“She Took Care of Us and She Went Through a Lot”: Emotional Availability, Emotional Support, and Millennials’ Gendered Understandings of Parenting

In the United States, parenting pressures are growing for both mothers and fathers. Thus, it is important to investigate how younger generations may make sense of parenting in ways that could either reduce, or exacerbate, gender inequalities. In this article, interviews with 60 millennials discussing their experiences with their parents reveal that emotional support and emotional availability are key normative parenting expectations. However, disparate gender norms also factor into millennials’ stories about their parents’ efforts. These millennials often criticize fathers for sometimes being too absent, authoritarian, or ego-driven while they understand mothers as constrained by fathers’ bad behaviors yet still bound by expectations to be emotionally available and supportive in appropriately gendered ways. In millennials’ stories, emotional support and availability are seemingly gender neutral and millennials expect both fathers and mothers to live up to these expectations. However, broader structural gender norms challenge the apparent neutrality of parenting expectations.

The Validity and Reliability Study of The Turkish Version of The Multidimensional Parenting Perfectionism Questionnaire

This study aims to adapt the Multidimensional Parenting Perfectionism Scale-B Form (MPPS) to Turkish and to examine its psychometric properties . The sample of the study consisted of 290 parents with one or more children. Of the 290 participant parents, 203 were female and 87 were male. In the current study, along with MPPS B form, Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale was used to determine convergent validity. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to determine the construct validity of the scale, and in order to confirm the results of the analysis Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted. Based on the factor analysis, the factors in the scale were grouped as “Partner’s Parenting Expectations and Criticism”, “Doubts about Parenting Capacity”, “Parenting Organization”, and “Personal Parenting Standards”. The Cronbach alpha values obtained in the analysis ranged between .83 and .93. The results of the analysis suggest that the Turkish version of the MPPS is a psychometrically powerful scale. Keywords: Perfectionism, Parenting Perfectionism, Multidimensional Parenting Perfectionism Scale

“My emotions on the backseat”. Heterosexually partnered men’s experiences of becoming fathers through surrogacy

Surrogacy is a family building option for people unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy. In heterosexual couples seeking surrogacy, a woman who is not the intended father’s partner, facilitates this pregnancy. Whilst normative discourses reinforced by contemporary healthcare policies highlight the importance of involving fathers throughout pregnancy, little is known about heterosexually partnered men’s experiences of surrogacy. This qualitative study explores how surrogacy shapes men’s construction of their father identity and parenting expectations. Drawing on interviews with ten men (nine self-identifying as white and one as white-Asian; all employed in professional occupations) during or after their surrogacy arrangement, we explore their transition to fatherhood, interactions in the pregnancy, and relationship with the surrogate and their intimate partner. This is the first study explicitly focusing on heterosexually-partnered men’s experiences of surrogacy. The findings provide new insights into this unique form of family building, expanding understanding of men’s role preference and level of involvement in a triad surrogacy relationship.

Parental Self-Efficacy and Parenting through Adversity

This review examines the relationship between life adversities, parental well-being, parental self-efficacy, and social support as potential factors mediating parent-child relationships and children’s outcomes. Generally, research on adversity has focused on children’s experiences and the long-term impact of adversity on development and health trajectories. More recently, a focus on resilience and growth after adversity has received increasing attention. Existing literature has identified how parents can best support their children through adverse events and suggested parenting programs that emphasize skill-building to parent children who have experienced adversity. Yet often overlooked is the critical impact of adverse events on the parent and how this may interfere with the cultivation of an environment of support and increase stigmatization due to unmet parenting expectations. While parenting occurs in context, it is often judged based upon societal expectations of childrearing practices and optimal outcomes with little understanding of the factors that contribute to parenting behaviors. The experience of adversity has the potential to impact parental sense of competence and parenting practices. However, parental self-efficacy and social supports can play mediating role in the experience of adversity and parenting stress. The integration of these contextual factors allows for the development of expectations that are best suited to meet the needs of vulnerable family systems.

"Because Dads Change Diapers Too": Negotiating Gendered Parenting Discourses on Reddit Parenting Forums

Digital media can reflect and reify normative expectations in the non-digital world. Parents are increasingly engaging with online media to seek information and support. Online parenting forums therefore act as key windows into current perceptions surrounding parenthood and child rearing. My study aims to investigate differences in parenting expectations between mothers and fathers on online parenting forums. I conducted a cyber ethnography of two Reddit subforums, Mommit and Daddit, to investigate how parents negotiate gendered parenting discourses on these two parenting subforums. Using a grounded theory approach, I extract key themes surrounding mothering and fathering expectations relating to (1) parental responsibilities, (2) women and men’s self-identity as parents, and (3) mothers’ and fathers’ relationships with their partners. My discourse analysis reveals that both Mommit and Daddit work to deconstruct certain normative pressures surrounding motherhood and fatherhood, but simultaneously reaffirm traditional gendered parenting expectations. These forums act as an avenue for users to deconstruct expectations that frustrate users: Daddit users contest the expectation that fathers are not apt child carers, and Mommit users contest the expectation that women are exclusively, and naturally skilled, child carers. However, at the same time, users cannot fully escape normative pressures, and indeed these forums reinforce a gendered primary-secondary divide between mothers and fathers in caretaking responsibilities and practices.

Being a good digital parent: representations of parents, youth and the parent–youth relationship in expert advice

Social concern about online behaviour and safety of children and youth has increased dramatically in the last decade and has resulted in an abundance of parenting advice on ways to manage and protect children online. The cultural context in which this is happening is one characterised by intensive parenting norms, heightened risk awareness, and growing concerns about the effects of ‘over-parenting’, especially in the teenage years. Using contemporary advice to parents on managing adolescents’ digital experiences, this study investigates the ways that parenting, youth and the youth–parent relationship are depicted. Parental roles, in this material, are portrayed as instrumental and pedagogical while youth are assumed to lack agency and judgement. Intensive parenting expectations are extended as parents face advice to be both highly vigilant agents of surveillance and trusted confidantes of their children, with an overall goal of shaping children’s subjectivity in ways that allow them to become self-governing.

The Parenting in Child's Puberty Time : Two Case Studies in China

Puberty is a challenging time for both children and parents. Many researches about parenting in puberty time have been done in the western culture context. Due to Chinese parents' special philosophy of parenting, it is valuable and interesting to probe the this parenting-related issue in Chinese context. Unfortunately, there was few study to do so. As the supplement for previous research, this study aimed to discuss Chinese parenting behaviors during children's early adolescent time by introducing two interviews with a parent of early adolescent boy and a parent of a girl in early adolescence respectively. It's found that the Chinese parenting style can be explained from 3 aspects: aims of parenting, basic idea of parenting, expectations to kid. No matter for boy or girl, the parenting involves supervision and understanding and love, which is a kind of unique style shared in Chinese family education culture. Besides, parent gives more expectation about parent-child communication to girl.

Congenital abnormalities: experiences of parents atoshakati intermediate hospital, oshana region, Namibia

Background: Congenital abnormality (CA) is one among eminent problems in the society that affects the livelihood of the individual, communities and the health sector. It creates uncertainty among family members as they strive to identify ways and means to assist one another in the upbringing of these children born with an anomaly. The ultimate purpose of this study was to describe and explore the experiences of parents of children with congenital abnormalities and to identify the source of support such as parents employs when dealing with the child born with congenital abnormalities. This study was conducted at Intermediate Hospital Oshakati (IHO) in Namibia‘s Oshana region.Methods: A qualitative, explorative and a contextual study design using a phenomenological approach was utilized throughout this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with twelve “purposefully” selected participants from the population of parents of children born with congenital abnormalities whose children were either admitted in hospital or brought for follow-up. Data analysis was done using a content analytical method.Results: Data were derived from 12 participants interviewed, comprised of parents of children with reversible and irreversible conditions, long hospitalization, more frequent follow ups and those waiting for surgery. The results were categorized in seven categories, including: 1) A child with congenital abnormalities: the impact of disability; 2) Family relationships; 3) Parenting expectations and practices; 4) Altering one’s family daily life- treading a new path; 5) Social support; 6) Formal services; 7) Societal and community acceptance.Conclusion: The expectations parents had for a normal child becomes a nightmare when the child they were expecting is born with the disability. Living with such a child can be stressful for parents and other family members. Therefore, exploring and describing the lived experiences of parents of children born with congenital abnormalities is an important in the process of finding ways to assist or support parents to provide proper care for their children.