'What Science Says is Best': Parenting Practices, Scientific Authority and Maternal Identity

Based on research in London with mothers from a breastfeeding support organisation this paper explores the narratives of women who breastfeed \'to full term\' (typically for a period of several years) as part of a philosophy of 'attachment parenting', an approach to parenting which validates long term proximity between child and care-taker. In line with wider cultural trends, one of the most prominent \'accountability strategies\' used by this group of mothers to explain their long-term breastfeeding is recourse to scientific evidence, both about the nutritional benefits of breastfeeding and about the broader cognitive and developmental benefits of attachment parenting more broadly. Women\'s accounts internalize and reflect popular literature around attachment parenting, which is explored here in-depth as a means of contextualizing shifting patterns of \'scientisation\'. What follows is a reflection on how \'scientific evidence\' is given credence in narratives of mothering, and what the implications of this are for individuals in their experience of parenting, and for society more broadly. As a form of \'Authoritative Knowledge\' (Jordan 1997) women utilise 'science' when they talk about their decisions to breastfeed long-term, since it has the effect of placing these non-conventional practices beyond debate (they are simply what is \'healthiest\'). The article therefore makes a contribution to wider sociological debates around the ways in which society and behaviour are regulated, and the ways in which \'science\' is interpreted, internalized and mobilized by individuals in the course of their \'identity work\'.Parenting, Psychology, Neuroscience, Scientific Authority, Maternal Identity

Introduction: 'Changing Parenting Culture'

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Book review: parenting out of control

Charlotte Faircloth discusses Margeret Nelson’s book Parenting out of control and discusses how class affects parents’ use of technology. Charlotte is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Roehampton, London, UK. She is also a Visiting Scholar and founding member of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies (CPCS) at the University of Kent

Fertile connections? Thinking across Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Parenting Culture Studies

While studies of ‘parenting culture’ and ‘assisted reproductive technologies’ are now well-established areas of social science scholarship, so far, the potential connections between the two fields have not been significantly explored. Responding to calls for a more ‘processual’ approach to studying reproduction in order to make clearer contributions to sociological theory more broadly, we begin a dialogue between these mutually relevant bodies of literature, highlighting connections and crosscutting findings. We focus on four interlinked themes – Reflexivity, Gender, Expertise and Stratification – and promote a more holistic approach to understanding how children are conceived and cared for within the current ‘Euro-American’ reproductive landscape. By way of conclusion, we draw attention to the contemporary context of ‘anxious reproduction’ and propose directions for future research

Understanding ‘Gender Equality’: First-Time Parent Couples’ Practices and Perspectives on Working and Caring Post-Parenthood

This article explores the ways couples making the transition to parenthood think about, practise, and assess ‘gender equality’. The analysis draws on data from two qualitative, longitudinal projects in the UK with 36 mixed-sex couples, grounded in the sociology of intimacy and parenting culture respectively. Both projects explore gender relations at the transition to parenthood, with recent changes in UK parental leave as a backdrop, to interrogate couples’ ideals and practices. In this article, we outline four configurations of equality articulated by couples: ‘symmetry’, ‘breaking gender stereotypes’, ‘fairness’, and ‘equality as respect’, which were developed through collaborative analysis. We explore how different configurations shape gendered practices in early parenthood. The analysis provides novel insights into the ways in which ‘gender equality’ is differentially defined and practised; shaped by the political and cultural context in which parents live; and relational in nature – thereby contributing to debates around equality in gendered divisions of paid and unpaid work

Adolescents' and young people's experiences of social relationships and health concerns during COVID-19

Purpose: To illuminate the meaning of social relationships and health concerns as experienced by adolescents and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. / Methods: A longitudinal qualitative study was conducted. Data reported from 172 adolescents and young people aged 12–24 years in five countries; Chile, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States collected from May 2020 to June 2021 were analysed via thematic analysis. / Results: Adolescents and young peoples’ experiences of social relationships and health concerns were described in seven themes: Family proximity, conflicts and frustration; difficulties and challenges related to limited living space; peer relations and maintaining friendship in times of social distancing; the importance of school as a place for interaction; vulnerability, emotional distress and uncertainty about the future; health concerns and sense of caring for others; and worries and concerns related to financial hardship. These reports show that the changes to everyday life that were introduced by public responses to the pandemic generated feelings of loneliness, vulnerability, and emotional distress, as well as increased sense of togetherness with family. / Conclusions: The everyday lives of adolescents and young people were restricted and affected more by the consequences of the pandemic than by the COVID-19 virus. These experiences had various impacts on well-being and mental health, where some individuals felt more exposed and vulnerable to emotional distress and loneliness than others. Family and peer relationships could be protective and support a sense of togetherness and belonging. Hence, social relationships are important to provide emotional support. Support for adolescents and young people should be tailored accordingly around social and emotional concerns, to encourage health and well-being

If they want to risk the health and well-being of their child, that’s up to them’: Long-term breastfeeding, risk and maternal identity.

This article examines the narratives of women who breastfeed their children for ‘extended’ periods of time, as a means of exploring the relationship between risk-consciousness, infant feeding and maternal identity. The paper shows that whilst these women practice a form of infant feeding which is validated by wider policy directives emphasising the risks associated with formula milk use, their ‘identity work’ is not as straightforward as may be expected. Indeed, women sit at a juncture between affirmation and marginalisation, highlighting a significant dissonance between statistical, ideological and cultural norms. The argument is that the widespread moralisation of infant feeding practices (and parenting more generally) appears to have amplified tensions between various ‘tribes’ of mothers. In terms of risk consciousness, this leaves the mothers in this sample in a double bind: on the one hand, their marginal position is affirmed through recourse to risk reduction, on the other, their non-conventional practices are left open to the charge of ‘riskiness’ with respect to the social and emotional development of their children

Couples’ Transitions to Parenthood: Gender, Intimacy and Equality

This chapter sets out the rationale for the study, arguing that new parents are caught in an uncomfortable confluence between two competing discourses: those around ideal relationships and those around ideal parenting. On the one hand, they must be committed to egalitarian ideals about being ‘equal partners’. On the other, they must be parenting ‘intensively’, in ways which are markedly more demanding for mothers, and which makes paternal involvement in particular more complicated. Drawing largely on the narratives of couples who have faced relationship difficulties, the book points to the social pressures at play in raising the next generation at material, physiological and cultural levels. These are explored through concrete practices, linked to physiology by varying degrees: birth, feeding and sleeping, three of the most highly moralised areas of contemporary parenting culture