Conceptions of Self in Mother-Child Birth Stories
Elaine Reese | University of Otago, New Zealand
Abstract
Family stories of children's early experiences may be important contributors to children's growing sense of self. In this study, 35 New Zealand Pakeha (European-descent) mothers told their preschoolers the story of the child's birth. Conversations were coded for mothers' emphasis on interpersonal aspects of the birth or for an exclusive focus on the child. Overall, mothers with daughters and younger preschoolers adopted a more interpersonal focus than did mothers with sons and older preschoolers. Mothers' focus was not solely a function of the topics that children brought up during the conversations. Thus, mothers seem to view the birth narrative as a way of introducing their daughters and younger children into their space in the wider family community. (Development, Gender Socialization, Self-Concept)
Published online: 04 August 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.6.1.02con
https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.6.1.02con
References
Cowan, N., & Davidson, G.
Fivush, R., Gray, J. T., & Fromhoff, F. A.
Flannagan, D., & Hardee, S. D.
Fung, H.
Gilligan, C.
Jelinek, E. C.
Kuebli, J., & Fivush, R.
MacDonald, S., Uesiliana, K., & Hayne, H.
McAdams, D. P.
McCabe, A., & Peterson, C.
Miller, P. J., Potts, R., Fung, H., Hoogstra, L., & Mintz, J.
Mullen, M. K.
Nelson, K.
Reese, E., & Fivush, R.
Reese, E., Haden, C. A., & Fivush, R.
Ross, M., & Holmberg, D.
Snow, C. E.
Sperry, L. L., & Sperry, D. E.,
Tannen, D.
Thoma, S. J.
Walker, L. J.
Cited by
Cited by 16 other publications
Adebayo, Comfort Tosin
Andrews, Jennifer, Widaad Zaman, Natalie Merrill, Marshall Duke & Robyn Fivush
Bylund, Carma L.
Hayden, Julia M., Jefferson A. Singer & Joan C. Chrisler
Kellas, Jody Koenig
2005. Family Ties: Communicating Identity Through Jointly Told Family Stories This paper is based on the author's dissertation study and was presented on the Top Four Panel of the Family Communication Division at the National Communication Association Convention, November 2003, Miami, FL..
Communication Monographs 72:4 ► pp. 365 ff. 
Kellas, Jody Koenig, Leslie Baxter, Cassandra LeClair-Underberg, Matthew Thatcher, Tracy Routsong, Emily Lamb Normand & Dawn O. Braithwaite
Kranstuber, Haley & Jody Koenig Kellas
McLean, Kate C. & Sarah Morrison-Cohen
Nicoladis, Elena, Connie Svob & Lisa Smithson
Reese, Elaine & Robyn Fivush
Reese, Elaine, Harlene Hayne & Shelley MacDonald
Scharp, Kristina M., John S. Seiter & Megan Maughan
Stone, Elizabeth, Erica Gomez, Despina Hotzoglou & Jane Y. Lipnitsky
Suter, Elizabeth A., Jody Koenig Kellas, Stephanie K. Webb & Jordan A. Allen
Taylor, Julie, C Bradbury-Jones, Peter Ogik, Fazira Kawuma, Jane Betts & Patricia Lund
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.