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Social processes among mothers in centres for children and parents in three countries
Author(s) -
Musatti Tullia,
HoshiWatanabe Miwako,
Rayna Sylvie,
Di Giandomenico Isabella,
Kamigaichi Nobuko,
Mukai Miho,
Shiozaki Miho
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
child and family social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-2206
pISSN - 1356-7500
DOI - 10.1111/cfs.12302
Subject(s) - ethnography , psychology , isolation (microbiology) , social isolation , developmental psychology , social psychology , sociology , psychiatry , anthropology , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Professionally run centres have been created in a number of countries over the past few decades to provide a place for parents and their young children to meet. They provide children with play opportunities and social contacts with peers, but they are also intended to tackle the potential negative consequences of mother–child isolation in modern societies by providing mothers with some social support. Many mothers find their participation in the centres to be supportive. This study uses ethnographic observations of mothers′ social experience in centres in France, Italy and Japan with the aim of better understanding the potential beneficial effects of attending the centres. Beyond organizational and cultural differences in the centres across countries, this joint analysis of observations highlighted important similarities in the social processes occurring among mothers in the centres and supported the hypothesis that positive social experiences are the basic potential source of psychological benefits that the centres provide to mothers.