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The objective of this dissertation is to document the lived experience of mothering in poverty and the unique challenges the role of mother presents to maintaining food security. Millions of households in the United States are struggling to put food on the table, a problem made worse by the current economic recession and high food prices. Among them, households with children and specifically, single mothers, report the highest prevalence of food insecurity. While Federal food assistance programs are available to help alleviate this issue, the continued problem of hunger is a very real and pervasive concern for millions of American families. While there is a robust and comprehensive scholarly body of work focused on food security and nutrition, this study fills an important gap in the literature. By describing the unique social and cultural circumstances that accompany the transition to motherhood in a low-income setting, I connect the lived experienced of mothering with vulnerability to food insecurity. This is framed within the underlying assumption that the related experiences of expectant mothering and caring for an infant impart different risk factors for food insecurity. This study used a mixed methods approach to examine its objectives. These include semi-structured ethnographic interviews, participant observation, surveys and questionnaires and foodscape analysis. The mixed method design allowed for a holistic examination of the lived experience of mothers through narrative analysis, the visual representation of their foodscape through community mapping, and the triangulation of findings through administered surveys and questionnaires. The primary findings of this dissertation include identification of social, cultural and geographic patterns of maternal isolation among low-income women and their impact on food security. Results of this study indicate that the unique demands of mothering in a low-income setting present challenges to maintaining food security. Gaps in services provided to low-income mothers to address food insecurity were identified to include improving the social connectedness of expectant and new mothers. This study is intended to reach a wide target audience including students, practitioners, anthropological colleagues and policymakers. In an effort to translate the findings of this study into practical recommendations for action, the author calls for more research into the issue of maternal isolation and for policy initiatives to recognize the unique role mothering plays in contributing to household food security status.

Due to the ever-growing crisis of orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa, research into strategies of care remains a crucial pursuit. Models of care in the country currently range from informal to formal, including informal fostering / non-statutory foster care; community-based support structures; home-based care and support; unregistered residential care; statutory adoption and foster care; and statutory residential care. This research study focuses on the area of adoption and fostering. Existing adoption and fostering research, locally and internationally, concentrates on the adopted and fostered child with little consideration given to parents. Mothering adopted and foster children in South Africa is a specifically under-researched area. This research contributes within this field, specifically, by exploring how women who have adopted and/or who foster children construct mothering and how these constructions intersect with dominant discourses of mothering. This qualitative study utilises a postmodern and poststructuralist ontology, and both social constructionist and feminist epistemologies. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 adoptive and foster mothers and data were analysed through discourse analysis. Ten key discourses and eight main constructs emerged. Participants engaged with discourses of natural mothering, and good mothering in which the constructs of the good mother, the good adoptive mother and the good foster mother operate. These two broad discourses are informed by the construct of the family. Constructions of adoption and fostering are formed in relation to notions of the family; and this family construct also largely informs and is informed by the discourse of legitimate belonging, the construct of the child; and the discourse of collaborative parenting. These discourses and constructs have conversations with and are formed in relation to broader discourses of gender, race, culture and HIV/AIDS. Adoption and fostering occur in relation to discourses that operate within the institution and in relation to dealing with the institution as a construct. Finally, engagement with these discourses and constructs inform how the discourse of support is constructed in relation to adoptive and foster mothering. Through exploring these constructs and discourses in relation to one another, three key arguments emerged. The first relates to a mechanism of how the ideology of intensive mothering operates through the manner in which it constructs natural mothering and good mothering. The second conclusion reached is that ambivalence is a key component of the constructions of adoptive and foster mothers. Thirdly, the study indicates that the construct of the good mother, as it operates within the ideology of intensive mothering, is resistant to deconstruction. After proceeding through the analysis, and exploring how the findings intersect particularly with discourses within the ideologies of patriarchy, technology, capitalism and race, the study offers specific recommendations for the support of adoptive and foster mothers. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

Thesis advisor: Juliet B. Schor / Why do mothers practice a sustainable lifestyle? While existing literature views motherhood as a motivating factor that encourages women to adopt sustainable practices, this article conceptualizes women's desire to live sustainably as an outcome shaped dialectically with the material experience of mothering. Drawing from interviews with eight mothers who self-identified as interested in living sustainably, this study shows that intensive mothering creates time scarcity in mother schedules, discouraging women from acting upon their ecological concerns, and exacerbates their reliance on eco-intensive options. Women adopt sustainable practices to compensate for their current inability to create institutional changes through political channels. By investing in the immaterial qualities of these practices, women pass on cultural resources that enable their children to facilitate institutional changes. Mothers' efforts in cultivating children's eco-friendly dispositions are not only a symbol of "good" mothering but also a marker of the boundary between the household and the market. My findings contextualize the formation of ecologically oriented taste within the experience of mothering and present an alternative approach to understanding why women engage in a sustainable lifestyle. This article also holds insights for explaining the relationship between engagement in a sustainable lifestyle and participation in the formal political process. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Intensive mothering (IM) is increasingly being recognized as a dominant parenting discourse. IM, conceptualized as hyper-parenting ideals that place pressure on mothers to cultivate children's cognitive development, has also been demonstrated to have consequences for mothers' mental wellbeing. On the other hand, IM attitudes also appear to contribute to parenting strategies that can be considered beneficial for young children's developmental growth. Considering these complexities, the present research was grounded in a theoretical framework guided by ecological and risk and resilience theories to test a holistic model which positioned IM as having indirect associations with children's executive functioning (EF) through two pathways: positive parenting strategies and parenting stress. Contrary to the theoretical purposes of IM-informed parenting, IM did not contribute to better cognitive outcomes in 3–5-year-old children through positive parenting. Instead, IM indirectly contributed to higher reports of dysfunctions in children's EF through the mechanism of parenting stress. Further, a conditional process model advanced previous understandings of IM by illuminating the processes through which cumulative risk strengthened the associations between these core constructs. Based on the results presented in this research, IM ideology is argued to be a context of risk for families with an accumulation of contextual risk factors. / Doctor of Philosophy / This research study investigated how modern parenting beliefs, called "intensive mothering", related to mothers' experiences with parenting stress, parenting behaviors that are considered good for young children, and young children's developmental outcomes. Intensive mothering involves beliefs such as "children needs should come before the parents' needs" and "it is the mothers' job to make sure young children are intellectually stimulated as much as possible." While these ideas would seem like good things for young children, this study found that having such high standards for mothers parenting expectations create more stress in mothers which, consequently, was related to worse developmental outcomes for young children. If the families who participated in this research had a few characteristics that make it harder for families to thrive, like limited financial resources, then they seemed to report even more parenting stress and even worse outcomes for their children. These findings suggest that holding such high parenting expectations may unintentionally hurt mothers and their children.

White mothers have historically felt exempt from discussing race and racism with their children and have placed this added emotional labor onto mothers of color (Depouw and Matias, 2016; Priest et al., 2014). Budding anti-racism scholarship has begun to examine why well-intending white parents report an interest in engaging in anti-racism but fail to follow-through (Aanerud, 2007; Allen, 2017; Comeau, 2007; Depouw and Matias, 2016; Gillen-O'Neel et al., 2021; Hagerman, 2014, 2018; Matlock and DiAngelo, 2015; Priest et al., 2014; Vittrup, 2016; Zucker and Patterson, 2018). While this body of literature has highlighted important missteps and shortcomings of white families' engagement in anti-racism, examining how maternal socialization, within the current intensive mothering (IM) paradigm (Hays, 1996), informs the integration of anti-racism has yet to be considered. Guided by symbolic interactionism and feminist theories and methodology, this study functions to answer the following research questions: (1) How might, if at all, race, gender, and class socialization inform affluent white mothers' adoption of IM? (2) What is the process of affluent white mothers challenging or adopting IM to incorporate anti-racism into their maternal identity and mothering practices? and (3) What are the perceived barriers or motivators, if any, to affluent white mothers' integration of anti-racism within the current IM paradigm? Data from 18 semi-structured, virtual individual interviews with affluent white mothers, post-interview survey questions, and follow-up member checking interview questions derived from coded transcripts were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory. Findings indicate that affluent white mothers who endorse interest in engaging in anti-racism within the context of IM report several tensions within the process of integrating anti-racism into their existing maternal identity. Foundational to each of these tensions is internalized white supremacy and gender ideologies that surface in striving to excel at both IM and anti-racism. While tenets of IM (i.e., all-consuming; labor intensive) and white supremacy (i.e., perfectionism; bigger is better; either/or thinking) presented as perceived barriers toward integration of anti-racism into maternal identity, some tenets of IM (i.e., optimal child outcomes; professionally informed) were named as motivation for this sample to incorporate anti-racism into their maternal identity and daily practice. Aligning with optimal child outcomes and professionally-informed mothering, two points of intervention were named, creating space for the development and assessment of future interventions aimed to increase the presence of anti- racism within white mothering. / Doctor of Philosophy / White families have historically felt exempt from discussing race and racism with their children and have placed this added emotional labor onto families of color (Depouw and Matias, 2016; Priest et al., 2014). Budding anti-racism scholarship has begun to examine why well-intending white parents report an interest in engaging in anti-racism but fail to follow-through (Aanerud, 2007; Allen, 2017; Comeau, 2007; Depouw and Matias, 2016; Gillen-O'Neel et al., 2021; Hagerman, 2014, 2018; Matlock and DiAngelo, 2015; Priest et al., 2014; Vittrup, 2016; Zucker and Patterson, 2018). While this body of literature has highlighted important missteps and shortcomings of white families' engagement in anti-racism, examining how maternal socialization, within the current intensive mothering (IM) paradigm (Hays, 1996), informs the integration of anti-racism has yet to be considered. Guided by symbolic interactionism and feminist theories and methodology, this study functions to answer the following research questions: (1) How might, if at all, race, gender, and class socialization inform affluent white mothers' adoption of IM? (2) What is the process of affluent white mothers challenging or adopting IM to incorporate anti-racism into their maternal identity and mothering practices? and (3) What are the perceived barriers or motivators, if any, to affluent white mothers' integration of anti-racism within the current IM paradigm? Findings indicate that affluent white mothers who endorse interest in engaging in anti-racism within the context of IM report several tensions within the process of integrating anti-racism into their existing maternal identity. Foundational to each of these tensions is internalized white supremacy and gender ideologies that surface in striving to excel at both IM and anti-racism. While tenets of IM (i.e., optimal child outcomes; professionally informed) presented as perceived barriers toward integration of anti-racism into maternal identity, some tenets of IM (optimal child outcomes, professionally informed) were named as motivation for this sample to incorporate anti-racism into their maternal identity and daily practice. Aligning with optimal child outcomes and professionally informed mothering, two points of intervention were named, creating space for the development and assessment of future interventions aimed to increase the presence of anti-racism within white mothering.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this study, ideological criticism combined with use of muted group theory are employed to analyze four Quiverfull mothering blogs in order to unveil the models of mothering and maternal messages that emerge from the discourse. The Quiverfull, comprised of fundamentalist Christians who advocate prolific birth rates and strict traditional gender norms, propose a very narrowly defined view of motherhood. Therefore, the goal of this study is to analyze how Quiverfull mothers choose to construct and maintain their own rhetorical vision of motherhood through mommy blogs, in an effort to understand if Quiverfull mothers also struggle to “get it right” like so many other contemporary mothers, faced with cultural contradictions. The findings unveil that Quiverfull mothers struggle with many of the same ideological pressures that mainstream mothers endure such as being almost entirely responsible for childrearing, wanting to find time for themselves amidst society’s demands that children become a mother’s “everything,” and negotiating their role as mothers in the public sphere. However, Quiverfull mothers’ primary difference from mainstream mothers is through their relationship with God. They relinquish all control to God’s will, challenging the notion that good mothers must always be in control. Additionally, Quiverfull mothers distance themselves from feminist ideology by promulgating the need for male authority and criticizing all pro-choice sentiment. Moreover, through the exploration of these online artifacts, this study acknowledges the ideological differences between mothering groups, yet exposes that both mainstream and Quiverfull mothers find success as a mother almost unattainable. As a result, this study proposes that mommy blogs have the rhetorical ability to challenge mothering models that destine many mothers to “fail,” imbue value into motherhood, and unite women of competing and polarized ideologies as a way to question the “timeless truth” of what constitutes good mothering.

Research over the last several decades offers clear evidence that mothers experience considerable pressure in carrying out the expectations of contemporary mothering, including expanded responsibilities relating to child and family health (Hays, 1996; Wolf, 2013). While we know that these pressures produce negative impacts, we know less about the strategies and tools mothers use to cope with these anxieties as they try to "do it right" (Villalobos, 2014). At the same time, research suggests that mothering is increasingly digitally-embedded, as mothers look to the internet and social media for information and support (Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2017). This study thus explores how mothers use Facebook groups to inform health and parenting decisions. Drawing on data generated through a digital ethnography incorporating 18 months of participant observation, discourse analysis, and interviews with 29 mothers across two sets of divergent, specialized sets of Facebook groups (focusing on “evidence-based” and “natural” health and parenting), I advance three key, interconnected arguments. First, I apply theories of boundaries and boundary-work to show how specialized Facebook groups become persuasive ideological spaces for mothers who seek certainty around their healthcare beliefs and decisions. Next, I apply the concept of echo chambers to argue that mothers involved with these specialized Facebook groups engage in siloed health learning that shapes health beliefs, decisions, and even conversations with healthcare providers. Finally, I show how mothers engage in a form of digitally-mediated emotion management by turning Facebook groups that confirm their parenting ideology in order to alleviate anxieties associated with neoliberalism and individualist parenting, and to feel better about their maternal performance. I ultimately conclude that the turn to digital platforms for certainty, reassurance, and good feelings is both a logical expression and a reflection of the latest wave of maternal responsibilization.