Meaning of narratives by mothers raising children and development of methods of support

2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 16592184
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Clinical nursing
• Research Institution: Osaka Prefecture University (2005); Osaka Prefectual College of Nursing (2004)
• Principal Investigator: KAWAMURA Chieko Osaka Prefecture University, Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Researcher honorary member, 看護大学医療技術短期大学部, 客員研究員 (20281272)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ISHIHARA Aya Osaka Prefecture University, School of Nursing, Assistant, 看護学部, 助手 (20290364) ; MORI Keiko Hirosaki University, Department of Health Science, School of Medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (30175632)
• Project Period (FY): 2004 – 2005
• Keywords: child-rearing stage / mother / midwife / narrative / childcare support

Research Abstract

This study aimed to clarify the details and meanings of narratives about experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare by mothers raising their children and to develop methods to support them by defining condition setting for narrative.
Four experienced midwives who had raised their own children participated in this study. They received training in interviewing techniques before the investigation. This study included 25 mothers, who gave informed consent to participate in this study. The mothers were raising children aged 9 months to 3 years.
Their narratives were often characterized by expression of various episodes associated with negative feelings rather than with pleasure. The meanings of narratives were analyzed qualitatively and inductively, and the following 6 categories were, extracted : "changes in beliefs and behaviors", "production of new meanings", "systematization", "renewal of feelings", "ensuring of places for narrative", and "sense of time". Assessment of effects of narrative based on both subjective evaluation by the mothers and objective evaluation by the midwives revealed that 13 mothers experienced "improvement" and 12 "no improvement". No mothers experienced "bad changes". One mother, who experienced marked improvement, exhibited successful behavior modification. Statistical analysis of conditions of narrative revealed that the interview at the mother's houses tended to take a longer time. The length of the interview influenced the effects of narrative. In addition, analysis of requests for childcare support extracted the following 4 categories : "request for childcare support to the government", "request for childcare support to supporting institutions", "increase in places in which mothers can leave their children", and "support to mothers themselves". These results indicated that narrative can reduce the sense of isolation of mothers and permit commitment to individuals, and that it is a useful method of supporting healthy mothers raising children in communities.