racial socialization

mother child

emotional availability

mothers

maternal sensitivity

fathers

mother daughter

young mothers

good mother

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology

Primiparous mothers (28 at-risk single women and 20 living with their infants' fathers) were interviewed during the third trimester of pregnancy, in the early postpartum, and six months after birth. Representations of their babies, of themselves as mothers and as women, of their mothers and of their partners were assessed by means of semantic differential-type questionnaires. Results show that self-representations are similar in both groups. Single mothers rate their babies as more difficult than mothers of the control group do. Their ratings of their own mothers are largely negative and very stable through time, and show that they think of themselves as better mothers than their own mothers. They have ambivalent opinions of their partners and only partially discard them as models for their children. Results show no clear alteration of their relationships with their babies.

From Late Pregnancy to Six Months' Postpartum: Content and Evolution of High-Risk Primiparous Single Mothers' Conscious Representations