Browsing by Author "Sanner, Caroline"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Effective parenting in stepfamilies: Empirical evidence of what works
    Sanner, Caroline; Ganong, Lawrence; Coleman, Marilyn; Berkley, Steven (Wiley, 2022-05-16)
    Objective The purpose of this study was to examine research evidence about effective childrearing in stepfamilies (i.e., parenting practices that contribute to children's physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being). Background Stepfamilies are increasingly common. Studies show that children in stepfamilies tend to be at higher risk for negative outcomes than children in first-married biological-parent families. As research on stepfamilies has expanded, researchers have made strides in identifying parenting practices that promote positive outcomes for children in stepfamilies. Method We reviewed 37 studies that contained empirical evidence of effective parenting by biological or adoptive parents of children in stepfamilies. Results Researchers have identified numerous actions employed by parents that are linked to children's positive outcomes. Effective parenting practices fall broadly into five domains: (a) maintaining close parent-child bonds, (b) establishing appropriate parent-child communication boundaries, (c) exercising parental control, (d) supporting stepparent-stepchild relationship development, and (e) facilitating stepfamily cohesion. Conclusions Effective childrearing in stepfamilies involves carefully managing competing family needs, such as the need to balance shared family time with one-on-one parent-child time or the need to establish open parent-child communication boundaries in some areas but closed boundaries in others. Implications Parents have available to them a number of empirically supported action items linked to child well-being in stepfamilies.
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    I Had My Senior Year Taken From Me: Understanding Emerging Adults' Coping Strategies while Transitioning to College during the COVID-19 Pandemic
    Begley, Caroline (Virginia Tech, 2023-05-15)
    Times of transition are laden with ambiguity, and the move from high school to college has an additional component of role changes to add to this uncertainty. In the spring and summer of 2020, this transition was disrupted by the changes brought on by the pandemic, affecting social norms, routines, and overall mental health outcomes. For professionals such as counselors and advisors to be able to provide specialized support, it is important to understand emerging adults' experiences at this time and to identify factors that helped them cope with this transition. Understanding the development of coping strategies has direct implications for both therapy and clinical practice which can work together to provide a higher quality of care for the people affected by the stress of major life transitions. In this study, I used a mixed-methods design to understand the experience of emerging adults who graduated high school during the pandemic, and the relation between tolerance for ambiguity and coping strategies, resilience, and psychological impact.
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    Indian Wives of Incarcerated Men Tell Their Stories: An Intersectional Narrative Analysis of Disenfranchisement and Resilience
    Gupta, Shivangi (Virginia Tech, 2024-04-25)
    When a family member is incarcerated, the task of emotionally and financially supporting the remaining family members and the incarcerated loved one often falls upon women, who are likely to be under-resourced and overwhelmed. Women whose husbands are incarcerated in India are likely to possess multiple marginalized identities, increasing their vulnerability to intersecting forms of oppression. Empirical research is lacking on wives of incarcerated men in India, contributing to their invisibility in policy-making and programmatic interventions. Guided by intersectional feminism and symbolic interactionism, the purpose of this study was to document the stories of women who had experienced spousal incarceration in the Indian context. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 wives of prison inmates who resided in or around the National Capital Territory of Delhi, all of whom either held a lower caste identity or a Muslim religious identity. Transcribed interviews were analyzed following the steps of narrative analysis. Results illustrate the diversity of storied experiences of wives of incarcerated husbands in India. First, by grouping narratives that conveyed the same overall storyline into the same cluster, I identified three story clusters: Ambivalent but Hanging On, Unconditionally Devoted, and Independent and Disillusioned. Second, by attending to how women's day-to-day lives are shaped by intersecting systems of privilege and oppression, particularly those tied to gender and class, I identified three overarching themes that spanned women's narratives: (a) a complicated relationship with patriarchy, (b) the weight of socioeconomic disenfranchisement, and (c) when resilience is not a choice. The results of this study emphasize the need to distinguish between feminist agency and welfare agency, to recognize women's experiences of ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief, and to critique the systemic injustices that forced women to be resilient. Documenting their stories is instrumental in bringing attention to the needs, challenges, and triumphs of this underserved and overlooked population.
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    Intentional Mothering: A Black Feminist-Informed Thematic Analysis of How Black Queer Mothers Engage in Motherwork, Navigate Informal Support, and Access Community Resources
    Cooke, Stephanie Cheyenne (Virginia Tech, 2023-05-16)
    Recent literature suggests that LGBTQ+ women of color are more likely to raise children or have children in the home compared to White LGBTQ+ women (Gates, 2013, 2015). Most of the LGBTQ+ motherhood research has focused narrowly on one domain of queer motherhood, lesbian mothers' experience of mothering (Bible et al., 2018) and centered on the experiences of White, middle-class, cisgender mothers (Brainer et al., 2020; Manley and Ross, 2020; Reczek, 2020). The interlocking nature of multiple marginalized identities places Black queer mothers at a unique intersection of oppression (Crenshaw, 1991). Exploring the complexity of lived experience among Black mothers who identify with a plurisexual identity (i.e., bi, queer, pan, or fluid; Galupo, 2018) provides family scientists and scholar-practitioners an opportunity to analyze the internal, relational, and institutional influences that reinforce or challenge racism, sexism, and homophobia. The present study sought to understand how Black queer mothers experience motherwork as queer mothers, how they build and navigate networks of support, and how they use community resources. The study was guided by intersectionality rooted within the theoretical framework of Black Feminist Thought, as well as an emphasis on motherwork as both a theoretical framework and a concept explored. Using reflexive thematic analysis, semi- structured interviews (Mtime = 79.63 minutes), photovoice submissions, and photovoice interviews (Mtime = 38.32 minutes) were conducted with 10 participants (8 of the 10 participants completed photovoice). Four key themes were identified (a) Attentiveness and Resistance to Discrimination (subtheme: Active Reflectivity in Parenting Strategies); (b) Promoting Openness of Self-Expression in Child(ren) (subtheme: Queer Identity Helps Foster Acceptance and Intentionality); (c) Negotiating Informal Support (three subthemes: Barriers to Support, Desiring Like-Minded Social Groups, and Boundaries in Close Relationships Are Critical); and (d) Emphasis on Finding the "Right" Environment to Meet Family Needs (subtheme: Utilizing Individual or Couples Therapy). Findings have implications for the family science literature by providing an in-depth, Black feminist understanding of how Black queer mothers engage in queer motherwork, navigate informal support, and strategically access community resources.
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    Let's Come Together: An Intersectionality-Informed Grounded Theory Analysis of How African American Daughters Navigate Family Relationships While Providing Care to a Parent with Alzheimer's Disease
    Scott-Poe, Deneisha S. (Virginia Tech, 2023-05-15)
    Alzheimer's disease impacts many older adults within the United States and African Americans are at a higher risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. Most of their care is provided by their adult daughters, who are often tasked with managing multiple care responsibilities within their families. Prior research has examined one aspect of the caregiving experience for African American caregivers but not how their intersecting identities impact their experiences. As such, this study served to contextualize and highlight the nuances of their caregiving experiences. Using Intersectionality Theory as a guiding theoretical framework, this qualitative study explored how African American adult daughter caregivers navigated their family relationships while caring for a parent with Alzheimer's disease. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-six African American adult daughters caring for a parent with Alzheimer's disease. Findings revealed that 1) families came together by collaborating on decisions, connecting as a family and speaking regularly, and directly assisting and helping the caregiver, 2) family ideology about African American women and care influenced what the family expected of caregivers and what caregivers expected of themselves, and 3) caregivers are under compounding amounts of stress related to general caregiving strain, time, and racism/discrimination. These findings provide a more contextualized and holistic depiction of African American caregivers and their families. Future research and practical implications are discussed.
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    Maternal Socialization and Anti-racism Mothering: A Grounded Theory
    Beers, Candy Lynn (Virginia Tech, 2023-05-19)
    White mothers have historically felt exempt from discussing race and racism with their children and have placed this added emotional labor onto mothers of color (Depouw and Matias, 2016; Priest et al., 2014). Budding anti-racism scholarship has begun to examine why well-intending white parents report an interest in engaging in anti-racism but fail to follow-through (Aanerud, 2007; Allen, 2017; Comeau, 2007; Depouw and Matias, 2016; Gillen-O'Neel et al., 2021; Hagerman, 2014, 2018; Matlock and DiAngelo, 2015; Priest et al., 2014; Vittrup, 2016; Zucker and Patterson, 2018). While this body of literature has highlighted important missteps and shortcomings of white families' engagement in anti-racism, examining how maternal socialization, within the current intensive mothering (IM) paradigm (Hays, 1996), informs the integration of anti-racism has yet to be considered. Guided by symbolic interactionism and feminist theories and methodology, this study functions to answer the following research questions: (1) How might, if at all, race, gender, and class socialization inform affluent white mothers' adoption of IM? (2) What is the process of affluent white mothers challenging or adopting IM to incorporate anti-racism into their maternal identity and mothering practices? and (3) What are the perceived barriers or motivators, if any, to affluent white mothers' integration of anti-racism within the current IM paradigm? Data from 18 semi-structured, virtual individual interviews with affluent white mothers, post-interview survey questions, and follow-up member checking interview questions derived from coded transcripts were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory. Findings indicate that affluent white mothers who endorse interest in engaging in anti-racism within the context of IM report several tensions within the process of integrating anti-racism into their existing maternal identity. Foundational to each of these tensions is internalized white supremacy and gender ideologies that surface in striving to excel at both IM and anti-racism. While tenets of IM (i.e., all-consuming; labor intensive) and white supremacy (i.e., perfectionism; bigger is better; either/or thinking) presented as perceived barriers toward integration of anti-racism into maternal identity, some tenets of IM (i.e., optimal child outcomes; professionally informed) were named as motivation for this sample to incorporate anti-racism into their maternal identity and daily practice. Aligning with optimal child outcomes and professionally-informed mothering, two points of intervention were named, creating space for the development and assessment of future interventions aimed to increase the presence of anti- racism within white mothering.
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    Narratives of Personal Health and Sexual Education of Emerging Adults with Disabilities
    Toman, Madelyn M. (Virginia Tech, 2023-09)
    Disabled communities’ sexualities have been historically oppressed. Currently in the Unites States, public school curricula do not include inclusive sexual education and students with disabilities are often left out of classrooms that discuss any amount of personal health and sexual education. Research on the disabled population is filled with samples of non-disabled individuals imposing their opinions for a population that they do not belong to. The purpose of this study was to understand how emerging adults with disabilities learned about personal health and sexuality. Individuals with varied disabilities were intentionally included to add breadth the research field. Narrative interviews captured individuals’ lived experiences. The final sample consisted of eight individuals (75% female, 87% white, mean age of 21.5). After analyzing interviews using thematic narrative analysis, four story types were generated. Findings highlighted the lack of formal supports and access to adequate, relevant information about sexuality for disabled communities, as well as informal sources of information, like families and media. Findings also emphasized people’s agency in seeking out information on their own, as well as variability in people’s readiness and use of information about sexuality. Individuals’ disability symptoms and personal characteristics need to be considered when crafting universally applicable personal health and sexuality education. There are also opportunities for theoretical integration of disabilities and sexuality research.
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    Studying stepfamilies, surfacing secrets: A reflection on the private motivations behind efforts to humanize family complexity
    Sanner, Caroline (Wiley, 2023-05)
    Feminist family scholars have long called for greater transparency of the partial perspectives embedded within family science. In this paper, I employ feminist reflexive autoethnography to unpack the private motivations that guide my research on family complexity. Using critical storytelling, I trace the personal developments that led to a research program on structurally complex families-families shaped and reshaped by divorce, separations, repartnerships, and remarriages. I explore my commitments to naming the invisible, embracing the messy, and ultimately, humanizing the complicated and meaningful emotions and relationships in families navigating structural changes. I draw upon personal, embodied experiences to theorize about issues and phenomena that have yet to be named in the (step)family scholarship. Finally, I invite others to heed the calls of feminist scholars whose work invites us to consider how private experiences can be leveraged to generate new insights into the complexities of family and social life.