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

Thomson, Rachel; Hadfield, Lucy; Kehily, Mary Jane and Sharpe, Sue (2012). Acting up and acting out: encountering children in a longitudinal study of mothering. Qualitative Research, 12(2) pp. 186–201.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794111421876

URL: http://qrj.sagepub.com/

Abstract

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 paper 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 paper 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.

Viewing alternatives

Download history

Metrics

Public Attention

Altmetrics from Altmetric

Number of Citations

Citations from Dimensions

Item Actions

Export

About