Growing up (being) without a mother: children's experiences during maternal imprisonment
Luciana de Lione Melo1, Circéa Amália Ribeiro2
1Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Revista Brasileira De Enfermagem
|November 18, 2020
Summary
Children experiencing maternal imprisonment can still thrive. Therapeutic play revealed their resilience and ability to grow despite challenges, offering insights into their unique social context.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Child Development
- Social Work
Background:
- Maternal imprisonment significantly impacts children's well-being.
- Understanding these impacts requires exploring children's subjective experiences.
- The Winnicottian framework offers insights into child development and emotional processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore children's experiences during maternal imprisonment.
- To understand how children perceive and cope with maternal absence.
- To utilize dramatic therapeutic play as a method for eliciting children's narratives.
Main Methods:
- Phenomenological study utilizing Winnicott's theoretical framework.
- Involved eight children aged 3-10 years.
- Employed dramatic therapeutic play for mediated interviews.
Main Results:
- Two thematic categories emerged: 'Children being without a mother: a storm with lightning and thunder' and 'Children growing up without a mother: drizzle, heavy rain and some rays of sun'.
- Children expressed their ability to continue being and growing despite maternal absence.
- Therapeutic play facilitated the voicing of concerns, limitations, and an unknown social context.
Conclusions:
- Children demonstrate resilience and capacity for growth even when separated from their mothers.
- Dramatic therapeutic play is an effective tool for children to express complex emotions and experiences.
- The study highlights the importance of understanding the social context influencing children of incarcerated mothers.
More Related Videos
04:20Author Spotlight: Exploring Microglial Interactions with Stress-Response Circuitry Using the Limited Bedding and Nesting Model
Published on: July 12, 2024
2.2K
07:56Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
10.4K
Related Concept Videos
01:20Attachment
342
Attachment is vital for infant development, as warm social interactions support growth and well-being. In a classic 1958 study by Harry Harlow, the significance of warmth and comfort in forming attachments was examined. Harlow separated newborn monkeys from their mothers and provided two artificial "mothers": one made of cold wire and the other covered in soft cloth. Despite the wire mother offering food, the infant monkeys preferred the comfort of the cloth mother, demonstrating that...
342
01:28Relationship with Parents: Attachment
123
Parent-child interactions lay the foundation for how we understand relationships throughout life. These interactions are not uniform across families; instead, they are shaped by a range of environmental, emotional, and behavioral factors unique to each caregiver-child dynamic. Social psychologists study these early relationships to understand how patterns formed in infancy influence social functioning and interpersonal behavior in adulthood.Attachment Theory and Early Relational ModelsJohn...
123
01:16Repressed Memory
306
Repressed memories are a psychological phenomenon where memories of traumatic events are unconsciously blocked from a person's awareness. This process occurs as a defense mechanism, protecting the mind from the emotional impact of distressing or painful experiences. For example, a person who has experienced childhood trauma may grow up with no conscious recollection of the event. In such cases, the memories are thought to be buried deep within the subconscious, inaccessible to the conscious...
306
00:55Parental Care
12.3K
Many animals exhibit parental care behavior, including feeding, grooming, and protecting young offspring. Parental care is universal in mammals and birds, which often have young that are born relatively helpless. Several species of insects and fish, as well as some amphibians, also care for their young.
12.3K
01:27Parenting Styles
413
Diana Baumrind's four parenting styles — authoritarian, authoritative, neglectful, and permissive — each influence children's socio-emotional development differently.
Authoritarian Parenting
This style is strict and controlling, with little room for open dialogue. Authoritarian parents demand obedience and often enforce rules with minimal warmth. Children raised this way may lack social skills and initiative, usually comparing themselves to others unfavorably.
Authoritative...
Authoritarian Parenting
This style is strict and controlling, with little room for open dialogue. Authoritarian parents demand obedience and often enforce rules with minimal warmth. Children raised this way may lack social skills and initiative, usually comparing themselves to others unfavorably.
Authoritative...
413
01:20Traumatic Memory
386
Emotionally traumatic events often lead to memories that are exceptionally vivid and enduring, sometimes persisting with remarkable clarity throughout an individual's life. A classic example of this phenomenon is a person who survives a car accident. Even years later, they may recall every detail of the event with startling accuracy — the screeching of the tires, the jarring impact, and the acrid smell of burning rubber. Such vividness contrasts sharply with how an individual...
386