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1 – 10 of over 20000Patience Esohe Konwea, Funmilayo Alice David and Seyi Elizabeth Ogunsile
Vaccine preventable diseases are major threats to the health and well-being of children under five years of age. They contribute a great deal to childhood illnesses and…
Abstract
Purpose
Vaccine preventable diseases are major threats to the health and well-being of children under five years of age. They contribute a great deal to childhood illnesses and disabilities, and are accountable for a high percentage of childhood mortality worldwide. In Nigeria, the government has made a lot of effort to provide immunizations against these childhood diseases. It is however sad to note that many children still do not complete their routine immunization. The purpose of this paper is to determine factors which influence mothers’ compliance with childhood immunization.
Design/methodology/approach
This was a descriptive study carried out among 600 mothers of under-five children randomly selected from nine postnatal clinics in Ekiti State between January and August 2016. A self-structured validated questionnaire containing items to explore demographic characteristics of respondents, compliance with child immunization (Cronbach’s α=0.92) and determinants of compliance (Cronbach’s α=0.83) was the instrument for data collection. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify determinants of mothers’ compliance with childhood immunization.
Findings
The level of compliance of mothers with childhood immunization was high (80 percent). The two factors which contributed significantly to mothers’ compliance were the mothers’ knowledge of childhood immunization (β weight= 0.243) and mothers’ educational status (β weight=0.169). Mothers with tertiary education had the highest level of compliance (76.8 percent).
Originality/value
Having good knowledge of childhood immunization and a high educational status positively influence a mothers’ compliance with child immunization.
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Lailatul Muniroh, Yuly Sulistyorini, and Chrysoprase Thasya Abihail,
The low rate of exclusive breastfeeding and the early introduction of complementary feeding are among the causes of nutritional problems in children. The national coverage of…
Abstract
Purpose
The low rate of exclusive breastfeeding and the early introduction of complementary feeding are among the causes of nutritional problems in children. The national coverage of exclusive breastfeeding in 2019 was 67.7%, surpassing the target of the 2019 Strategic Plan, which was 50%. However, there are still several practices of early and inappropriate complementary feeding (32.3%) that can be contributing factors to malnutrition problems in children. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence mother’s self-efficacy levels regarding complementary feeding practices among toddlers in the Tengger tribe.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conducted was an observational study with a cross-sectional design. It focused on mothers with children aged 6–24 months in Wonokitri village, East Java. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and information from the local health center. The analysis involved univariate and bivariate analysis using the chi-square test.
Findings
Most mothers were aged 20–34 years (78.9%), had a good level of knowledge (61.4%), the last education level of fathers and mothers was high school (47.4%; 54.4%), parents work as farmers (86.0%; 61.4%), Hinduism (98.2%), family income is less than the minimum wage (78.9%), and mothers receive good family support (73.7%). Most toddlers were boys (56.1%), aged 13–24 months (68.4%), and the second child (66.7%). Family support was the only factor that was significantly related to a mother’s self-efficacy in complementary breastfeeding practices (p-value = 0.042).
Research limitations/implications
It is hoped that more families and health workers will support mothers in giving food to their babies based on the guidelines.
Originality/value
This paper collects evidence from indigenous people of the Tengger tribe.
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Lisa Rosen, Shannon Scott, Bek Urban, Darian Poe, Roshni Shukla and Shazia Ahmed
The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of working mothers during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and assess their perceptions of the types of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of working mothers during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and assess their perceptions of the types of training opportunities that would help advance their careers as they navigated pandemic-related challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
In study 1, 53 participants responded to an online survey that included open-ended questions regarding the impact COVID-19 has had on their careers and desires they have for training to ameliorate these concerns. For study 2, 10 participants completed an interview that included open-ended questions regarding workplace changes and professional development/training opportunities since the pandemic.
Findings
Thematic analysis showed mothers facing several setbacks in their careers, including delays, loss of hours and wages, childcare stressors and strained or lost relationships with colleagues and supervisors. A small number of participants also reported some surprisingly positive experiences, such as a push toward career innovation. Participants reported little to no exposure to career development opportunities and expressed a desire for training for leadership and interpersonal connection in the workplace.
Originality/value
Although quantitative data have been helpful in identifying and quantifying growing gender gaps in work during the pandemic, the qualitative analyses the authors used highlight how recent difficulties encountered by working mothers risk a growing gender gap in work and career mobility as women in the leadership pipeline struggle with challenges. Further, the findings suggest ways that women in management can support the working mothers on their staff, including by suggesting ways additional training may address some concerns.
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Mariana I. Paludi, Isabella Krysa and Marke Kivijärvi
This paper explores working mothers’ coping strategies concerning paid and unpaid work in Chile and Argentina during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper aimed to understand the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores working mothers’ coping strategies concerning paid and unpaid work in Chile and Argentina during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper aimed to understand the influence of cultural norms on motherhood and neoliberal workplace practices on mothers’ sensemaking processes and coping strategies. This study focuses on mothers living in Chile and Argentina where governments established mandatory lockdowns between March and September 2020. Drawing on the notion of neoliberal motherhood, women’s demands were analyzed when paid work and mothering duties collide in time and space.
Design/methodology/approach
Open-ended interviews were conducted with 17 women in Chile and Argentina. All interviewees had at least 1 child below the age of 6 and were working from home during the lockdown.
Findings
Neoliberal workplace demands, and disadvantageous government policies greatly heightened the dual burdens of working mothers. Women were expected to fulfill the discourses of the neoliberal worker and the good mother, while also adopting additional strategies in the wake of the lockdown. The data highlights mothers’ strategies to cope with care and work duties by adjusting to new routines involving their partners, relatives and the wider community.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of the results is limited by the small sample of 17 interviewees, all from middle to middle-upper class. The changing scenario due to Covid-19 makes the collected data not sufficient to grasp the impact of the pandemic, as during the interviews (December 2020 and January 2021) the process was still ongoing.
Practical implications
Organizations should assess their role in the management of paid and unpaid work for both genders, as the neoliberal discourse views the worker as masculine, full-time, always available and productive, ignoring women’s additional care duties outside of the workplace.
Originality/value
The Covid-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to reflect on care work and gender, collective versus individual responses to care and work demands and the idea of organizing.
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Milla Salin, Mia Hakovirta, Anniina Kaittila and Johanna Raivio
This article analyzes the challenges Finnish single mothers experienced in their everyday lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. In studies on challenges to family life during…
Abstract
Purpose
This article analyzes the challenges Finnish single mothers experienced in their everyday lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. In studies on challenges to family life during COVID-19 lockdowns, single-parent families remain a largely understudied group.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply triple bind theory and ask how did Finnish single mothers manage the interplay between inadequate resources, inadequate employment, and inadequate policies during lockdown in spring 2020? These data come from an online survey including both qualitative and quantitative questions which was conducted between April and May 2020 to gather Finnish families' experiences during lockdown. This analysis is based on the qualitative part of the survey.
Findings
This study's results show that lockdown created new inadequacies while also enhancing some old inadequacies in the lives of Finnish single mothers. During lockdown, single mothers faced policy- and resource-disappearances; accordingly, they lost their ability to do paid work normally. Furthermore, these disappearances endangered the well-being of some single mothers and their families.
Originality/value
This article contributes to the wider understanding of everyday lives of single mothers and the challenges COVID-19 pandemic created. Moreover, this study provides knowledge on the applicability of the triple bind theory when studying the everyday lives of single mothers.
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Cansu Karadeniz Benli and Özen Kulakaç
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of perceived social support on postpartum depression (PPD) in Arab immigrant mothers and Turkish mothers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of perceived social support on postpartum depression (PPD) in Arab immigrant mothers and Turkish mothers.
Design/methodology/approach
This descriptive study was conducted with 140 mothers between September 2017 and January 2018. The data was collected via the Turkish and Arabic versions of the sociodemographic questionnaire, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Percentage and arithmetic mean calculations, independent samples t-test, Mann–Whitney U test, paired logistic regression analysis backward elimination method and Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses were conducted to analyze the data.
Findings
The data revealed that the risk of PPD was twice as high in Arab immigrant mothers (56.3%) compared to Turkish mothers (29%). The EPDS mean score was 12.37 ± 6.28 for Arab immigrant mothers and 8.81 ± 5.48 for Turkish mothers. The social support mean score was found to be 50.70 ± 19.27 for Arab immigrant mothers and 61.41 ± 16.51 for Turkish mothers. The independent risk factors for Turkish mothers included mother’s age, monthly income level and infant’s age, while the independent risk factors for Arab immigrant mothers included number of children, husband’s status of employment and access to regular medical care during pregnancy. The negative correlation between EPDS and social support overall scores and subscale scores was found to be significant for both groups.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the impact of social support on PPD in Arab immigrant and Turkish women in the national and international literature. The study helped reveal the correlation between perceived social support and PPD, the PPD risk rates and risk factors according to citizenship status for the first time.
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This study aims to incorporate theory on effort-recovery and stressor-detachment models to examine the roles of relaxation, mastery and types of control on the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to incorporate theory on effort-recovery and stressor-detachment models to examine the roles of relaxation, mastery and types of control on the relationship between psychological detachment from work and boundary violations at home.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzes data from two time points using a sample of 348 working mothers recruited from Prolific.
Findings
Working moms who psychologically detach from work have less work boundary violations at home. There are mixed findings on whether and when the other types of recovery experiences moderate the relationship between psychological detachment and boundary violations at home. Relaxation, control after work and job autonomy do not moderate the effect while mastery and boundary control do. Specifically, psychological detachment is more effective as reducing boundary violations at home for working moms who have (1) low levels of mastery and (2) high levels of boundary control.
Practical implications
Working mothers juggle multiple roles and often have increased stress and less time to manage the two domains. The findings of this study illustrate whether and when psychological detachment from work acts as a key to recovery from work-based stressors.
Originality/value
Much of the research on recovery experiences is based on employees without consideration of motherhood status. Further, scholars have not examined the combinative potential of recovery experiences. Finally, examining control over both domains (vs. one domain) adds precision to the literature.
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Andriana Johnson, Natasha T. Brison, Hailey A. Harris and Katie M. Brown
Guided by self-presentation theory and social role theory, this study examines the different strategies elite female athletes used in personal branding on social media before and…
Abstract
Purpose
Guided by self-presentation theory and social role theory, this study examines the different strategies elite female athletes used in personal branding on social media before and after becoming mothers. Scholars have investigated the authenticity of female athletes’ frontstage versus backstage representation on social media for branding purposes, but this study further expands on existing literature to review how female athletes would present themselves in the same realm once entering motherhood.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a content analysis, researchers evaluated whether there was a shift in three elite female athletes’ (Serena Williams, Allyson Felix and Skylar Diggins Smith) Instagram posts and captions one year before their pregnancy and one year after motherhood. A total of 732 posts were examined and were organized into six main categories: athletic, professional, promotional, personal, motherhood and dual identity.
Findings
Results revealed there was a difference in the self-presentation strategies used by the three female athletes on their social media pages. Specifically, the researchers confirmed the presence of a combined role of athlete and mother.
Originality/value
The findings support existing literature on the importance and the challenges of “balancing” a third identity of blending being both a mother and elite athlete as one. Yet, the findings challenge the previous notion that women cannot continue to perform at an elite level and manage the expectations that society institutes of being a “good mother.”
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This paper examines the financial challenges of single mothers in Brunei, illustrating how single parenting affects their lifestyle choices and the coping mechanisms these mothers…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the financial challenges of single mothers in Brunei, illustrating how single parenting affects their lifestyle choices and the coping mechanisms these mothers employ to grapple with their financial hardships.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews with five single mothers living in the Brunei-Muara district. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Results revealed participants described operating with a single income, covering bills alone, the high cost of living in Brunei and the absence of alimony contributed to their financial challenges. Financial stress caused them to change their spending habits, switch to cheaper alternatives, make sacrifices and struggle to meet the needs of their children. Coping mechanisms adopted by single mothers utilized social support, generating side income, and the unique roles of children played a significant role in cushioning the impact of their financial difficulties.
Originality/value
Single mothers are on the rise in Brunei. There is an acute lack of studies emphasizing the financial hardships experienced by single mothers in Brunei. This study attempts to narrow the missing gap and seek avenues of justice for single mothers in a progressive, equitable society.
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Minna Kallioharju, Terhi-Anna Wilska and Annamari Vänskä
The purpose of this paper is to examine mothers’ social media accounts that focus on children’s fashion. The authors probed children’s fashion photo practices as representations…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine mothers’ social media accounts that focus on children’s fashion. The authors probed children’s fashion photo practices as representations of the mothers’ extended self and the kind of childhood representations produced by the social media accounts. They also investigated mothers’ perceptions of children’s privacy when engaging in sharenting – the sharing of information about children or parenting online.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on 16 semi-structured interviews with Finnish mothers who had Instagram accounts focusing on children’s fashion.
Findings
Children’s fashion photos play a diverse role in mothers’ identity work. The photos can be used to express a mother’s taste and aesthetic skills, to express values, to fit into peer groups and to store memories of oneself and the children. Through the photos, representations of the prevailing Finnish childhood ideals, such as authenticity, naturalness and playfulness, are reproduced. The mothers perceived the children as part of their extended self and justified sharenting with mother- and child-centered arguments.
Originality/value
Through shedding light on the practices of social media fashion photography, this paper provides insights into how commercialism and social media shape cultural expectations for both motherhood and childhood. The paper contributes to previous research on sharenting, extending it to the context of fashion photography.
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