Shannon K. Carter

Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006:

This article uses data from the 1973-2006 General Social Survey to assess the interactive impact of race and gender on marital happiness over time. Findings indicate independent and significant effects for both variables, with Whites and husbands reporting greater marital happiness than Blacks and wives. Comparing four subgroups (White husbands, White wives, Black husbands, and Black wives), the authors find that White husbands report the highest levels of marital happiness whereas Black wives report the lowest. Assessment of trends from the 1970s to the 2000s reveals a convergence among the groups: Although White husbands consistently report the highest levels of marital happiness, there has been a steady decline in the gap between all four groups. Most notably, Black wives exhibit a significant increase in marital happiness relative to the other groups. Findings are discussed in the context of the changing structure and composition of families in contemporary U.S. society.

Infant-feeding consumerism in the age of intensive mothering and risk society

The ideologies of intensive mothering and risk society place increasing burden on mothers to make critical choices regarding infant feeding that are understood as having irreversible consequences for their childrens long-term health and emotional well-being. Although research has examined consequences of these ideologies on mothers’ decisions to breastfeed or formula-feed their infants, little has focused on consumer decisions regarding formulas, baby food and feeding-related items. This article examines symbolic meanings attached to infant food and feeding-related consumer items among first-time mothers in the United States. Results indicate broad categories of baby-oriented consumerism—qualities and characteristics mothers sought for their babies through feeding-related consumer behaviors—and mother-oriented consumerism—qualities and characteristics mothers sought for themselves through consumer behaviors. Baby-oriented consumerism included health, comfort, taste and development, and mother-oriented consumerism included knowledge/control, compliance, convenience, frugality, relationships and self-image.

Beyond control: body and self in women's childbearing narratives

In the United States, childbearing is often conceptualised as a time when women lose self-control over their bodies. This project examines issues of bodily control through a social constructionist analysis of in-depth interviews with 18 predominantly white, working and middle class women who have recently given birth in the US. Findings indicate that many participants construct themselves as both in and out of control of their bodies during childbearing. Participants also describe body/self relationships in ways that transcend power and control, perceiving the body as autonomous, accommodating and collaborating. Accommodating and collaborating bodies were described here only among participants who gave birth in the midwifery model of care. The findings illuminate various ways of conceptualising the body and point to the use of different bodily discourses by women who give birth in medical and midwifery models.

Liquid gold or Russian roulette? Risk and human milk sharing in the US news media

The exchange of human breast milk, a common and well-established practice, has become a site of public controversy in the US. There is controversy over the use of the internet to facilitate milk exchange and public interest in the practice has been stimulated by a research article published in the journal Pediatrics that identified high levels of potentially harmful bacteria in breast milk sold online. In this article we use feminist critical discourse analysis to critically examine how breast milk sharing is represented in a sample of 30 articles from US print newspapers published in 2010–2013. We found complex and contradictory images of human milk, with medically supervised milk banks represented as a life-saving entity, nature’s ‘liquid gold’, whereas peer sharing of breast milk was represented as dangerous, and in this context breast milk was represented as a potentially life-threatening substance. Women who donated milk to milk banks were represented as altruistic and those who obtained their babies’ milk from the milk bank were represented as responsible and acting in the best interests of their babies. In contrast women who participated in peer milk sharing were represented at best as ill-informed about the risks to babies and at worst, morally reprehensible for disregarding the risks. Mothers who fed their babies this milk were represented as irresponsible and playing ‘Russian roulette’ with their babies. We argue that such contradictory representations are grounded in concerns in high income countries such as the USA with the control and surveillance of the female body through discourses of risk and are based on cultural constructions of individualism and intensive mothering.

Milk Sharing in Practice: A Descriptive Analysis of Peer Breastmilk Sharing

Peer breastmilk sharing has emerged in recent years as a subject of investigation and occasional controversy. Although researchers know that thousands of milk exchanges are facilitated through milk sharing Web sites every week, there is only limited research into milk sharing practices on the ground. This study examines these practices through a 102-item online survey that asked questions about milk sharing practices, perceptions of milk sharing, and demographic characteristics. Participants were recruited through social media sites specific to breastfeeding and parenting events in Central Florida. The sample consisted of 392 respondents. Data were analyzed using univariate analysis. We found that breastmilk sharing is a complex practice, showing high levels of overlap in which some donors are also recipients, and that cross-nursing sometimes occurs simultaneously with the exchange of expressed milk. Respondents often donated and received milk from people they knew; however, exchanging milk with strangers was also common. Many but not all used the Internet to facilitate milk exchange; participants used well-known milk sharing Web sites as well as their private virtual networks. The study found that most milk exchanges happen in-person as gifts and that selling and shipping breastmilk were rare. We suggest that further research is needed on breastmilk sharing practices to inform breastmilk safety research and policy recommendations.

Place matters: The impact of place of residency on racial attitudes among regional and urban migrants

Scholars have debated whether racial attitudes are socialized early in life and persist throughout ones lifetime or are open to influences from ones environment as an adult. This study introduces another approach that holds that place, as opposed to the timing of socialization, is an important consideration for the socialization of racial attitudes. Using data from the American National Election Study, we consider the effect of region and urban residency on racial attitudes by comparing lifelong residents of these locations to those who migrate into and out of them. Using improved measures of early life socialization and region of residency, we conclude that a place-based model can be used to explain the socialization of racial resentment. For regional migrants, those moving into and out of the non-South maintain levels of racial resentment similar to non-Southern stayers. For urban migrants, the lifelong openness model of socialization was most appropriate. These migrants were more likely to change and adopt the level of racial resentment similar to that of their destination peers. These findings generally persist across time.

The impact of place? A reassessment of the importance of the South in affecting beliefs about racial inequality

Abstract Research shows that individuals living in the southern part of the United States express more negative racial attitudes than those living outside the South. Using data from The American National Election Study (NES), the purpose of this paper is to assess whether key factors often associated with the Southern attitude distinction are indeed more potent in the South than elsewhere. Drawing data from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, we further assess whether the impact of the South has increased or decreased over time. Results indicate that the impact of the South is negligible at best. Findings do show that place does matter for conservatives. However, in this case, non-South location matters more than the South. Relative to their liberal counterparts, conservatives in the non-South espouse more individualistic beliefs than do their Southern counterparts. These findings are discussed within the dominant theoretical framework in this area.

Good, Bad, and Extraordinary Mothers Infant Feeding and Mothering in African American Mothers’ Breastfeeding Narratives

Dominant discourses promote breastfeeding as essential to “good mothering,” shown in research to set a difficult standard that many white mothers internalize. Little is known about African American mothers’ perceptions of the connection between breastfeeding and mothering ideals. We analyzed perceptions of the relationship between breastfeeding and formula feeding and mothering through in-depth semistructured interviews with 22 predominantly middle-class African American mothers in the southeastern United States who breastfeed. One-third of participants upheld the dominant ideology that breastfeeding is required for good mothering, constructing formula feeding as lazy and selfish. Two-thirds associated breastfeeding with “extraordinary mothering,” exceeding good mothering through additional hard work, self-sacrifice, and dedication. These participants were divided, with half (one-third of total) stating that mothers who formula feed are also good mothers and half (one-third of total sample) expressing ambivalence toward formula. Both groups acknowledged structural barriers and personal circumstances that prevent some mothers from breastfeeding, and therefore they either withheld or were conflicted about applying judgment. These findings confirm that although a powerful cultural association between breastfeeding and good mothering is evident, it is not uniform across race and class.

Human Milk Handling and Storage Practices Among Peer Milk-Sharing Mothers:

Background: Peer milk sharing, the noncommercial sharing of human milk from one parent or caretaker directly to another for the purposes of feeding a child, appears to be an increasing infant-feeding practice. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against the practice, little is known about how people who share human milk handle and store milk and whether these practices are consistent with clinical safety protocols. Research aim: This study aimed to learn about the milk-handling practices of expressed human milk by milk-sharing donors and recipient caretakers. In this article, we explore the degree to which donors and recipients adhere to the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine clinical recommendations for safe handling and storage. Methods: Online surveys were collected from 321 parents engaged in peer milk sharing. Univariate descriptive statistics were used to describe the safe handling and storage procedures for milk donors and recipients. A two-sample t-test was used to compare safety items common to each group. Multivariate ordinary least squares regression analysis was used to examine sociodemographic correlates of milk safety practices within the sample group. Results: Findings indicate that respondents engaged in peer milk sharing report predominantly positive safety practices. Multivariate analysis did not reveal any relationship between safety practices and sociodemographic characteristics. The number of safe practices did not differ between donors and recipients. Conclusion: Parents and caretakers who participate in peer human milk sharing report engaging in practices that should reduce risk of bacterial contamination of expressed peer shared milk. More research on this particular population is recommended.

Discursive Constructions of Breastfeeding in U.S. State Laws

Previous research has identified several ways that breastfeeding is constructed in public discourses, each with consequences for breastfeeding attitudes, policies, and practices. Researchers analyzed discursive constructions of breastfeeding in U.S. state laws regarding breastfeeding in public to see if common representations were replicated in law and to identify patterns among states that used similar language. Results indicated that laws varied in the level of protection they offered, with the least protective laws decriminalizing breastfeeding in public and the most protective laws criminalizing interference with breastfeeding. The least protective states were located in the Western and North-Central regions, Republican-leaning, and less urban, whereas the most protective states were located in the New England and North-Central regions, Democrat-leaning, and more urban. Most states that fell on either end of this continuum had breastfeeding rates above the national average. Laws also varied in the level of regulation implied in their language, with the most regulative laws specifying that “a mother” can breastfeed “her baby” only in certain places and under certain conditions (discreetly). The most regulative states were located in the Southern and North-Central regions and had low breastfeeding rates, whereas the least regulative states were Western and had high breastfeeding rates.