Elizabeth A. Sharp

Understanding Parenting Stress Among Young, Low-income, African-American, First-Time Mothers

The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model that examined the extent to which cognitive readiness to parent, perceived difficult child temperament, observed parenting behaviors, and positive coping styles predicted parenting stress among young, low-income, first-time, African-American mothers. One hundred and twenty African-American, first-time mothers who applied to the Early Head Start program were selected to participate in this study. Results based on structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) observed positive parenting behaviors were negatively related to parenting stress; (2) difficult child temperament was positively related to parenting stress; (3) positive coping styles did not buffer the relationship between difficult child temperament and parenting stress; (4) difficult child temperament was not directly associated with observed parenting behaviors; (5) cognitive readiness to parent was only indirectly related to parenting stress; and (6) observed parenting behaviors mediated the link between cognitive readiness to parent and parenting stress. Future research directions and implications of these findings for professionals working with young mothers are discussed.

“I’m a Loser, I’m Not Married, Let’s Just All Look at Me”: Ever-Single Women’s Perceptions of Their Social Environment:

Despite growing numbers of singles, the idealization of marriage and child rearing remains strong, pervasive, and largely unquestioned. Guided by life course perspective, the purpose of this article was to examine familial and societal messages women receive when not married by their late 20s to mid-30s. Using descriptive phenomenological method, the authors conducted 32 interviews with 10 middle-class, ever-single women. Respondents’ social environments were characterized by pressure to confirm to the conventional life pathway. Pressure was manifested in women feeling both highly visible and invisible. Specifically, women’s social worlds included (a) awareness of the changing reality as they became older (e.g., changing pool of eligible men, pregnancy risks), (b) reminders that they were on a different life path (i.e., visibility ) through others’ inquires and “triggers” (e.g., weddings), and (c) displacement in their families of origin (i.e., invisibility). The authors discuss the visible/invisible paradox, which appeared to be pronounced at their life stage.

“Changing for My Kid”: Fatherhood Experiences of Mexican‐Origin Teen Fathers Involved in the Justice System

A descriptive phenomenological study was conducted with six adolescent fathers of Mexican origin on juvenile probation for a variety of serious offenses. All participants successfully completed a parenting program designed especially for teen fathers. In a series of consecutive in-depth interviews, teen fathers were asked to discuss their experiences as fathers. Four phenomena were identified from the data: (a) not giving up and deciding to be a dad, (b) figuring out my relationships after becoming a father, (c) wanting to be a good father, and (d) wanting to be Brown and a father. Findings challenge negative stereotypes associated with Mexican-origin teen fathers engaged in delinquent behaviors and describe the ways in which fatherhood became an important positive motivator in the lives of participants.

Tapping Into the Complexity: Ambivalent Sexism, Dating, and Familial Beliefs Among Young Hispanics

Drawing on ambivalent sexism and Chicana feminist theories, the purpose of the study was to explore ambivalent sexism and traditional relational scripts among a regional sample of 141 Hispanic young adults. Data derived from self-report questionnaires indicated that men scored higher on hostile sexism and traditional relational scripts but not on benevolent sexism. Structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood procedure was applied and path analyses indicated that, for both men and women, higher endorsement of benevolent and hostile sexism predicted higher traditional dating scripts and family roles. Gender made a difference only in relation to hostile sexism on traditional dating scripts, with men having a stronger association than women. Women’s strongest path was between hostile sexism and family scripts. We discuss these nuanced gendered differences between dating and family relationships as well as stereotypical gendered and cultural notions of Hispanic values. Implications are considered.

‘Safe Spaces’: Experiences of Feminist Women-Only Space

The gendered nature of safety has been explored empirically and theoretically as awareness has grown of the pervasive challenges to womens safety. Notions of ‘safe space’ are frequently invoked in wider feminist environments (particularly, recently, in relation to debates about trans peoples access to womens spaces), but are relatively neglected in academia. Indeed, despite a body of scholarship which looks at questions of gender, safety and space, relatively little attention has been paid to exploring the meaning of ‘safety’ for women and, particularly, the meaning and experience of spaces they consider to be ‘safe.’ Drawing on focus group data with 30 women who attended a two-day, women-only feminist gathering in the UK, this paper analyses experiences of what they describe as ‘safe space’ to explore the significance and meaning of ‘safety’ in their lives. Using their accounts, we distinguish between safe from and safe to, demonstrating that once women are safe from harassment, abuse and misogyny, they feel safe to be cognitively, intellectually and emotionally expressive. We argue that this sense of being ‘safe to’ denotes fundamental aspects of civic engagement, personhood and freedom.

Young, Single Gay Men's Commitment and Long-Term Partner Preferences

In the present study, using a nationwide online survey, we investigate preferences for a commitment ceremony and long-term partners among 114 single, young (ages 18 to 29 years old) gay men. We take into account market characteristics (age, location, education level) and self-perceptions of participants’ bodies. We found notable diversity in participants’ aspirations for a commitment ceremony and preferences for long-term partners. Men who were more preoccupied with their own appearance (i.e., higher rates of self-objectification and wanting to be muscular) were more likely to want to have a commitment ceremony. Furthermore, respondents who lived in large metropolitan cities were more likely than respondents in small cities to value attractiveness in a potential partner. We draw on objectification and market theories, situate our findings in contemporary cultural landscape, raise questions, and offer future directions for research.

Almost Drowning: Data as a Troubling Anchor in an Arts/Social Science Collaboration

This article highlights fissures between the disciplines of dance and social sciences in approaching and valuing data and offers creative solutions for dancers and choreographers working collaboratively with scholars and artists in other disciplines. We locate our challenges in our divergent relationships with social science data, using the divergence as a framework for exploring discipline-specific practices as unintended roadblocks in collaborative, transdisciplinary research. We propose that the structure of our collaboration, particularly our unique pairing of dance and social science, and our emergent discoveries have implications beyond our home disciplines and promise to advance the growing enterprise of transdisciplinary collaboration.

Betty Crocker Versus Betty Friedan: Meanings of Wifehood Within a Postfeminist Era:

In this article, deploying Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and the fictional American icon Betty Crocker within a poststructural feminist analysis, the author analyzes a social science data set investigating how 18 contemporary wives think about wifehood. Crocker and Friedan are emblematic of the cultural DNA that make up wifehood: The mythical Betty Crocker represents the happy, traditional housewife of the 1950s, and Betty Friedan offers a critique of the happy, traditional housewife figure. Thinking about historical trends, in the 1950s to 1960s, femininity and families were rigidly prescribed and, thus, largely unquestioned. In the 21st century, with the influx of postfeminism, prescriptions for femininity and families are thought to be less rigid—but are they? Contemporary wives’ identity negotiations mapped onto both Betty Crocker and Betty Friedan but remained anchored in the Betty Crocker image.

Single-Parent Families, Childhood

In recent decades, family formation patterns in the United States have changed considerably. One dramatic change has been the rise in the number of single-parent families. Approximately half of all children in the United States will live in a single-parent family for some portion of their childhood. Given this high prevalence, it is important to examine issues related to the adjustment of children living in single-parent families.