Premium
Non‐resident motherhood: managing a threatened identity
Author(s) -
Kielty Sandra
Publication year - 2008
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/j.1365-2206.2007.00512.x
Subject(s) - narrative , constructive , identity (music) , social psychology , personal identity , psychology , space (punctuation) , personal narrative , threatened species , sociology , gender studies , self , aesthetics , computer science , linguistics , process (computing) , operating system , ecology , habitat , biology , philosophy
Drawing upon a narrative study investigating the personal experience of 20 non‐resident mothers in the UK, the paper discusses how the atypical nature of their situation poses a potential threat to women's identity at both the personal and the social level. It is argued that more constructive adjustment is linked to women's ability to maintain a positive view of themselves as a ‘good’ mother in spite of their non‐resident status and that providing opportunities for women to ‘tell their story’ may be helpful in this respect. In addition to the cathartic effect of openly sharing an atypical mothering experience and defending against negative social judgements, exploring narratives can open up space, creating opportunities for new meanings and possibilities to emerge.