Through this study, I aim to increase understanding of how young moms experience, perceive, make meaning, and conceptualize positive support within the context of service provision (education, residential services, legal services, healthcare etc.). More broadly, I aim to illuminate ways that societal notions of vulnerability and autonomy may be shifted to offer improved quality of support to young mothers and other marginalized communities. Such a shift would counter paternalistic attitudes that have historically influenced how “support” has been imposed on young mothers. Although a full transformation would take time, we may begin to undertake the necessary work of reimagining support, gradually shifting towards the goal of building capabilities toward relational autonomy.
25 moms from diverse socio-economic backgrounds in Ontario, Canada, between the ages of 16-25 years, participated in creating visual art images and/or verbally sharing what support meant to them. I engaged in a relational approach to interaction and dialogue, centering a praxis of reflexivity and ethical treatment of everyone involved in the interview process. Guided by a critical feminist framework that included intersectionality, maternal theory, and vulnerability theory, I engaged in a feminist phenomenological approach to the analysis of transcripts and co-constructed visual analysis of imagery with the moms.
Study findings reveal how service provision contexts are shaped by traditional ways of understanding vulnerability and autonomy as a binary and in opposition to one another, with an overvaluation of invulnerability. Yet young moms describe that they understand positive support as a combination of both responses to the effects of exposure to sources of vulnerability and as efforts to build autonomy in relationships with service providers, infrastructure, and broader communities of care. In addition, young moms describe positive qualities of service design and delivery, such as being non-judgemental, reliable, and sensitive, with attuned and caring interactions. The combination of these qualities can facilitate a process of internalization of positive attitudes, culminating in the development of an identity as a confident caregiver. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Through this critical feminist arts-based study, I aim to increase understanding of how young moms make meaning of the concept of positive support within the context of service provision. 25 moms in Ontario, Canada, between the ages of 16-25 years, participated in creating visual art images and/or verbally sharing what support meant to them. I engaged in a relational approach to interviewing, and a feminist phenomenological approach to the analysis of transcripts and visual analysis of imagery. Study findings reveal how service provision contexts are shaped by traditional ways of understanding the concepts of vulnerability and autonomy as a binary and in opposition to one another. Yet young moms asserted that effective forms of positive support must be designed and delivered as a combination of both a response to the effects of exposure to sources of vulnerability and as efforts made to build autonomy in-connection to others and the world(s) around us.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/28597 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Kuri, Erin |
| Contributors | Carranza, Mirna, E., Social Work |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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