Parenting has been found to be highly contextually and culturally determined and there have been calls to research parenting within culture as it is lived. Due to changing social and economic factors, middle-class South African mothers face unique challenges in relation to the navigation of culture and class in child-rearing. Foregrounding the complexity of acculturation, this paper uses social constructionist theory in the analysis of maternal narratives and responses to video-recordings of their interaction with their infants, of a group of middle-class South African mothers from various cultural and racial groups, with an aim to understanding how mothering is changing amongst middle-class South African mothers. The findings suggest that acculturation is complex and influenced by a combination of socioeconomic status, geographical location, contact with other cultural groups and personal emotional experiences of having been parented within a particular culture.
AdamsB. G.Van de VijverF. J.De BruinG. P. (2012). Identity in South Africa: Examining self-descriptions across ethnic groups. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36(3), 377–388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.11.008
2.
AdamsW. C. (2015). Conducting semi-structured interviews. In NewcomerE.HatryH. P.WholeyJ. S. (Eds.), Handbook of practical program evaluation (4th ed., pp. 492–505). Jossey Bass. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119171386.ch19
3.
AdhikariM. (2006). Hope, fear, shame, frustration: Continuity and change in the expression of coloured identity in white supremacist South Africa, 1910–1994. Journal of Southern African Studies, 32(3), 467–487. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070600829542
4.
AfọlayanF. S. (2004). Culture and customs of South Africa. Greenwood Publishing Group.
5.
BerryJ. B. (2019, May). 15 Cross-cultural psychology: An ecocultural approach. In Progress in psychological science around the world. Volume 2: Social and applied issues: Proceedings of the 28th international congress of psychology. Routledge.
BornsteinM. H. (2019). Some metatheoretical issues in culture, parenting, and developmental science. In JingQ.RosenzweigM. R.d’YdewalleG.ZhangH.CheH.ZhangK. (Eds.), Progress in psychological science around the world: Social and applied issues (pp. 245–260). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315793184-16
9.
BornsteinM. H.LansfordJ. E. (2010). Parenting. In BornsteinM. H. (Ed.), The handbook of cross-cultural developmental science. (pp. 259–277). Taylor & Francis.
10.
BraunV.ClarkeV. (2022). Conceptual and design thinking for thematic analysis. Qualitative Psychology, 9(1), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000196
CollC. G.MagnusonK. (2000). Cultural differences as sources of developmental vulnerabilities and resources. In ShonkoffJ. P.MeiselsS. J., (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood intervention (2nd ed., pp. 94–114). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511529320.007
13.
Combs-OrmeT.RenkertL. E.2009. Fathers and their infants: Caregiving and affection in the modern family. Journal of Human Behaviour in the Social Environment, 19(4), 394–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911350902790753
14.
CrombyJ.NightingaleD. J. (1999). What’s wrong with social constructionism. In Social constructionist psychology: A critical analysis of theory and practice (pp. 1–19). UK: McGraw-Hill Education.
15.
DawsonN. (2022). Contextual ghosts in the nursery: Systemic influences on sensitive maternal responsiveness in a low to middle income country. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 29(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228878.2021.1878044
16.
DawsonN.BainK. (2021). What watching others watching can tell us: Using video vignettes alongside narrative interviews to access multiple positions and embodied information in cross-cultural mother-infant research. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 19(4), 949–977. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2021.1966559
17.
DawsonN.BainK.MesmanJ. (2021). Observing maternal sensitivity in a South African township: An exploratory study into behavioral features using different measures. Attachment & Human Development, 23(2), 150–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2020.1828531
18.
De CarliP.TaginiA.SarracinoD.SantonaA.BonaldaV.CesariP. E.ParolinL. (2018). Like grandparents, like parents: Empirical evidence and psychoanalytic thinking on the transmission of parenting styles. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 82(1), 46–70. https://doi.org/10.1521/bumc_2017_81_11
19.
DeJonckheereM.VaughnL. M. (2019). Semistructured interviewing in primary care research: A balance of relationship and rigour. Family medicine and community health, 7(2), e000057. https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2018-000057
20.
EatonL.LouwJ. (2000). Culture and self in South Africa: Individualism-collectivism predictions. The Journal of Social Psychology, 140(2), 210–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224540009600461
FlanaganN.TraversA.VallièresF.HansenM.HalpinR.SheafG.RottmannA. T. (2020). Crossing borders: A systematic review identifying potential mechanisms of intergenerational trauma transmission in asylum-seeking and refugee families. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1790283. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1790283
23.
FrizelleK.HayesG. (1999). Experiences of motherhood: Challenging ideals. Psychology in society, 25(1), 17–36.
24.
FrizelleK.KellG. (2010). A contextual account of motherhood. Psychology in Society, 39, 26–44.
25.
HermansH. J.KempenH. J. (1998). Moving cultures: The perilous problems of cultural dichotomies in a globalizing society. American Psychologist, 53(10), 1111. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.53.10.1111
26.
HuijbregtsS. K.TavecchioL.LesemanP.HoffenaarP. (2009). Child rearing in a group setting: Beliefs of Dutch, Caribbean Dutch, and Mediterranean Dutch caregivers in center-based child care. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40(5), 797–815. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022109338623
27.
IqaniM. (2017). A new class for a new South Africa? The discursive construction of the ‘black middle class’ in post-apartheid media. Journal of Consumer Culture, 17(1), 105–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540515586865
28.
KellerH. (2015). Attachment and culture. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(2), 175–194.
29.
KellerH. (2018). Universality claim of attachment theory: Children’s socioemotional development across cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(45), 11414–11419. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1720325115
30.
KennedyH.BallK.BarlowJ. (2017). How does video interaction guidance contribute to infant and parental mental health and well-being?Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 22(3), 500–517. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104517704026
31.
KerrD. C.CapaldiD. M. (2019). Intergenerational transmission of parenting. In Handbook of parenting (pp. 443–481). Taylor&Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429433214-13
32.
KrigeD. (2015). ‘Growing up’and ‘moving up’: Metaphors that legitimise upward social mobility in Soweto. Development Southern Africa, 32(1), 104–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2014.975337
33.
LatoufN.DunnM. (2010). Parenting styles affecting the social behaviour of five-year olds. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 20(1), 109–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2010.10820350
34.
LongC.ZietkiewiczE. (2006). Going places’: Black women negotiating race and gender in post-apartheid South Africa. The gender of psychology, 198–218.
35.
LouwD.LouwA.KailR.2014. Basic concepts of child and adolescent development. In LouwD.LouwA. C. (Ed.), Adolescent development (2nd ed.). Psychological Publications.
36.
MagwazaT. (2003). Perceptions and experiences of motherhood: A study of black and white mothers of Durban, South Africa. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, (4).
37.
MaqubelaL. N. (2016a). Changing motherhood and the shifting social networks-of-care within black families in the post-apartheid South Africa. Gender and Behaviour, 14(2), 7225–7234.
38.
MaqubelaL. N. (2016b). Mothering the ‘other’: The sacrificial nature of paid domestic work within black families in the post-apartheid South Africa. Gender and Behaviour, 14(2), 7214–7224.
39.
MdluliP.DungaS. (2022). Determinants of poverty in South Africa using the 2018 general household survey data. Journal of Poverty, 26(3), 197–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/10875549.2021.1910100
40.
MesmanJ.Van IjzendoornM.BehrensK.CarbonellO. A.CárcamoR.Cohen-ParairaI.ZreikG. (2016). Is the ideal mother a sensitive mother? Beliefs about early childhood parenting in mothers across the globe. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 40(5), 385–397. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025415594030
41.
MooreE. (2013). Transmission and change in South African motherhood: Black mothers in three-generational Cape town families. Journal of Southern African Studies, 39(1), 151–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2013.764713
42.
MpofuE. (2002). Psychology in sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges, prospects and promises. International Journal of Psychology, 37(3), 179–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590244000061
43.
NieuwenhuisJ. (2020). Qualitative research designs and data gathering techniques. In MareeK. (Ed.), First steps in research. (3rd ed., pp. 79–116). Van Schaik Publishers.
PolekE. (2007). Attachment in cultural context.Grafex.
46.
RomanN. (2013). Parenting in a rainbow nation: A South African perspective on parenting. In SelinH. (Ed.), Parenting across cultures: Child-rearing, motherhood and fatherhood in non-western cultures. (pp. 213–229). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7503-9_16
47.
RomanN. V.MakwakwaT.LacanteM. (2016). Perceptions of parenting styles in South Africa: The effects of gender and ethnicity. Cogent Psychology, 3(1), 1153231. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2016.1153231
48.
RussellM. (2003). Are urban black families nuclear? A comparative study of black and white South African family norms. Social Dynamics, 29(2), 153–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950308628679
49.
SeekingsJ.NattrassN. (2008). Class, race, and inequality in South Africa. Yale University Press.
50.
SeptemberS. J.RichE. G.RomanN. V. (2016) The role of parenting styles and socio-economic status in parents’ knowledge of child development, Early Child Development and Care, 186(7), 1060–1078. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2015.1076399
51.
ShaiD.DollbergD.SzepsenwolO. (2017). The importance of parental verbal and embodied mentalizing in shaping parental experiences of stress and coparenting. Infant Behavior and Development, 49(Nov 1), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2017.08.003
52.
SouthallR. (2016). The new black middle-class in South Africa. Jacana.
53.
SpjeldnæsI. O. (2021). Mothering in socioeconomically marginalised communities in South Africa: A conceptual development. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 31(4), 406–415.
ThabedeD. (2008). The African worldview as the basis of practice in the helping professions. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 44(3), 233–237.
56.
TrimikliniotisN.GordonS.ZondoB. (2008). Globalisation and migrant labour in a ‘rainbow nation': A fortress South Africa?Third World Quarterly, 29(7), 1323–1339. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590802386476
57.
VaillancourtK.PawlbyS.FearonR. P. (2017). History of childhood abuse and mother–infant interaction: A systematic review of observational studies. Infant Mental Health Journal, 38(2), 226–248. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21634
58.
Van den BergW.MakushaT.RateleK. (Eds.). (2021). State of South Africa’s fathers 2021. Stellenbosch: Sonke Gender Justice, Human Sciences Research Council, & Stellenbosch University.
59.
van IJzendoornM. H.Bakermans-KranenburgM. J.Sagi-SchwartzA. (2006). Attachment across diverse sociocultural contexts: The limits of universality. In RubinK. H.ChungO. B. (Eds.), Parenting beliefs, behaviors, and parent–child relations: A cross-cultural perspective (pp. 107–142). Psychology Press.
60.
WalkerC. (1995). Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth century South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 21(3), 417–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057079508708455
61.
YamanA.MesmanJ.van IJzendoornM. H.Bakermans-KranenburgM. J.LintingM. (2010). Parenting in an individualistic culture with a collectivistic cultural background: The case of Turkish immigrant families with toddlers in The Netherlands. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19(5), 617–628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-009-9346-y
62.
YinR. K. (2014). Case study research design and methods (5th ed.). Sage.
