Elisabeth Hertfelt Wahn

Becoming and Being a Teenage Mother: How Teenage Girls in South Western Sweden View Their Situation

Our aim in this study was to describe the perspectives, experiences, and reasonings about becoming and being a teenage mother by Swedish teenage girls. Twenty pregnant and parenting teenage girls, aged 15 to 19 years, were interviewed. The teenagers described a pattern of early childbirth in their families, lack of opportunity in life, and ambivalence in contraceptive use as reasons for becoming a teenage mother. They experienced being pregnant and a teenage mother as both a positive transition into adulthood but also as a physiological and psychological hardship. Furthermore, the teenagers emphasized the importance of supportive relationships with families, friends, and society as a prerequisite for successful parenting. The results of our study may be viewed as generating a working hypothesis that can be transferred to other settings on the basis of the information gathered.

Adolescent Perceptions of Parenting Styles in Sweden, Italy and Greece: An Exploratory Study

Comparative research on parenting styles among Nordic and Mediterranean countries is still missing, despite the increasing number of studies on parenting styles in adolescence. This study explores similarities and differences in adolescents’ retrospective perceptions of parenting styles, for both parents, in Sweden, Italy and Greece, using the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire. In particular, it examines the relation between parental role, adolescent gender, country of origin, SES and these perceptions. Swedish, Italian and Greek adolescents (N = 702; 30.9% Swedish, 39.6% Italian and 29.5% Greek) participated in the study. To test the principal effects three mixed 2(parent; mother and father)*2(gender; girl and boy)*3(countries; Sweden, Italy and Greece)*3(SES; low, medium and high) ANOVAs were conducted separately for each parenting style. To verify the interaction effects, a mixed 2(parent; mother and father)*3(countries; Sweden, Italy and Greece)*3(SES; low, medium and high) ANOVA was tested on authoritative style. Regarding authoritarian and permissive two mixed 2(parent; mother and father)*2(gender; girl and boy)*3(countries; Sweden, Italy and Greece) ANOVAs were tested. Mothers, as compared to fathers, were perceived as more authoritative, authoritarian and permissive. Moreover, boys perceived their parents as more authoritarian and more permissive than girls. Swedish parents were perceived as significantly less authoritarian than Italian and Greek parents and more permissive than Italian parents; Greek parents were perceived as less authoritarian and more permissive than Italian parents. The study provides an interesting contribution to parenting styles literature, showing how country legislation concerning family matters and SES are related the perception of parenting behaviours.

Evaluation of the mother-to-infant relation and feeling scale : interviews with first-time mothers’ for feelings and relation to their baby three days after birth

Mothers’ perception of their relationship with their baby might affect sensitive parenting. This study aimed to explore first time mothers’ feelings for and their relation to the baby associated wi ...

To build a bridge between two worlds: Mothers' experiences of professional support at the maternity ward

ABSTRACT We studied the experience of professional support among first-time mothers in relation to a scale measuring professional support in maternity care. We used a qualitative study with both an inductive and deductive approach and interviewed nine mothers. Our findings, both inductive and deductive, suggest that first-time mothers expect professional support in their transition into motherhood, building a bridge between two worlds. The first meeting, acknowledging individual needs, and supporting partner participation were important for good support. Maternity care should be organized with a focus on availability and professional support for mothers and the increased participation of their partners. Our scale of measurement can be useful but needs some development.

Retrospective Paternal and Maternal Parenting Styles in Greece, Italy, and Sweden

Discrepancies in perceived parenting and parental roles across European countries could be due to the use of different assessment techniques or due to mean level differences in the authoritative, authoritarian, or permissive parenting styles. The present study aimed to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 1995, 2001) in a sample of 225 Greek, 301 Italian, and 279 Swedish adolescents aged 16–19 years, who evaluated their father’s and mother’s parenting styles during their childhood. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), multigroup CFA, and modified version of the correlated uniqueness model were used to evaluate the structure and invariance of the scale across countries. Measurement and structural invariance was found in the 8-item authoritative scale and 6-item authoritarian scale. A mixed ANOVA (Country × Style × Role) showed that Swedish mothers scored lower than Italian or Greek mothers, and that, in the three countries, mothers were perceived as more authoritative than were fathers.