AM I A GOOD MOTHER? AN INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MOTHERING

Research has always focused on identifying parenting styles adopted by parents of adolescents to find their association with parent-adolescent relationships, yet the experience of parenting a child at a sensitive age and stage is much more complex. This study aimed to explore the lived experience of mothers handling 11-15 years old adolescents and the troubles they go through. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 mothers of adolescents. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), two superordinate themes were generated i.e., apprehensions and parental self-doubt. These superordinate themes had 10 sub-themes. The results revealed that mothers go down memory lane and compare their child with their childhood and use certain strategies which fail. This leads to loss of control in the mothers and their associated apprehensions and helplessness leads them to question themselves in the maternal role. Keywords. mothers, adolescents, parenting, self-doubt, maternal role