Class, Culture, and Motherhood: Women's Perceptions of Their Children in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Goldsteen, Karen Sullinger
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/72497
Description
Title
Class, Culture, and Motherhood: Women's Perceptions of Their Children in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Author(s)
Goldsteen, Karen Sullinger
Issue Date
1993
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Ross, Catherine E.
Department of Study
Community Health
Discipline
Community Health
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Health Sciences, Mental Health
Women's Studies
Sociology, Individual and Family Studies
Abstract
The subject of this research is how women feel about their children--how pleasurable and how burdensome they perceive their children to be. Although this is a relatively unstudied topic, a woman's perceptions of her children may affect her own well-being and that of her children. Therefore, it merits inquiry. The research is based on two surveys of women with children living at home--318 mothers from the State of Sa Paulo, Brazil and 549 women from the Chicago metropolitan area of the United States. The research model proposed that a woman's social class and cultural affiliation affect her perceptions of her children and her own well-being by regulating the objective conditions of her life and her perceptions of those conditions. The model was estimated using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The findings suggest that cultural values, beliefs, and traditions influenced the Brazilian and U.S. women's perceptions of their children, especially by providing meaning to their social relations. Social class differences were interpretable only within the overall cultural framework. There was no evidence that a Brazilian woman's well-being was affected by her attitudes toward her children. Findings about Brazilian women's well-being may not be applicable to U.S. women, however, because of differences between the two countries in the meaning of social relations.
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