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    European Journal ofPsychology ofEducation2005. Vol.Xx. ,,2. 107-119 2005. I.S.P.A.

    Mothering young children:Child care, stress and social lifeGiuseppina RulloTullia MusattiInstitute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National ResearchCouncil (CNR), Italy

    This study focuses on mothers' and young children's everydaysocial experience by analyzing their social relationships, social supportin child care, mother-child interaction, and mothers' evaluations ofallthese aspects. Three hundred and eighty-four mothers with a child agedbetween 1 and 3 years, living in a city in Central Italy, were interviewed.A Principal Components Analysis was performed on items concerningmothers' and children's social experience and mothers' evaluations.Four PCA generated factors were regressed on the mother's andchild's characteristics. Results show that, even in a contextcharacterized by social conditions supportive to mothering, there is acomparatively widespread desire for social interaction with othermothers and children. A stress related to intensive mothering was foundin a minority of the mothers and was predicted by the mothers'continuous commitment in child care during the whole day. Results arediscussed in relation to the hypothesis that social contacts with othermothers may have a mitigating effect on mothers' stress. Oneimplication is that early educational services that provide theopportunity for social intercourse among parents can be an importantresourcefor them.

    Analysis of parental activities and experiences in the child's first years of life hasrecently been urged. Demo and Cox (2000) pointed out that more recent work on families withyoung children has focused more on children's development and their adjustment than on theexperience ofparenthood and parents' adjustment.The role of parents' social networks in determining their competence in parenting hasbeen extensively investigated. In a seminal study Cochran and Brassard (1979) suggestedthree major ways in which parents ' social networks affect parenting behavior, i.e., the

    Research support for this project was provided by the National Research Council, Italy and the City of Terni. Theauthors wish to thank Isabella Di Giandomenico, Rosaria Moscatelli, and the interviewers for their generous help in datacollection and Simone Borra for his helpful comment on data analysis. A previous version of this article was presentedat the Xith European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Milan, August 2003.

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    108 G. RULLO & T. MUSATTI

    exchange of emotional and material assistance, the provision of child-rearing controls, and theavailability of parent role models. According to these authors, parents that have exchangeswith several social networks a-d are exposed to a wider range of parenting models are morecompetent and effective in their own role. These results were confirmed recently by Marshall,Noonan, McCartney, Marx, and Keefe (2001) that pointed out the positive effects of both thequantity of social support received and the heterogeneity of social networks on parentingbehavior.Although parenthood is one of l ife's positive events in the life course, some distress ispotentially involved in all parenting during the early years of the child's life (Cowan &Cowan, 1995). Suggestions have been made that parents' distress can be reduced by socialinteraction and increased by social and psychological isolation. Belsky (1984) suggested thatsocial support is an important resource for mitigating parent's stress. In a further study, thesame author (Belsky, 1990) observed that the mitigating effect varies as a function of thematching of the support received with the support desired and the quality of the relationshipwith the support provider.The French psychoanalyst Francoise Dolto (1981) argued that parenting in socialisolation is an important source of stress. In particular the mothers, who mostly experienceintensive mothering in the child's first years, can be trapped within the exclusive attentionpaid to the child and their lives can be invaded by the anxiety generated by a protectivemothering. According to Dolto these material and psychological conditions can be identifiedas pre-pathological and pathogenic, attempting at the development of the mother-childrelationship. In 1979 Dolto set up a service that was aimed to prevent this risk by providingopportunities for social intercourse among parents and young children together, the MaisonVerte. This service has been developed in many French cities (Eme, 1993; Neyrand, 1995).Similar services, such as the Centers for Children and Parents, have also been created in manyItalian cities by local authorities in order to extend the range of early childhood educationalservices (Mantovani & Musatti, 1996). Service policy is based on the assumption that apositive social context could relieve the isolation of parents and exert a function of primaryprevention of distress in both children and their parents. A specif ic beneficial effect isattributed to social interaction among parents in the service. Interactions with persons thatshare the same intense life experience is considered to be potentially supportive for youngchildren's parents as it provides the opportunity to observe a variety of parenting models. Thepositive effect is believed to be enhanced by the fact that it is not necessary to establish such acontinuous and committed relationship with other parents as with one's partner, relatives, orfriends, and that social contacts among parents are provided in a specific social context.Although these assumptions were validated indirectly by the success of the services in all sitesin the last decade, specific investigations of the everyday social life experienced by youngchildren's parents and their evaluations of social interactions with other parents are still needed.

    The present study was carried out in cooperation with the local authorities of an Italiancity that were planning to open a Center for Children and Parents. The aim was to investigatethe everyday social experience of mothers with young children in the city and to identify theemergence of distress due to intensive mothering as well as mothers' needs for social contactswith other mothers and children. The medium-sized city in which the study was carried out isa socially and culturally homogeneous urban context with few social conflicts, substantial daycare provision, and active extended family networks as well as stable social networks.Arendell (2000) claimed for more realistic portrayals of mothers' lives and a descriptionof the phenomenology of mothering on the basis of the analysis of the lives and opinions ofdiverse groups of mothers. In this perspective, this study aims to analyze the social life ofmothers and their children as described and evaluated by the mothers themselves. The mothers'evaluations are analyzed in order to investigate whether unsatisfied needs and elements ofstress emerge in a context characterized by social conditions apparently supportive tomothering such as the context under examination.The study was focused on mothers with children in the second and third year of life. Inthis period, mothers have to cope with major changes in their parenting function. This is a

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    MOTHERING YOUNG CHILDREN 109

    crucial period for mothering, given that the mother-child dyad, which is usually characterizedby an almost exclusive relationship during the first year, has now to open up to the widersocial world. In this period, the preceding child care organization often has to be modified, asthe mother has to cope with the toddler's new demands and all working mothers have goneback to their job because maternity leave is definitively over. Above all, the child is acquiringgreater autonomy vis-a-vis the social world (use of verbal communication, new socialcompetence) and the management of this autonomy poses new challenges to the parentingfunction.The present study focuses mainly on mothers' and young children's shared socialinteractions and activities. Support in child care received by mothers has been consideredseparately from social interactions within the extended family and friendship networks.Mothers' actual and desired interactions with other mothers of young children have beenconsidered specifically.This study also analyzes whether the mother's and child's experience and the mother'sevaluations are predicted by the mother's and the child's characteristics, such as mother's ageand education, and child's age and sex. Special attention is paid to two further conditions, fulltime mothering and being an only child. It has been hypothesized that continuous commitmentin child care by full-time mothers could affect both the social experience that mother and childshare during their daily routine and the mother's desires and evaluations. Similarly, the firstexperience of mothering, together with the only child's lack of contact with other children,could induce mothers to engage in more frequent social contacts.Before illustrating methods and findings, a picture ofmothering young children in Italy issketched out in the following.

    Mothers ofyoung children in ItalyIn the last 30 years Italian families have undergone important changes. The dramatic drop

    occurring in birthrate has modified family structure from large extended families to nuclearfamilies composed of parents and one or two children with more tenuous links within avertical family network (Bimbi, 1992). In comparison to other European countries, Italy hasone of the lowest fertility rates (Crisci, Fasano, & Gesano, 2002). The drop in the birthrate,together with a relatively significant age gap between births, has a special effect on under 3s.Findings from a national survey show that the majority of these children (53.3%) are found tobe only children and are mostly born to mothers over the age of thirty, inside marriage, andafter the couple has achieved a certain degree of economic stability (Musatti, 2000). Women'seducational level has increased considerably as has the percentage of women who work. In1990, 40% ofmothers with children under age 3 were found to work, a percentage comparableto the European Union average (EC Childcare Network, 1990).However, important differences can be found among regional areas. In the CentralNorthern regions over 50% of mothers of under 3s were found to work (Musatti, 1992). Acertain number of working mothers (18%) have access to early childhood education and careservices provided by local governments. Many of them still receive extensive help in childcare from grandmothers (38%), although grandmothers' childcare is provided only during themothers' working hours (Musatti & D'Amico, 1996). However, grandmothers no longerrepresent a reference model of children's education for the parents and their involvement maybring with it relational tensions (Budini Gattai & Musatti, 1999; Picchio & Musatti, 2001).Although a certain number of non working mothers enroll their child in a daycare center, thevast majority of them care for their child full-time and spend many hours a day alone withher/him (73% for >8 hours) (Musatti, 1992).The Umbria region, where the city in which this study was carried out is situated,occupies an intermediate position among the Italian regions both geographically and withreference to demographic and sociocultural indicators relevant to this study (IRRES, 1995),including the percentage of children attending a day care center. Significantly, this region, likethe other Central Italian regions, is characterized by particularly act ive extended family

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    110 G. RULLO & T. MUSATTI

    networks (ISTAT, 2000; Montesperelli & Carlone, 2003; Romano & Cappadozzi, 2002), evenwith regard to grandparents' support in child care (Musatti & Pasquale, 2001), as well as by ahigh residential stability and comparatively stable social networks.

    Methods

    SampleThree hundred and eighty-four mothers with a child aged between 1 and 3 years living inthe city of Terni, Italy, were interviewed. The sample represented 34.5% of all mothers withchildren in this age range in the city. Terni is an industrial city and one of the two largest citiesin the Umbria region with a population of about 104,000 inhabitants. The local governmentprovides 8 day care centers that can accommodate 17% of the under 3s.

    ProceduresAs the use of a municipal day care center can affect the mothers' and children's socialcontacts with other mothers and children, the sample was stratified according to the mothers'use of a municipal day care center for their child. Participants were randomly selected fromtwo separate lists, one including the mothers whose children did not attend a municipal daycare (non-users) and the other the mothers whose children attended a municipal day carecenter (users). Three hundred and eighteen non-user mothers and 66 user mothers (17% of thesample) made up the resulting sample of384 mothers.The mothers were interviewed by t elephone during the Winter 2000 by seveninterviewers, who had previously undergone in intensive training. On average, the interviewlasted 20 minutes. The questionnaire was designed to meet the needs of this specific study. Inparticular, response recency effects that can be frequent in the telephone interviews (Schwarz,Strack, Hippler, & Bishop, 1991) were controlled by reducing the number of response choices

    and arranging them in inverse order with respect to the ir expec ted f requency. Thequestionnaire was composed by 60 questions concerning the following topics.Children's. parents', and grandparents' characteristics. The children's gender and age,number of siblings, father's and mother's age, their birthplace, education (ranking fromI=basic school to 5=university degree, according to the Italian educational system),employment status, number of living grandparents and their age, and the distance betweengrandparents' homes and the child's.Child care choice. The mother's involvement in daily child care was assessed by askingif the respondent cared for her child full-time during the working day or had her child caredfor by another person (grandparents, other relatives, a babysitter) or in a day care center. Itwas also asked if, outside working hours and the time spent at the day care center, the motherwas the child's main caregiver and if she had access to help from another person.Support in child care and satisfaction with child care choice. Mother's satisfaction withthe child care choice was measured by the item "On the whole, how satisfied are you with thechild care solution adopted?". The support received, outside working hours, was measured by

    the item "How often do you leave your child with someone else?" and the support desired bythe item "Would you like to leave your child with someone else more often?". The responseformat ranged from low to high continuum on a 4-point continuum. Father's support in childcare was measured by the item "How often does the father care for the child on his own?".The response format ranged from I=rarely or never to 5=everyday, with 3=onlyat weekends.

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    MOTHERING YOUNGCHILDREN 111

    Mother-child interaction. Three particularly significant aspects of mothers' dailyinteraction with the child were identified by asking respondents their perceived frequency oflong exclusive interactions with the children ("How often are you alone for a long period withyour child, without any other adults?"), their evaluation of these interactions ("Do you find ithard to be alone with your child for a long time?"), and their perception of time available forplaying with the children ("When at home how often do you find time for playing with yourchild?"). The response format ranged from I=notat all to 4=verymuch/often. .

    Mother's and child's social interactions. Two items, the frequency of visits made andreceived, measured the frequency of social interaction between the mother-child dyad andgrandparents/relatives. They were then combined into a single item. Interactions with friendsweremeasured in a similar way. The frequency of relationships of the mother-child dyad withthe father was also measured. The response format ranged from 1=rarely or never to 5=everyday.Social contacts with peers. The frequency of interaction between the child and other

    young children when accompanied by her/his own mother and the frequency of meetingsamong mothers were measured separately by two items. Their response format ranged fromI=rarely or never to 5=every day. The desire for more frequent interactions with peers, bothchildren and mothers, was also measured by the items "Would you like your child to meetother young children more often?" and "Would you like to meet other mothers more often?".The importance attributed to peer interaction was identified by items that tested respondentsconcerning their values ("How important is it for you that your child spend time with peers?"and "How strongly do you feel the need to meet other mothers of young children?"). Theresponse format for these items ranged from I=notat all to 4=verymuch.

    ResultsChildren's and families' characteristicsThe main children's and families' characteristics are illustrated in Table 1.

    Table 1Children's, parents' and grandparents' characteristics: Descriptive statistics (n=384)Variables M SD RangeNumberof children 1.63 .71 1-4Child's age 23.41 5.24 13-34(months)Mother'sage 32.92 4.11 21-49Father'sage 35.60 4.89 25-64Mother'seducation- 2.88 1.29 1-5Father'seducation- 2.76 1.34 1-5Numberof livinggrandparents'' 3.43 .77 0-4Grandmothers' age 61.50 6.86 40-84Grandfathers' age 64.32 6.67 42-84Note. aparent's education: l=basic school to 5=university degree, bNumber of livinggrandparents: O=none to 4=all

    fourgrandparents.

    The sample of 384 children, with reference to which the mothers were interviewed, wereagedfrom 13 to 34 months and balanced for gender (53%males and 47% females). Almost all

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    112 G. RULLO & T. MUSATTI

    families were intact families (97%) with a very low number of children. The parent coupleswere mainly composed of over 30s. Their average educational level was medium-high.Practically all the fathers were employed (99%) and more than half of the mothers worked(53%). Extended stable family networks were found. The majority of fathers (78%) andmothers (73%) were born in the city or its surroundings. For most of the children at least threeof the grandparents were still alive, in their sixties. A large number of grandparents (36%)lived a short distance from the child, either in the same building or within walking distance,and most of them lived in Terni (86%).

    Mother's involvement in child care. During their own working hours, working mothers(n=204) had their child cared for by grandparents or a relative (43.3%), or a babysitter in theirown home (11.3%), or in a day care center, either municipal (24.1%) or private (13.8%). Mostof non-employed mothers (n=180) cared for their child full-time (86.7%), but a small group ofthem enrolled their child in a day care center (municipal: 8.9%, private: 4.4%).In sum, almost all mothers (93.5%) cared for their child during their non working hoursor during those not spent in a day care center and an important group ofmothers (40.7%), whowere non-employed and did not use a day care center, cared for their child full-time. However,in case of need, the mothers had access to help from a grandparent (37.0%), another relative(3.9%), the child's father (5.7%) or a babysitter (3.6%).

    Mothers' and children's social experienceSocial experience of the mother with her child was investigated by 16 items concerningmothers' reports of activities and evaluations. In Table 2 means and standard deviations forthese items are given.

    Table 2Mothers' and children's social experience: Descriptive statistics (n=384)Variables M SD RangeMother-child interactionMother/child longexclusive interactions 3.25 0.84 1-4Timeavailable forplayingwithchild 3.29 0.68 1-4Findinghardlongexclusive interactions 1.42 0.76 1-4Support inchild careSupportreceivedby themother 2.29 0.85 1-4Supportdesiredbythemother 1.61 0.86 1-4Father'ssupportinchildcare 3.06 1.45 1-5Satisfaction withthe caresolution 3.36 0.70 1-4Social interactionsFather/child/mother interactions 4.30 0.96 1-5Mother-child/grandparents interactions 3.64 1.35 1-5Mother-child/friends interactions 3.04 1.49 1-5Social contacts with peersChild/other children interactions 3.46 1.27 1-5Mother/othermothersinteractions 2.95 1.47 1-5Desirefor interactions withchildren 2.91 1.01 1-4Desirefor interactions withmothers 2.46 1.00 1-4Valueof interactions withchildren 3.83 0.43 1-4Valueof interactions withmothers 2.74 0.86 1-4

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    MOTHERINGYOUNG CHILDREN 113

    The analysis of these data shows four main findings:- The mothers claimed that they often spent long periods alone with the child. However,on average, they did not consider the lengthy interaction periods as a great burden anddid not report great difficulties in reconciling play time with other aspects of child care.The mothers were found to be highly satisfied with the child care solution adopted.Although they did not report a high level of received child care support, only aminority of them felt the desire to have more support.The mother-child dyads were involved in active social networks, within the extendedfamily and, to a lesser degree, with friends. Also triadic interactions among mother,child and father were frequent.Children's interactions with their peers were found to be frequent, as were mothers'interactions with other mothers, although to a lesser degree. The mothers were foundto attach considerable importance to both these interactions, particularly to interactionsamong children.

    A principal components analysis (PCA) was carried out on these items in order toidentify the relations among them. The item on the value attributed to interactions amongchildren whose distribution was profoundly skewed was excluded. Five factors, which allowed55.4% of the total variance to be explained, were selected on the basis of the graphical screetest and Kaiser's criterion (Bryman & Cramer, 2001). An orthogonal rotation was carried outusing the Varimax method.Table 3 presents the factor loadings, eigenvalues, and % of explained variance for each ofthe orthogonally rotated factors. The meaning of the factors was determined on the basis offactor loadings over .40.

    Table 3Principal components analysis results for mothers' and children's social experience (n=384)Factorloadings

    Item Factor I Factor2 Factor3 Factor4 Factor5Mother/other mothersinteractions .75 -.07 .06 .01 -.00Child/other childreninteractions .74 -.09 .04 .05 .09Mother-child/friends interactions .68 -.03 -.00 .06 .06Mother-child/grandparents interactions .48 .27 -.26 -.29 -.02Desire for interactions withmothers -.17 .84 .11 -.08 .05Valueof interactionswithmothers .25 .73 .07 .12 -.00Desire for interactions withchildren -.29 .64 .21 .02 .03Support desiredby themother .08 .15 .77 .03 -.11Finding hard longinteractions .03 .03 .73 .07 .IISatisfaction withthe caresolution .II -.11 -.62 .08 .05Timeavailable for playingwith child .27 .15 -.13 .65 .01Mother/child long interactions .03 .08 .26 .59 -.22Support received by themother .16 .13 .06 -.59 -.10Father/child/mother interactions .07 -.13 -.04 -.26 .77Father'ssupportin childcare .09 .24 .01 .26 .71Eigenvalues 2.36 2.08 1.48 1.29 I.IO%ofvariance 14.09% 12.53% 11.59% 9.27% 7.96%Note. Factor loadings over.40appearinbold.

    Factor 1, which accounted for 14.1% of total variance, represents "mothers' andchildren's diversified social life" outside and within the extended family. It was determined by

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    114 G. RULLO & T. MUSATII

    the items on the social interaction among mothers and the interaction of the child with her/hispeers, which had the highest loadings, and by the item on interactions with friends. Socialinteraction with grandparents/relatives contributed to the factor to a lesser degree. Triadicinteractions among father, mother and child made no significant contribution to the factor.Factor 2, which explained 12.5% of total variance, represents "the mothers' demand forsocial contact with peers". It was determined by the desire for more social contacts with othermothers, by the importance attributed to them, and by the desire for one's own child to havegreater social interaction with her/his peers.Factor 3, which explained 11.6% of total variance, can be interpreted as "stress in childcare". It was determined by the items on the desire to have more support in child care, thedifficulty experienced by mothers when alone with the child for long periods of time, andsatisfaction with the form of child care adopted, which correlated inversely with the formeritems. Mothers' stress was not related to the time shared by the mother with her child, whichmade no significant contribution to Factor 3.Factor 4, which explained 9.3% of total variance, represents "the quality and quantity ofshared time between mother and child". It was determined by the ease of the mother in findingtime to play with the child and the time spent by the mother with her child in long exclusiveinteractions, which correlate inversely with the frequency of the child's being cared for byother persons.Factor 5, which explained 8.0% of total variance, was determined by both the itemsmentioning the time the father spent with the child, on his own and together with the mother.It represents "the father's presence in the mother's and child's daily life" as an independentcomponent of the mother's and child's social world.

    Do the characteristics ofthe mother and the child affect their social experience?

    In order to verify whether any characteristic of the mothers and children can predict theiractual social experience and desires, multiple regression analyses using the stepwise methodwere conducted for each of the five peA generated factors. The child's characteristicsconsidered were age, gender, and the number of siblings expressed as a dichotomous variablecomposed of (a) no siblings and (b) one or more siblings. For the mothers the variablesconsidered were age, educational level, and mother's involvement in child care throughout theday. The latter was constructed as a dichotomous variable composed of (a) non full-timemothers, including all working mothers and the group of non working mothers using a daycare center and (b) full-time mothers at home, that is, non working mothers not using any daycare center. The final models are shown in Table 4. All the terms that were non significant atp

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    MOTHERING YOUNG CHILDREN liS

    Table4Summary a/regression analyses: Mother's and child's characteristics as predictors a/socialexperience (standardized beta coefficients) (n=384)

    Mother'sinvolvement in childcareMother'seducationMother'sageNumber of siblingsChild'sageChild'sgenderAdjustedR2FNote. "p

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    116 G. RULLO & T. MUSATTI

    could be composed into a single factor, a social need specific to early mothering. As this needwas found not to be related either to the quantity of social interaction the mothers wereengaged in and the expression of stress due to intensive mothering, we can argue that it doesnot seem to stem from social isolation. What mothers look for does not seem to be support incoping with child care, which can be ensured by their family, but a social exchange withpersons that are having the same life experience. Multiple regression analyses showed that theneed for a specific social experience with other mothers and children is not predicted bymaternal characteristics but it is overspread among the mothers. In particular, no differencesemerged between full-time mothers and those who were not involved in child care for thewhole of their day. This need is predicted to a slight extent by the only child status. In theabsence of siblings and at their first experience ofmothering, mothers appear to feel a greaterneed to favor their children's contacts and to share their own experience.The other major issue concerns mothers' distress with chi ld care. Al though all themothers, employed and non-employed, were found to spend long periods of time alone withtheir child, the perception of fatigue due to spending a long time with the child and the desireto entrust herlhim more frequently to the care of others were found only to a limited extent, aswell as dissatisfaction with the child care form adopted. However, principal componentsanalysis showed that these variables were interrelated and summarized by Factor 3, whichseems to indicate a difficulty experienced by some mothers in coping with an intensivecommitment in child care. Multiple regression analyses actually showed that this difficulty ispredicted by full- time mothering, which impl ies a continuous chi ld care commitmentthroughout the whole day. The finding that full-time mothering predicts both more frequentsocial interactions and more stress may seem to contradict the postulated beneficial effects ofsocial interactions on mothers' stress. However, it is quite possible that these two aspectsemerge separately in different groups of full-time mothers. The stress was also found to bepredicted by mother's higher educational level, which probably involves greater expectationsof out of home dai ly experience and enhances mothers' dissatisfaction with exclusivecommitment to child care. Mothers' stress is predicted also by higher child's age, when thegreater fatigue accumulated by the mother over time, together with the child's greaterautonomy, challenges the mother's ability for intensive mothering. Conversely, higher child'sage, as well as only child status, can also favor quantity and quality of the time shared by thedyad, as expressed by Factor 4. This Factor 4 is found to be unaffected by any maternalcharacteristics. As it combines qualitative and quantitative aspects of mother-child sharedtime, this finding cannot be considered as contradicting previous studies indicating an effect ofthe mother's employment or education on the quality ofmother-child shared time (Bianchi &Robinson, 1997; Bryant & Zick, 1996).Overall, our findings point to several suggestions for future research and implications forsocial and educational policies. The desire to interact with other mothers of young children wasfound to be widespread even in a context in which the extended family and friendship networksare often active and to be independent of the actual frequency of social contacts experiencedby mothers with their child. Thus, the hypothesis that the opportunity to experience a varietyof social networks enhances parents' self-assurance in assuming their role (Marshall, Noonan,McCartney, Marx, & Keefe, 2001) appears to beconfirmed by these findings.We can further speculate that the mothers' demand to exchange experiences with peersstems from the desire to become and to feel more competent in parenting according to theexpectations and pressures that society exerts on all mothers. This desire can no longer besatisfied with the intergenerational exchange within the extended family and requires aprocess of discussion and re-assessment of the mothering experience that can be developed insocial intercourse with other mothers and their children. Future research should address thequestion of whether interaction with other mothers actually plays a role in making decisionsabout child care and education. 'Moreover, the significance that mothers attribute to children's social experience withtheir peers deserves more detailed investigation. Some years ago, Emiliani and Molinari(1988) reported that a sample of Italian mothers conceived their young children's social world

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    MOTHERING YOUNG CHILDREN 117

    as being essentially centered on relations with adults. Future research should address thequestion of whether, in the last few decades, mothers ' representations of their youngchildren's social experience have changed and, if so, whether this is possibly linked to theexpansionof early educational services in the country.Even in a context characterized by elements that are potentially supportive to motheringwe have found a certain amount of stress related to intensive mothering, which may beconsideredan indicator of potential risk for the mother-child relationship. The finding that thisstress is predicted by maternal characteristics, such as full-time mothering and a medium-higheducational level, indicates that the risk condition emerges from the interaction between themother's experience and her expectations concerning her daily life. Greater attention shouldbe focused in future research on the effects of mother's continuous commitment to child careon their mothering experience. Our findings, which illustrate several features peculiar tofull-time mothers vis-a-vis mothers who have to reconcile a job and child care and to thosewhoare not employed but make use of day care centers, suggest that the relationship betweenmother's employment, child care and mothering experience should be reappraised.Our findings show that social contacts among mothers, who are not necessarily involvedin any close relationships, could assume a specific and positive value and become significanton the basis of the life experience that mothers share. One significant implication of thesefindings is that early educational services that provide the opportunity for social intercourseamong parents can be an important resource for them. As Garey, Hansen, Hertz, andMcDonald (2002) claimed recently, policies for families should adapt the institutionalstructures to the changing cultural norms and to families' new demands. In this perspective,the significance of the everyday social experience that parents and young children share withyoungchildren should be definitively reappraised.

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    1STAT (2000). Rapporto sull'Italia. Edizione 2000. Bologna: IIMulino.Mantovani, S., & Musatti, T. (1996). New educational provisions for young children in Italy. European Journal of

    Psychology ofEducation, II , 119-128.Marshall, N.L., Noonan, A.E., McCartney, K., Marx, F., & Keefe, N. (2001). It takes an urban village: Parenting

    networks of urban families. Journal ofFamily Issues, 22, 163-182.Montesperelli, P., & Carlone, U. (2003) Primo rapporto sull'infanzia, I'adolescenza e /efamiglie in Umbria. Perugia:

    Regione dell'Umbria.Musatti, T. (1992). La giornata del mio bambino: Madri, /avoro e cura dei piu piccoli nella vita quotidiana. Bologna:

    IIMulino.Musatti, T. (2000). La petite enfance in Italie: Vie quotidienne et institutions educatives. In G. Brougere & S. Rayna

    (Eds.), Polit iques, pratiques et acteurs de / 'education prescolaire en Europe (pp. 407-43 I). Paris: INRPUniversite Paris Nord/Anthropos.

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    Musatti, T., & Pasquale, F. (2001). La cura dei bambini piccoli nei comuni di CiM di Castello e Gubbio. In L. Cipollone(Ed.), Cura de//'infanzia e uso dei servizi nellefamiglie con bambini da 0 a 3 anni (pp. 41-101). Perugia: Regionedell'Umbria.

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    survey measurement. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 5, 193-212.

    Cette etude est centree sur I'experience sociale des meres avecleurs petits enfants dans la vie quotidienne. On analyse leurs relationssociales, l'aide recu dans les soins de l'enfant, leurs interactions avecleur enfant ainsi que leurs evaluations de tous ces aspects. On ainterviewe 384 meres d'enfants ages entre 1 et 3 ans, residant dans uneville de l'Italie Centrale. Les resultats montrent que meme dans uncontexte social favorable on retrouve tres frequemment chez les meresIe desir d'interactions sociales avec d'autres meres et enfants. Onretrouve aussi chez une minorite de meres I'expression d'un certainstress concernant leur maternage intensif; ce stress pouvant etreattribue a leur engagement continu dans Ie soin de l'enfant pendant

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    MOTHERING YOUNG CHILDREN

    toute lajournee. On discute les resultats par rapport al'hypothese queles rapports sociaux avec d'autres meres de jeunes enfants puissentattenuer Ie stress des meres. Une consequence importante en serait queles services educatifs pour la petite enfance, qui offrent I'occasion auxparents de se retrouver entre eux, puissent constituer une ressourceimportante.

    Keywords:Child care, Early educational services, Mothering, Social life, Stress.

    119

    Received: July 2004Revision received: December 2004

    Giuseppina Rullo. Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council. ViaNomentana 56, 00161 Rome, Italy; E-mail: [email protected], Web site: www.istc.cnr.itCurrent theme ofresearch:Early educational services. Child care. Parents-adolescents relationships.

    Mostrelevant publications in the field ofPsychology ofEducation:Bonnes, M., Rullo, G. (1995). Percezioni, immagini, e mappe mentali della cilia nei bambini. Paesaggio Urbano. 34,

    26-29.Rullo,G. (1998). Valori, aspettative, emozioni degli adolescenti relative all'uscita dalla famiglia d'origine. In G. Dosi (Ed.),

    Lafamiglia: Trasformazioni, tendenze, interpretazioni (pp, 93-98). Roma: Centro Studi Giuridici sulla Persona.Rullo, G. (I 1999). II futuro anel presente: fattori psicologici e valori giovanili suI distacco dalla famiglia. Ricerca &

    Futuro. 12, 52-55.

    Tullia Musatti. Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, ViaNomentana 56, 00161 Rome, Italy; E-mail: [email protected], Web site: www.istc.cnr.itCurrent theme ofresearch:Early childhood education and care. Cognitive development. Peer interaction. Play.

    Most relevant publications in the field ofPsychology ofEducation:Baudelot, 0. , Rayna, S., Mayer, S., & Musatti, T. (2003). A comparative analysis of the function of coordination of

    early childhood education and care in France and Italy. Early Years Education. II, 105-116.Budini Gattai, F., & Musatti, T. (1999). Grandmothers' involvement in grandchildren's care. Attitudes, feelings, and

    emotions. Family Relations, 48, 35-42.Mantovani, S., & Musatti , T. (J996). New educational provisions for young children in Italy. European Journal of

    Psychology ofEducation, II , I 19-I28.Musatti, T. (J992). La giornata del mio bambino: Madri, lavoro e cura dei piu piccoli in Italia. Bologna: IIMulino.Musatti, T., & Mayer, S. (2001). Knowing and learning in an educational context: A study in the infant-toddler centers

    of the city of Pistoia. In L. Gandini & C. Pope Edwards (Eds.) Bambini: The Italian approach to infant/toddlercare (pp. 167-180). New York and London: Teachers College, Columbia University.


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