The proportion of infants in the United States who are breastfed at 1 year remains well below the Healthy People 2030 target. The health implications of suboptimal breastfeeding durations are significant, including increased risk of childhood leukemia and maternal Type 2 diabetes. Prenatal breastfeeding education provides an opportunity to improve…

The purpose of this study is to understand the experience of mothers who lost a child to suicide, and how they have learned to cope with their devastating loss. The study is grounded in transformative learning (TL) theory; the study design combined narrative inquiry and the first author's autoethnographic experience. Data collection consisted of…

In the current study, we investigated the relations among maternal emotion socialization practices and children's inhibitory control (IC) performance in Chinese and European American families. Fifty-three Chinese (Mage = 60 months) and 52 European American (Mage = 50 months) children and their mothers participated in this study. Maternal emotion…

This study explored stigma experiences of mothers of children with ASD and forgiveness as their coping response. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 mothers of children with ASD. Results of this study found several noteworthy themes including, feelings of mother, family/societal reactions, forgiveness factors, and impact of…

Death of one's child is an unfathomable painful situation that a mother may feel. While literature reports different coping strategies across cultures, there has no research yet that explored the grieving process that Meranao mothers go through when they lost a child. Hence, this study explored the grieving process of the bereaved Meranao mothers…

Mothers of children with developmental disabilities suffer from tremendous stress and anxiety. These mothers may use religion and spirituality as coping mechanisms to help them adjust to changes emerging in their lives as well as to resolve problems. This study evaluated the spiritual needs of mothers of children with developmental disabilities…

The purpose of this autoethnography and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was to gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by mothers of children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Saudi Arabia and the strategies they use to address these challenges. In addition, explore the feelings and meanings associated with…

This paper reports on a study in which we interviewed eleven student teachers who were mothers. We wanted to understand the challenges the women faced in combining Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and motherhood, and about the factors that sustained them through the course. Participants faced practical and emotional challenges, including financial…

Posttraumatic growth theory posits that when life circumstances are perceived as stressful, secondary appraisal processes can be recruited in ways to facilitate both coping efforts and personal growth. Using a mixed-methods approach, we found mothers' most challenging experiences involved child behavior (e.g. aggression, communication, and social…

Background: This study investigated the psychocultural perspectives concerning family quality of life among Brazilian families with children who have severe or profound intellectual disability. Methods: Individual in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 mothers, selected by convenience, were analysed using a categorical thematic…

Analyzing attribution in cases involving children with disabilities means determining what parents attribute as the cognitive explanations for their children's diagnosis of disabilities. This field of research is important as attributions and individual perceptions will, once developed, act as an underlying psychological cue to influence and even…

In this phenomenological study, the authors explored the lived experiences of 19 African American mothers raising boys and young men to understand how media exposure to community and state violence connects to the physical and mental health of these mothers. Analysis of semi-structured individual interviews revealed six themes: psychological…

This study examined gender differences in the relationship between dispositional optimism, coping, and depressive symptoms of Hispanic mothers (n = 46) and fathers (n = 43) of children with autism spectrum disorder. Coping was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between optimism and depressive symptoms. The results revealed that mothers…

Previous research has linked stress to adverse mental health outcomes among Latino adolescents living in the United States. The mechanism through which this process operates continues to be explored, especially in regions of the country where Latin American immigrants and their children have only recently begun to migrate. Our study aimed to…

Background: This qualitative study aimed to explore how mothers gave meaning to their experiences of raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Malaysia. Methods: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, semistructured interviews were conducted with 8 Malaysian mothers from different ethnic backgrounds (4 Chinese, 3 Malays, and…