Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:49:50.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Changes and Challenges: Parenting Challenges in Iranian Mothers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2020

Davoud Hajkhodadadi
Affiliation:
Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Ozra Etemadi*
Affiliation:
Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Mohammad Reza Abedi
Affiliation:
Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Rezvanossadat Jazayeri
Affiliation:
Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
*
Address for correspondence: Ozra Etemadi, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Iran. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Having adolescents affect many aspects of the parent's lives. The aim of this study was to investigate the parenting challenges within the cultural background of Iranian mothers. The participants consisted of 24 mothers who were selected using a purposive sampling method. Semistructured interviews were recorded and transcribed for further analysis. To analyse the data, a thematic analysis was carried out. The analysis of the data shows that for Iranian mothers, parenting challenges are categorised into seven themes: (a) Sense of diminished power and control, (b) Sense of inadequacy, (c) Lack of father's participation, (d) New situation, coping and resolve, (e) Altered relationships issues, (f) Unfulfilled expectations, and (g) Environmental threats. Based on the findings of our study, parenting challenges are culture-bound and controversial, and dealing with them requires parental training.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adelman, A.J. (2018). Psychoanalytic reflection on parenting teens and young adults: Changing patterns in modern love, loss, and longing. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albers, C., & Farris, M. (2019). Parenting beyond the rules: Raising teens with confidence and joy. Colorado Springs, CO: The NavPress.Google Scholar
Albritton, T., Angley, M., Grandelski, V., Hansen, N., & Kershaw, T. (2014). Looking for solutions: Gender differences in relationship and parenting challenges among low-income, young parents. Family Process, 53, 686701.Google ScholarPubMed
Arad, H. (2018). Raising children cross-culturally. In In Adelman, A.J. (Ed.), Psychoanalytic reflections on parenting teens and young adults (pp. 129146). Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, J.M., Ruttle, P.L., Burk, L.R., Costanzo, P.R., Strauman, T.J., & Essex, M.J. (2013). Early risk factors for alcohol use across high school and its covariation with deviant friends. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 74, 746756.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baumrind, D. (1971). Parenting patterns of paternal authority. Developmental Psychology Monograph, 4, 1103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bornstein, M.H., Jager, J., & Steinberg, L.D. (2012). Adolescents, parents, friends/peers: A relationships model. In Lerner, R.M., Easterbrooks, M.A., Mistry, J., & Weiner, I.B. (Eds.), Handbook of psychology (2nd ed., 393433). John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2012). Thematic analysis. n Cooper, H., Camic, P.M., Long, D.L., Panter, A.T., Rindskopf, D., & Sher, K.J. (Eds.), APA handbooks in psychology®. APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol. 2. Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological (pp. 5771). American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Brendgen, M., Wanner, B., Morin, A.J., & Vitaro, F. (2005). Relations with parents and with peers, temperament, and trajectories of depressed mood during early adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33, 579594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buhrmester, D. (1998). Need fulfillment, interpersonal competence, and the developmental contexts of early adolescent friendship. In Bukowski, W.M., Newcomb, A.F., & Hartup, W.W. (Eds.), Cambridge studies in social and emotional development. The company they keep: Friendship in childhood and adolescence (pp. 158185). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caron, A., Weiss, B., Harris, V., & Catron, T. (2006). Parenting behavior dimensions and child psychopathology: Specificity, task dependency, and interactive relations. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35, 3445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Casey, B.J., Jones, R.M., Levita, L., Libby, V., Pattwell, S.S., Ruberry, E.J., Soliman, F., & Somerville, L.H. (2010). The storm and stress of adolescence: Insights from human imaging and mouse genetics. Developmental Psychobiology, 52, 225235Google ScholarPubMed
Chein, J., Albert, D., O'Brien, L., Uckert, K., & Steinberg, L. (2011). Peers increase adolescent risk taking by enhancing activity in the brain's reward circuitry. Developmental Science, 14, F1-F10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Choe, H.S. (2006). The mediational role of Korean mothers’ parenting self-efficacy. The effects of parenting related variables on child self-esteem., Korean Journal of Child Studies, 44, 7989.Google Scholar
Claridge, A.M., Wojciak, A.S., Lettenberger-Klein, C.G., Pettigrew, H.V., McWey, L.M., & Chaviano, C.L. (2015). Reciprocal associations among maternal and child characteristics of at-risk families: A longitudinal actor–partner interdependence model. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 41, 308323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coleman, J. (2018). Why won't my teenager talk to me? Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, S.M., & McLoyd, V.C. (2011). Racial barrier socialization and the well-being of African American adolescents: The moderating role of mother–adolescent relationship quality. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 895903.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cumsille, P., Darling, N., Flaherty, B.P., & Martínez, M.L. (2006). Chilean adolescents’ beliefs about the legitimacy of parental authority: Individual and age-related differences. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 30, 97106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davoodi, Z., Fatehizade, M., Ahmadi, A., & Jazayeri, R. (2019). Culture and power: How do culture and power influence Iranian couples. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 18, 353365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dieleman, L.M., De Pauw, S.S., Soenens, B., Mabbe, E., Campbell, R., & Prinzie, P. (2018). Relations between problem behaviors, perceived symptom severity and parenting in adolescents and emerging adults with ASD: The mediating role of parental psychological need frustration. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 73, 2130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dishion, T.J., & McMahon, R.J. (1998). Parental monitoring and the prevention of child and adolescent problem behavior: A conceptual and empirical formulation. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 1, 6175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doh, H.-S., Kim, M.-J., Shin, N., Park, B.-K., & Choi, M.-K. (2013). The effectiveness of a parent education program for preventing children's problem behaviors: Based on respected parents & respected children. Korean Journal of Child Studies, 34, 151177.Google Scholar
Earle, K. (2018). Parenting through enactments of loss. In Adelman, A.J., Psychoanalytic reflections on parenting teens and young adults: Changing patterns in modern love, loss, and longing (pp. 8393). Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El-Khani, A., Ulph, F., Peters, S., & Calam, R. (2016). Syria: The challenges of parenting in refugee situations of immediate displacement. Intervention, 14, 99113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabiano, G.A., & Caserta, A. (2018, 2018/09/03). Future directions in father inclusion, engagement, retention, and positive outcomes in child and adolescent research. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47, 847862.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fanti, K.A., Henrich, C.C., Brookmeyer, K.A., & Kuperminc, G.P. (2008). Toward a transactional model of parent-adolescent relationship quality and adolescent psychological adjustment. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 28, 252276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flax, M. (2018). Holding on with open arms: Adult children living at home. In Psychoanalytic reflections on parenting teens and young adults (pp. 4152). Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, M.W., Kirby, L.D., & Smokowski, P.R. (2004). Risk and resilience in childhood. In Fraser, M.W. (Ed.), Risk and resilience in childhood: An ecological perspective (pp. 1366). Washington, DC: NAWS Press.Google Scholar
Frydenberg, E. (2008). Adolescent coping: Advances in theory, research and practice. London, UK: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golchin, N.A.H., Hamzehgardeshi, Z., Fakhri, M., & Hamzehgardeshi, L. (2012). The experience of puberty in Iranian adolescent girls: A qualitative content analysis. BMC Public Health, 12, 698.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gross, D., Garvey, C., Julion, W., Fogg, L., Tucker, S., & Mokros, H. (2009). Efficacy of the Chicago Parent Program with low-income African American and Latino parents of young children. Prevention Science, 10, 5465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heaven, P.C., & Ciarrochi, J. (2006). Perceptions of parental styles and Eysenckian psychoticism in youth: A prospective analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 41, 6170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, E.K., Burton, C., Le Grange, D., & Sawyer, S.M. (2018). The participation of mothers, fathers, and siblings in family-based treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47, S456S466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R., Kinder, A., & Cooper, C.L. (2019). The Wellbeing Workout: How to manage stress and develop resilience. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, S.O., Power, T.G., Liu, Y., Sharp, C., & Nicklas, T.A. (2015). Parent emotional distress and feeding styles in low-income families. The role of parent depression and parenting stress. Appetite, 92, 337342.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keijsers, L., & Poulin, F. (2013). Developmental changes in parent–child communication throughout adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 49, 23012308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K., Gardner, C., & Dick, D. (2011). Predicting alcohol consumption in adolescence from alcohol-specific and general externalizing genetic risk factors, key environmental exposures and their interaction. Psychological Medicine, 41, 15071516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kepper, M.M., Staiano, A.E., Katzmarzyk, P.T., Reis, R.S., Eyler, A.A., Griffith, D.M., … Broyles, S.T. (2019). Neighborhood influences on women's parenting practices for adolescents’ outdoor play: A qualitative study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16, 3853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Khajehei, M. (2016). Parenting challenges and parents’ intimate relationships. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26, 447451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lam, C.-M., Kwong, W.-M., & To, S.-M. (2019). Has parenting changed over past decade? A qualitative study of generational shifts in parenting. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 9, 4247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, E., Clarkson-Hendrix, M., & Lee, Y. (2016). Parenting stress of grandparents and other kin as informal kinship caregivers: A mixed methods study. Children and Youth Services Review, 69, 2938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, L., & Wang, M. (2015). Parenting stress and harsh discipline in China: The moderating roles of marital satisfaction and parent gender. Child Abuse & Neglect, 43, 7382.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Micucci, J.A. (2009). The adolescent in family therapy: Harnessing the power of relationships. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Mncanca, M., Okeke, C.I.O., & Fletcher, R. (2016). Black fathers’ participation in early childhood development in South Africa: What do we know? Journal of Social Sciences, 46, 202213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nomaguchi, K., Brown, S., & Leyman, T.M. (2017). Fathers’ participation in parenting and maternal parenting stress: Variation by relationship status. Journal of Family Issues, 38, 11321156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osman, F., Flacking, R., Klingberg Allvin, M., & Schön, U.K. (2019). Qualitative study showed that a culturally tailored parenting programme improved the confidence and skills of Somali immigrants. Acta Paediatrica, 108, 14821490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parsa, O.A. (2016). Report of Iranian Statistics Centre. Tehran, Iran: Statistical Centre of Iran.Google Scholar
Parsa, P., Mirmohammadi, A., Khodakarami, B., Roshanaiee, G., & Soltani, F. (2016). Effects of breast self-examination consultation based on the health belief model on knowledge and performance of Iranian women aged over 40 years. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 17, 38493854.Google ScholarPubMed
Pereira, J., Vickers, K., Atkinson, L., Gonzalez, A., Wekerle, C., & Levitan, R. (2012). Parenting stress mediates between maternal maltreatment history and maternal sensitivity in a community sample. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36, 433437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qu, Y., Fuligni, A.J., Galvan, A., & Telzer, E.H. (2015). Buffering effect of positive parent–child relationships on adolescent risk taking: A longitudinal neuroimaging investigation. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 15, 2634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rioux, C., Castellanos-Ryan, N., Parent, S., & Séguin, J.R. (2016). The interaction between temperament and the family environment in adolescent substance use and externalizing behaviors: Support for diathesis–stress or differential susceptibility? Developmental Review, 40, 117150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodriguez-Jenkins, J., & Marcenko, M.O. (2014). Parenting stress among child welfare involved families: Differences by child placement. Children and Youth Services Review, 46, 1927.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, S.T., Crockett, L.J., & Chao, R.K. (2010). Introduction: Asian American parenting and parent-adolescent relationships. In Russell, S.T., Crockett, L.J., & Chao, R.K. (Eds.), Asian American Parenting and Parent-Adolescent Relationships (pp. 115). New York, NY: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, M.R., & Morawska, A. (2018). Handbook of parenting and child development across the lifespan. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, M.R., Turner, K.M., & Markie-Dadds, C. (2002). The development and dissemination of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program: A multilevel, evidence-based system of parenting and family support. Prevention Science, 3, 173189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Semmelroth, C. (2014). The anger habit in relationships. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.Google Scholar
Sheibani, S., Juhari, R., Mansour, M., Arshat, Z., & Looyeh, M.Y. (2018). Relationship between gender, family income, and parenting with positive well-being of Iranian adolescents in Malaysia. Social Work, 16, 190207.Google Scholar
Shek, D.T., & Sun, R.C. (2013). Development and evaluation of positive adolescent training through holistic social programs (PATHS). Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smetana, J., Crean, H.F., & Campione-Barr, N. (2005). Adolescents’ and parents’ changing conceptions of parental authority. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 108, 3146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, S.M., Doh, H.-S., Kim, M.J., Kim, S.J., Yun, K.B., & Kim, J.E. (2014). A phenomenological approach to experiences of young children's mothers on respected parents & respected children parent education program. Korean Journal of Childcare and Education, 10, 133158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stargel, L.E., Fauth, R.C., Goldberg, J.L., & Easterbrooks, M.A. (2020, 2020/05/01). Maternal Engagement in a Home Visiting Program as a Function of Fathers’ Formal and Informal Participation. Prevention Science, 21, 477486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Mourik, K., Crone, M., Pels, T., & Reis, R. (2016). Parents’ beliefs about the cause of parenting problems and relevance of parenting support: Understanding low participation of ethnic minority and low socioeconomic status families in the Netherlands. Children and Youth Services Review, 61, 345352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verhoeven, M., Junger, M., Van Aken, C., Deković, M., & Van Aken, M.A. (2007). Parenting during toddlerhood: Contributions of parental, contextual, and child characteristics. Journal of Family Issues, 28, 16631691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yardi, S., & Bruckman, A. (2011). Social and technical challenges in parenting teens’ social media use. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1978942.1979422CrossRefGoogle Scholar