Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Woodhead. M, Light. P and Carr, R. (1991) Growing up in a Changing Society. London: Routledge

Barbara Tizard (Chapter 4) Source: E. Lloyd, A. Phoenix and A. Woollett (1991) Social Construction of Motherhood, London: Sage

Methodology: Looked into the work and research carried out by John Bowlby who “believes that the root of personality development lies in the child’s early relationships with the mother.” (61)

The lack of intimacy and loving relationship between a mother and a child can have a large effect on the infant’s development and he has related and carried out this theory on a “study of young thieves” (61)

N.B Look at work on John Bowlby

K. Alison Clarke-Stewart (Chapter 5) Source: American Psychologist (1989) 44 (2): 266-73

Clarke-Stewart talks about the dramatic increase of mothers going back into full-time employment after having children.

Mother-infant relationship the theories that surround this area – mainly concerning with Freud and his views on child/separation from the mother and the effect on the child’s development. Stewart states clearly that although research has shown that children still prefer their mother’s attachment rather than that of a care-taker’s, however her question is “whether the quality of their attachment is as good” is as “emotionally secure” as those attachments that have formed through a child and a parent who has been the only caregiver in the infant’s life.” (79)

Methodology: Stewart began to research this through bringing together data from all studies that have been carried out on child’s attachment to their mothers.
The Strange Situation: (80) Where the child is left in an unknown room with an unknown woman and toys that are unfamiliar and not of their own. The study is carried out to see if children react differently when the mother comes back into the room. Those who have been in day care are supposed to be less likely to be affected by the mother’s return and will quite happily play with the unfamiliar toys and be comforted by the stranger of another woman. Where as the child who is constantly cared for by the mother will want to be reunited with her as soon as she returns to the room. Yet, a disadvantage of this situation is the stress that can be placed on the child, as it is an unusual environment for them to be in.
Clarke-Stewart and Fein (1983) claimed that quite often researchers have discovered that children who attend infant day care have higher intelligence. Tests that have been carried out on infants aged between 18 months and 5 years showed that those who had been placed in day care/nurseries received higher scores on intelligence tests then those who had not. (84)
She goes onto talk about the varied factors that may affect the child’s attachment: (85-87):

1.) Day care factors – “the type, stability or quality of day care experienced by the infants.”
2.) Child factors – the individual; the different characteristics of the child.
3.) Family factors – the mother as an individual whether she had intended to stay at home and then realised or decided that she could not cope with motherhood. Another example given is the stress of dealing with “two full-time jobs – work and motherhood – which would lead to more rejection of every additional burden, including the baby.” (87) This could be extended to having to deal with household tasks and chores as well.




Sources I would like to get hold of:

Ramey, C.T, Dorval, B and Baker-Ward, L (1983) “Group day care and socially disadvantaged families: effects on the child and the family” in S. Kilmer (ed) Advances in Early Education and Day care (Vol 3, 69-106) Greenwich, Conn: JAI Press

Clarke-Stewart, K. A and Fein, G. G (1983) “Early Childhood Programs” in P. H Mussen (ed) Handbook of Child Psychology: Vol.2 Infancy and Developmental Psychobiology. New York: Wiley

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