Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1998

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Susan M. Benner

Committee Members

J. Amos Hatch, Priscilla Blanton, Sharon L. Judge

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain understanding of the experiences of mothers living with children who are hard-to-manage. Through increased knowledge of what it is like to live with these children, those in positions to aid the family, such as mental health workers. counselors, and educators, may be more effective in intervention efforts. In turn, successful early intervention can enhance children’s potential for positive future outcomes.

Six mothers participated in the study with the selection of each mother based on the following criteria: her child was enrolled in Head Start; her child was engaging in hard-to-manage behavior that had been noted as problematic for a minimum of four months; the problematic behavior was documented through reports of parent-teacher conferences and results of the Head Start Child Observation Form completed by the teacher; and, the mother was in agreement that her child was engaging in disruptive behavior.

The process selected for data collection included conducting three interviews, three home observations, and a 30 minute videotaped segment of the mother and child engaging in routine activities such as play time or snack time. The total time involvement with each participant ranged from 11 to 13 hours. Qualitative methods were used in the data analysis process.

Using a symbolic interactionist framework, the findings suggest three phases that mothers of children who are hard-to-manage move through as they try to make sense of their lives. The first phase focuses on the mothers’ interpretations of interactions centered around the children’s misbehavior. As the mothers discussed the negative interactions with their children and others, six themes emerged as common to all and suggest that the mothers’ perception is that they are imprisoned by the children’s misbehavior. The six themes are; loss of freedom, loss of control, involvement in intervention, feelings of isolation, development of coping strategies, and hypervigilance.

The second phase centers around the mothers’ struggle with their identity of self as parent. Positive interactions with their children and brief moments of satisfaction with their parenting behaviors, when compared with other mothers, contribute to their self-perceptions of being “good parents.” However, the culmination of the actions and interactions with others, their interpretations of those actions, and the negative interactions with their children result in the mothers’ perceptions of themselves as “bad parents.” This then leads to feelings of guilt and self-doubt.

In the third phase, the mothers seek understanding of the misbehavior and search for ways to resolve the conflict they feel in their identity as parents. They move through both an internal and an external process in an attempt to resolve the dissonance of the polarity of good parent and bad parent. In the internal process, they seek understanding by trying to find the cause of the children’s misbehavior. In the external process, the mothers search for resources that may assist them in managing the child’s misbehavior.

The following recommendations for intervention services evolved from this study: focus on family strengths, build and maintain supportive relationships, work toward a holistic approach to delivery of services, establish support groups run by mothers of hard-to-manage children, establish a system of telephone partners, and develop special interest groups among the mothers.

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