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Acting up and acting out: encountering children in a longitudinal study of mothering

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 11:22 authored by Rachel ThomsonRachel Thomson, Lucy Hadfield, Mary Jane Kehily, Sue Sharpe
Despite a proliferation of research exploring children’s lives and relationships over the past two decades, there is a notable absence of research which explores family relationships from the perspective of very young children (age 0–3). This article reports on data emerging from a study of new mothering with a particular focus on very young children’s active engagement with wider family narratives. The study employs a qualitative longitudinal design, and women have been followed from pregnancy into motherhood. Most recently we have attempted to document a ‘day in the life’ of the mothers using participant observation techniques. This approach has enabled us to capture the emergence of the child (around 2 years old). This article focuses on examples of interaction between researcher, mother and child relating to food, exploring how researcher subjectivity can be interrogated as a source of evidence regarding the place of the child within the research and family dynamic including examples of ‘acting up’ and ‘acting out’ on the part of all participants.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Qualitative Research

ISSN

1468-7941

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Issue

2

Volume

12

Page range

186-201

Department affiliated with

  • Social Work and Social Care Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-05-09

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