Investing in parents is important because their well-being ispositively related to the development and well-being of theirchildren. This study investigated which factors predict twotypes of parents’ well-being: individual well-being and parenting-related well-being. Participants were 416 parents (90fathers, 326 mothers) of a baby (younger than age 1 yearold), both first-time parents and not-first-time parents.Relationship quality, life skills, parenting skills, and social supportwere taken into account. Results show that both types ofwell-being have different main predictors. Self-esteem, selfmanagement,and interpersonal relationship skills contributeto both types of well-being, suggesting that interventionsaimed at improving these skills could be very beneficial forparents in their transition to parenthood. Fathers and mothersdiffer significantly on several predictors—for example, selfesteem,self-management, parenting behavior, and empathy—suggesting they might have different needs for support inthe transition to parenthood. Finally, results show that, thoughparents get better at providing basic care for their children,regarding well-being and relationship quality, not-first-timeparents are not better off then first-time parents. Therefore,interventions aimed at easing the transition to parenthoodshould not only be aimed at first time parents, they might bemore effective for parents who already have children.
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This study explores the application of systemic design approaches used in a complex commercial context to create positive and sustainable change. The case study was a business case on sustainable parenthood, in which the company tried to balance its ambitions for environmental sustainability with the need to survive in a highly competitive market. In close collaboration with the internal business company stakeholders, a causal loop diagram was created. The diagram mapped relations between global relevant trends for emerging young adults within the DACH market, sustainability, and parenting as a business. Leverage points for systemic change were identified which were explored through in-depth user interviews (n=10). This process eventually identified ten systemic insights, translated into insight cards to facilitate business actions.Based on these combined approaches, the MINT framework (Mapping Interventions and Narratives for Transformation) was developed, with a strong emphasis on co-creation, iteration, translation, and communication of systemic interventions. However, while the internal business stakeholders and company representatives appreciated the bird’s eye view that systemic design gave them, they were challenged by the methods’ abstract language and translation of systemic insights into concrete action. To address this, the developed framework utilized systemic design artefacts such as a storytelling map and user-centred insight cards to facilitate a more comprehensible systemic design approach.Overall, this study provides a first attempt at creating an actionable systemic design framework that can be used in commercial settings to promote positive systemic change. Future research will require further validation.
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Chronic sorrow involves parents’ enduring grief due to their child’s disability. This stems not only from the recurring painful reality parents face, which differs from the life they had hoped for their children, families, and themselves but from also being confronted with societal and personal norms and expectations they cannot meet. There is a lack of research on the lived experiences of parents’ chronic sorrow. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study involving six parents with severely disabled children explored what it is like for parents to confront being ‘‘different.’’ Besides sorrow, the parents experienced intense ambiguity,guilt, and uncertainty while navigating societal expectations and their own perceptions of their children. Their ideas of parenthood and their self-identity as parents proved central to their strategies. This study provides insight into the intricacies of this particular aspect of chronic sorrow in parents, with relevance for research and practice.
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Objective: The majority of parents with a disabled child experience chronic sorrow, characterized by recurrent feelings of grief and loss related to their child’s disability. There is a significant lack of research on parents’ lived experiences of chronic sorrow, which limits our ability to understand parents’ needs and provide proper support. Design: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was conducted based on in-depth interviews with six parents of severely disabled children. Results: In the literature on chronic sorrow, an important aspect has been consistently overlooked: the particular position of being a parent, experiencing an awareness of being ultimately responsible for their children. The analysis revealed how this awareness, experienced as a deeply felt ethical commitment, unconditional, largely in isolation, and without a limit in time, shaped the experience of chronic sorrow. Because of this awareness, the parents experienced themselves facing a Herculean task of navigating their intricate motions while struggling to maintain their ability to function. Conclusions: By revealing the importance of considering the unique parental position, the study enriches the concept of chronic sorrow, simultaneously offering insights into what it means to be a parent of a disabled child. These insights can improve care professionals’ responsiveness to parental needs.
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Always a complex and demanding task, parenthood can be an extra challenge when parents have severe mental illness. Clients with children may experience extra stress, feelings of uncertainty, and a lack of energy. They may have difficulty in talking about their disabilities with their children. Often, there are struggles with limited material resources and stigma or grief over the loss of having direct custody of their children. In all these situations, clients need support in interacting and communicating with their children in ways that benefit both parties. However, although there is a growing awareness of the needs of these clients and of parental responsibility for the children involved, the parental role is seldom a topic in mental health care. Within the field of rehabilitation, although there is considerable professional literature on skills training and experience in helping clients to realize personal goals in the areas of work, education, living arrangements, and social contacts, there are few or no tools to support clients who wish to strengthen their parenting skills.
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Although first-time parents have a great need for effective support in the first challenging years of child upbringing, there is little research on volunteer-led parenting support programs in the context of the transition to parenthood. Therefore, this qualitative study examined the perceived value and key components of Home-Start, a volunteer-led parenting support program aimed at parents who have everyday parenting questions and receive little support from their environment, in the transition to parenthood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among mothers (N = 10) with a first child up to 1.5 years old who were enrolled in the Home-Start program in the Netherlands, and volunteers (N = 12) who supported these parents. Important outcomes of the Home-Start program were increased positive parent-child interactions, improved parental confidence, and an expanded social network. Identified core needs of first-time mothers in the Home-Start program were social, emotional, informational, and instrumental support needs. Suggestions were provided to better align the program's structure with challenges in the transition to parenthood. For example, facilitating the parent-volunteer match during pregnancy, and developing a module in the Home-Start training for volunteers aimed at providing structured and informative support based on the latest insights into infant and postpartum care.
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In this paper, we draw on our subjective experiences as Early Career Academics (ECAs) at a Dutch University to demonstrate our complex relationship between academic life and parenthood. Building on the sensemaking literature, we employ a collective autoethnography to unveil six distinct new parent scripts that ECA parents, like us, adopt when navigating boundaries between work and non-work tasks in academia. Our scripts are dynamic, and full of emotions, showing our raw and unfiltered experiences of becoming mothers and fathers by reflecting on identity sensemaking processes that we undergo, as individuals and as a collective. We hope by writing differently and showing vulnerability our study can encourage more understanding of the complexity of new parenthood within academia, and at the same time stimulate further debates to challenge current structures that hinder ECAs from balancing their work and family lives by creating a more inclusive academic environment for all of us.
MULTIFILE
The unexpected death of a child is one of the most challenging losses as it fractures survivors’ sense of parenthood and other layers of identity. Given that not all the bereaved parents who have need for support respond well to available treatments and that many have little access to further intervention or follow-up over time, online interventions featuring therapeutic writing and peer support have strong potential. In this article we explore how a group of bereaved mothers experienced the process of participating in an online course in therapeutic writing for the integration of grief. Our research questions were: How do parents who have lost a child experience being part of an online course in therapeutic writing? What are the perceived benefits and challenges of writing in processing their grief? We followed an existential phenomenological approach and analyzed fieldwork notes (n = 13), qualitative data from the application and assessment surveys (n = 35; n = 21), excerpts from the journals of some participants (n = 3), and email correspondence with some participants (n = 5). We categorized the results in three meaning units: (1) where does my story begin? The “both and” of their silent chaos; (2) standing on the middle line: a pregnancy that does not end; (3) closures and openings: “careful optimism” and the need for community support. Participants experienced writing as an opportunity for self-exploration regarding their identities and their emotional world, as well as a means to develop and strengthen a bond with their children. They also experienced a sense of belonging, validation, and acceptance in the online group in a way that helped them make sense of their suffering. Online writing courses could be of benefit for bereaved parents who are grieving the unexpected death of a child, but do not replace other interventions such as psychotherapy. In addition to trauma and attachment informed models of grief, identity informed models with a developmental focus might enhance the impact of both low-threshold community interventions and more intensive clinical ones. Further studies and theoretical development in the area are needed, addressing dialogical notions such as the multivoicedness of the self. Lehmann OV, Neimeyer RA, Thimm J, Hjeltnes A, Lengelle R and Kalstad TG (2022) Experiences of Norwegian Mothers Attending an Online Course of Therapeutic Writing Following the Unexpected Death of a Child. Front. Psychol. 12:809848. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.809848
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