of theoretical contributions informing the social sciences. Bourdieu’s interrelated concepts of field, capital, and habitus have become central in many approaches to inequality and stratification across the social sciences. In addition, we argue that Bourdieu’s ideas also feature in what is increasingly known as ‘digital sociology.’ To underscore this claim, we explore the ways in which Bourdieu’s ideas continue to have a major impact on social science research both on and with digital and Internet-based technologies. To do so, we offer a review of both Bourdieusian theorizing of the digital vis-à-vis both research on the social impacts of digital communication technologies and the application of digital technologies to social science research methods. We contend that three interconnected features of Bourdieu’s sociology have allowed his approach to flourish in the digital age: (1) his theories’ inseparability from the practice of empirical research; (2) his ontological stance combining realism and social constructionism; and (3) his familiarity with concepts developed in other disciplines and participation in interdisciplinary collaborative projects. We not only reason that these three factors go some way in accounting for Bourdieu’s influence in many sociological subfields, but we also suggest that they have been especially successful in positioning Bourdieusian sociology to take advantage of opportunities associated with digital communication technologies.
Table 2. Overview of sub-categories, generic categories and main category
Purpose: Information seeking for child-rearing is an increasingly popular topic in the medical
and social science literature, though a theoretical framework in which to understand this
phenomenon is still missing.
Design/methodology/approach: We present results from a qualitative research in which data
were obtained from 21 interviews and the personal experience of one of the authors.
Participants were all mothers supportive of attachment parenting, a parenting style inspired by
attachment theory which advocates making parenting decisions on a strong basis of
information. They were recruited in several Spanish autonomous communities and
interviewed between April and July 2015.
Findings: Results were analyzed using grounded theory and allowed to define 5 major themes:
1) becoming a mother implies a new perception of oneself in which it is common to feel more
in need for information; 2) the need to search for information originates in situations of
“conflict” or crisis, or as a consequence of conflicting information; 3) information is judged and
weighed on the basis of affect and perceptions ; 4) scientific and experiential knowledge are
valued as complementary; and finally, 5) information seeking appears as one activity of
identity work.
Originality/value: Placing conflict, instead of uncertainty, at the beginning of the search
process allows to emphasize the role of information seeking in mediating relationships and
interactions at a societal level. From this point of view, we understand that LIS should pay
more attention to information seeking as an important factor in social change.
Parents have accessed websites, online discussion forums and blogs for advice, information and support since the early days of the World Wide Web. In this article, we review the literature in sociology and related social research addressing the ways in which digital media have been used for parenting-related purposes. We begin with the longer-established media of parenting websites, online discussion forums, blogs, email, mobile phones and message and video services and then move on to the newer technologies of social media and apps. This is followed by a section on data privacy and security issues. The concluding section summarises some major issues arising from the review and points to directions for further research.
Several concepts are used to describe ethnographic approaches for investigating the Internet; competing concepts include virtual ethnography, netnography, digital ethnography, web-ethnography, online ethnography, and e-ethnography. However, as the field matures, several writers simply call their approach "ethnography" and specify new fields of practice. In this paper, we will explore the content of ethnographic approach for investigating the Internet and the direction in which this new field of ethnography is moving, that is, whether it is the study of blended worlds or online worlds. We start by introducing the emerging field sites or fields of practice. Then, we describe how participant observation and other data collection techniques are carried out. Next, we describe how ethnographic practice is understood within the emerging field. Finally, we discuss some possible changes in the ethnographic landscape: unobtrusive methods, the communal-commercial relationship, and team-ethnography.
While the field of digital inequality continues to expand in many directions, the relationship between digital inequalities and other forms of inequality has yet to be fully appreciated. This article invites social scientists in and outside the field of digital media studies to attend to digital inequality, both as a substantive problem and as a methodological concern. The authors present current research on multiple aspects of digital inequality, defined expansively in terms of access, usage, skills, and self-perceptions, as well as future lines of research. Each of the contributions makes the case that digital inequality deserves a place alongside more traditional forms of inequality in the twenty-first century pantheon of inequalities. Digital inequality should not be only the preserve of specialists but should make its way into the work of social scientists concerned with a broad range of outcomes connected to life chances and life trajectories. As we argue, the significance of digital inequalities is clear across a broad range of individual-level and macro-level domains, including life course, gender, race, and class, as well as health care, politics, economic activity, and social capital.
Parents’ decision to use vaccination services is complex and multi-factorial. Of particular interest are “vaccine-hesitant” parents who are in the middle of the continuum between vaccine acceptance and refusal. The objective of this qualitative longitudinal study was to better understand why mothers choose to vaccinate—or not—their newborns. Fifty-six pregnant mothers living in different areas of Quebec (Canada) were interviewed. These interviews gathered information on mothers’ views about health and vaccination. Almost half of the mothers were categorized as vaccine-hesitant. A second interview was conducted with these mothers 3 to 11 months after birth to look at their actual decision and behavior concerning vaccination. Our results show the heterogeneity of factors influencing vaccine decision making. Although the majority of vaccine-hesitant mothers finally chose to follow the recommended vaccine schedule for their child, they were still ambivalent and they continued to question their decision.
Contexte : Les avantages de l’allaitement maternel sur la santé des nourrissons sont établis par de nombreuses études scientifiques. Cependant, les mères qui choisissent des alternatives à l’allaitement maternel exclusif peuvent vivre des sentiments de culpabilité et d’échec. Cet enjeu soulève l’importance de comprendre le vécu de ces mères afin d’harmoniser des soins et des accompagnements qui visent l’autonomisation.
Méthode : Cette recherche qualitative présente l’analyse situationnelle des parcours de neuf mères qui ont opté pour des alternatives à l’allaitement maternel exclusif.
Résultats : Les résultats obtenus avec le support d’entrevues semi-dirigées décrivent les processus décisionnels du choix alternatif à l’allaitement, situent ce choix à travers un ensemble de soins favorable à l’allaitement et positionne ce choix au regard la norme sociale de l’allaitement. La discussion présente les différentes normes reliées à l’allaitement et les processus de négociation vécus par les mères à cet égard. Ces négociations s’exécutent par le rapport au corps, par l’intrication des normes sociales et professionnelles associées aux pra- tiques d’allaitement et par les injonctions relatives à la « bonne » maternité. Conclusion : Les recommandations soulèvent l’importance d’une approche centrée sur l’autonomie des mères.
This article reviews the historical milestones in the medicalization of infant feeding in Canada. Its main objective is to specifically discuss the influence of medical discourses and practices on the loss of women’s experience-based knowledge of maternal breastfeeding. Four turning points, echoing the analytical timescale of the epidemiologists Tasnim Nathoo and Aleck Ostry, will be presented : the advent of artificial baby food (1850 – 1900), the medicalization of infant feeding (1900 – 1960), the institutionalization of childbirth and the de-medicalization movement (1960 – 1980), and the ‘ rediscovery’ of maternal breastfeeding (1980 – now).
Study background
Online forums and other virtual communities are an increasing source of postpartum support and information for first-time mothers. However, there is little evidence about how new mothers in Canada access and use online resources.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine how first-time mothers accessed information and support both online and off-line during the first six months postpartum and how their experiences were constructed through social and institutional discourses.
Methods
A qualitative feminist poststructuralist approach was used to analyze an online discussion board with first-time mothers in Nova Scotia.
Results
Mothers who used the online discussion board experienced a sense of community with other mothers where empathy and encouragement were integral to the ways in which information and support were shared. “Weak ties” (with strangers) were important and led to the following themes: (a) empathy, encouragement, and information; (b) socialization; (c) blurring the boundaries of online and off-line networks; and (d) Developing community.
Conclusions
These online forums offer insight for health professionals looking to improve mothers’ care postpartum and point to a need to foster spaces for new mothers to talk to each other.
This study looks at new developments in the commercial representation of fatherhood as exemplified by ‘Instadads’—a group of father influencers who use Instagram to document their family lives and foster a following that is attractive to brand sponsorship. With a netnography of 21 Instadad accounts and 10 in-depth interviews, we investigate how these influencers perform sharenting labour, which is the labour involved in commodifying and monetising the sharing of parental experiences. We posit that through this labour, father influencers contribute to early attempts at translating the new discursive territory of involved fatherhood into mainstream commercial representations. Sharenting labour has the potential to shift discourses on masculinities, lending more legitimacy to male parental caregiving activities.
Objective:
Present the results of a study of the experience of maternity in the context of a recent immigration to Quebec.
Method:
Semi-structured interviews were carried out amongst mothers from different countries, having immigrated within the last five years. L'Écuyer's (1990) developmental analysis of the content was used to analyze the results.
Results:
The data collected from 15 participants demonstrates that they perceive their motherly role as a great responsibility. During the postnatal phase, these women develop autonomy as mothers, but they also suffer from isolation and often only have their spouse to rely on. They experience a vast range of emotions such as happiness, anxiety, and sadness. Their level of distress depends on their representation of their maternity and immigration. To ensure their wellbeing, they keep in touch with their origins and use the professional services available.
Conclusion:
The transition into motherhood leads to a great disruption of these women's lives. Due to social isolation, their responsibilities as mothers seem even more intense. The partner, considered an ally, thus plays an important role by their side. They struggle with trusting Quebecers, however, some services are greatly appreciated: the in-home visit of nurses, the guide From Tiny Tot to Toddler and the Info-Santé telephone service. It would be relevant to conduct more studies on the reality of immigrant fathers and to consider increasing the number of in-home nurse or midwife visits for mothers who are less socially integrated and who perceive their immigration negatively.
Online spaces are increasingly important for our collective consciousness and provide an opportunity to document changing ideas, subjectivities and experiences surrounding new reproductive technologies. This paper reports on the first study of egg donation and online discussion boards in UK-based forums. Using thematic analysis, we investigated how donors use online forums and explored how they present themselves as possible donors in online spaces. Three major themes were identified: ‘using online forums to exchange knowledge and experiences’, ‘egg donation as a gift’ and ‘having a drive to donate’. Findings from the study reveal how donors enter online spaces looking for advice, presenting themselves as available and weaving themselves into an online community. There exist multiple ways in which donors construct and narrate their own participation in the process of egg donation. Presenting a donor identity in these online forums is not a straightforward matter of helping by giving but also involves a specific drive. While more research is needed on the range of possible motivations, this study gives a better understanding of the available online information and the co-construction of donor identities on discussions boards.
Many scholars, particularly in Anglophone countries, have observed that mothers and fathers are now expected to do much more explicit ‘parenting’ than in the past. This article draws on the case studies of Norway and the UK as examples of welfare states with different historical orientations to social coherence, equality and diversity as a means of examining the spread (or otherwise) of these ideologies. In particular, it considers theoretical concerns of risk, responsibility and trust, especially as they relate to our ideas of childhood and adulthood. In short, the article suggests that an intensification of parenting has the potential to have a corrosive effect on notions of social solidarity, and makes the case instead for a societal conception of raising children.
Health inequalities persist, in part, because people in socioeconomically advantageous positions possess resources to avoid new health risks when medicine advances. Although these health decisions rarely occur in isolation, we know less about the specific role of networks. We examine whether social capital mediates the relationship between individual educational attainment and decisions about a medical advance: H1N1 vaccination during pregnancy. Building on prior work that defines social capital as the resources of network members, we examine two mechanisms through which social capital may affect health decisions, facilitating information flow and exerting influence. Using egocentric network data collected from 225 pregnant women during the 2009-10 H1N1 pandemic, we measure social capital as the proportion of networks that are college-educated H1N1 discussants (information flow) and the proportion of college-educated H1N1 supporters (influence). Findings reveal that college-educated women knew more college-educated H1N1 discussants and supporters. Further, both measures of social capital predicted higher probabilities of vaccination, with the latter mechanism emerging as a particularly strong predictor. Our findings provide evidence that health decisions are shaped by individual resources as well as social capital available through network ties, offering a unique perspective of the ways that social networks contribute to producing, and potentially reproducing, unequal health.
Problem and background:
Psychotropic medication use is increasingly common among pregnant women. Many women solicit information from other mothers about the safety of these medications for use during pregnancy, yet little is known about the specific advice they receive.
Aim:
The purpose of the current study was to examine the type of feedback women receive on a popular internet message board about psychotropic medication use during pregnancy.
Methods:
A modified Consensual Qualitative Research approach was used to analyze 1728 comments posted by Babycenter.com users about the safety of the use of six common psychotropic medications during pregnancy. Researchers analyzed the comments for overall themes and core ideas.
Findings:
Results found that comments were comprised of six themes: (1) Personal Anecdotes, (2) Suggesting Alternative Solutions, (3) Directives, (4) Judgement, (5) Social Support, (6) Skepticism & Mistrust, and (7) Risks vs. Benefits. While many comments conveyed emotional support, or encouraged women to seek professional advice, others contained inaccurate and/or contradictory information, or harsh criticism.
Conclusion:
Given that the decision about the use of medication during pregnancy has implications for the health of the mother and fetus, it is important for care providers to be aware of what feedback women may receive from this source. Providers should address questions and concerns that women have about safety of these medications and recognize how the social context of the internet impacts the emotional health of pregnant women faced with these decisions.
Despite measurable benefits of childhood vaccines, mothers with high levels of social privilege are increasingly refusing some or all vaccines for their children. These mothers are often clustered geographically or networked socially, providing information, emotional support, and validation for each other. Mothers who reject vaccines may face disapproval from others, criticism in popular culture, negative interactions with healthcare providers, and conflicts with people they know, which serve to stigmatize them. This article uses qualitative data from in-depth interviews with parents who reject vaccines, ethnographic observations, and analyses of online discussions to examine the role of social capital in networks of vaccine-refusing mothers. Specifically, this article explores how mothers provide each other information critical of vaccines, encourage a sense of one's self as empowered to question social expectations around vaccination, provide strategies for managing stigma that results from refusing vaccines, and define a sense of obligation to extend social capital to other mothers. In examining these strategies and tensions, we see how social capital can powerfully support subcultural norms that contradict broader social norms and provide sources of social support. Even as these forces are experienced as positive, they work in ways that actively undermine community health, particularly for those who are the most socially vulnerable to negative health outcomes from infection.
The mediation of parenting has recently occupied sociologists and media, communication and cultural studies scholars alike. This article locates itself within this developing strand of research, as it explores discourses of intensive motherhood on a Facebook discussion group that provides support and advice for a specific approach to and philosophy of childbirth. Presenting findings from an analysis of main posts and comments made on them, I tease out the brighter and darker sides of the performance of motherhood in anticipation of birth on social media - reading these against discussions about the self-managing, intensive mother who is responsible for making the very best decisions for her child.
This article unpacks the experiences of 30 British women making lunchboxes for their children, and their opposition to opting for school dinners. Findings emerging from photo-elicitation interviews and focus group discussions show how mothers consider themselves the only social actor able to make a ‘proper lunchbox’. School dinners are considered a risky option for their children, and fathers’ interference in preparing lunchboxes is viewed with suspicion. The article shows how lunchboxes can be viewed as an expansion of intensive mothering: a way of making home away from home, stretching the intensive domestic care used for toddlers to school-aged children. Expansive mothering is characterised by mothers’ mediating role that places them between the child and the outside world. This role is mainly performed as a risk management activity aimed at recreating the domestic security outside the home, yet it also reinforces the message that feeding children is a mother’s domain.
The welfare state interventionist position vis-à-vis families in Sweden during the twentieth century was justified by claims of parental incompetence and children’s need for protection. Childhood was regarded as a period of growing but simultaneously a period with social rights. The development of government responsibility in support of parenting during the twentieth century reflected such an understanding of childhood. In social policy children were addressed as individual agents in the family. As a consequence, the competent child was discovered, and the need for government support of parents was cast in a new light. The need to develop parental competence became a focal point of government educational initiatives/programs at the same time as children were viewed as human moral models. Children were ascribed agency and competence with adult-like rights while the role of the welfare state scaled down in the wake of economic crises. This new imagery was underwritten by international conventions in the definition of childhood.
Background:
Research addressing online social support, especially for new mothers, has typically focused on forums and dedicated Web sites, and not on social networking sites like Facebook. Here we expand on this existing body of work by addressing a Facebook page, Ask the Chicks, themed around questions and answers related to motherhood. Using the uses and gratification lens, we explore motivations for participation as they relate to engagement with the page.
Materials and methods:
Individuals were recruited to participant in an online survey through posts on the Ask the Chicks Facebook page made by the page owner over a 1-week period. To be eligible to complete the survey, participants had to be 18 years old or older, female, and pregnant or have at least one child under the age of 5 years.
Results:
Analyses of survey data collected from users of the page (n=647) revealed that engagement has a positive relationship with the motives of relaxing entertainment, expressive information sharing, social interaction, and information seeking.
Conclusions:
Online support groups, and especially Facebook, appear to be a more convenient method than traditional online support groups for people who want to obtain information about certain topics, in this case, about motherhood and raising kids. Having this type of social support tool is important, as social support has been found to reduce levels of stress, which can improve overall health and quality of life. This study provides a better understanding of why people use this type of social support group for questions about parenting.
Résumé
Cet article porte sur les conceptions et les pratiques de la maternité de jeunes mères c’est-à-dire de femmes qui ont eu leur premier enfant au sortir de l’adolescence, au moment de l’« entrée dans l’âge adulte ». Il met au jour le caractère paradoxal de cette expérience, à la fois source de reconnaissance sociale, de valorisation, de prise de responsabilités, mais aussi de repli sur soi, d’éloignement des amis et des amies, d’isolement social. Les explications amenées sont l’adhésion de ces jeunes femmes à la « maternité intensive » ( intensive motherhood ) et à la maternité comme « chasse-gardée » des mères ( maternal gatekeeping ).