Journal Club

Presentee: Priya Puri

M.Phil, Clinical psychology

Chairperson: Dr. Bidita Bhattacharya

Assistant Professor Department of Clinical Psychology

Institute of Psychiatry, Kolkata

Journal Details
Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology Vol. 36, No. 1, 2009 Pg 21-32

Article
Article title: Child-rearing Attitude of Foster and Biological Mothers: A Comparative Study. Authors: Sahana Mitra and Nandita Babu (Department of Psychology, University of Delhi)

Abstract
Sixty mothers (30 foster and 30 biological mothers) having children in two age groups, that is 0-3 and 3-6 years were assessed on 8 child-rearing attitudes namely, acceptance-rejection (AR), dominance-submission (DS), encouragement-discouragement (ED), love-hate (LH), democracyauthoritarianism (DA), trust-distrust (TD), reward-punishment (RP) and tolerance-hostility (TH) taken from the Parent Child Relationship (PCR) test. The two-way analysis of variance showed a significant difference between the foster and biological mothers on the acceptance-rejection (AR), and love-hate (LH) dimension with no significant impact of the two age groups of children whereas no significant difference was obtained for the dimension of dominance-submission (DS), encouragement-discouragement (ED), rewardpunishment (RP), trust-distrust (TD) and tolerance-hostility (TH). Furthermore, for the dimension of democracy-authoritarianism (DA), the results showed a significant impact of the two age groups of children on the attitude of both the foster and biological mothers. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

Introduction
Mother has always been a generic term synonymous with love, devotion and sacrifice (Bombeck, 1983). The American Heritage college dictionary (3rd ed, 1993) defines the term mother as a woman who conceives, gives birth to or raises and nurtures a child. The term to parent thus means to raise and to nurture Attachment refers to the propensity to form strong emotional bonds with particular individuals; it has a survival value by bringing nurturance, protection and security to infant ( Bowlby, 1969).

Introduction (cont)
Parental acceptance-rejection theory (Rohner, 2004) takes into account the individual's feelings when they were rejected by their attachment figures and the resultant outcome on the children. Two dimensions that form a part of parenting styles are autonomy granting and psychological control. Adoption is a social and legal process that enables a parent-child relationship to be established between persons not biologically related.

Aims and Objectives

To recognize the attitudes prevalent in biological and foster mothers having children across two age groups (i.e., 0-3 and 3-6 years). The study hypothesizes that there will be a difference in the child rearing attitude for both the foster and biological mothers on the 8 dimensions measured by the Parent-child relationship test. This study attempts to make society more aware and acceptable to the idea of child adoption.

Method
Participants: Sixty working mothers (30 foster and 30 biological mothers) between 25-45 years of age having children in the age group of 0-3 and 3-6 years were studied. All were Hindu by religion . Duration of stay of at least 1and half years with foster mother for both age groups.

Method (cont)
Measures: Semi-structured interview schedule for foster mothers. Parent Child Relationship Test developed by Govind Tiwari was used to measure quantitatively the attitude of the parents towards their children on the 8 dimensions.

Method (cont)
Procedure: Before administering the PCR test, a semi-structured interview schedule was followed consisting of situational statements prepared on the basis of the 8 sub-scales of the PCR test. The semi-structured interview was used in order to observe the foster mothers responses on themes like support from family towards idea of adoption; their preference for a male or female child and willingness to tell the child about his/her adoptive status.

Results
Dimensions Age groups (A) Foster vs biological mothers (B) AxB

Acceptance-rejection (AR)
Dominancesubmission (DS) Encouragementdiscouragement (ED) Love-hate (LH) Democraticauthoritarian (DA) Reward-punishment (RP) Trust-distrust (TD) Tolerance-hostility (TH) **F.99 (1,56)= 7.12 [p< .01] *F.95 (1,56)= 4.02 [p< .05]

0.144
0.006 0.236 0.213 4.386 0.531 1.657 1.494

5.766*
0.006 0.059 7.162** 2.653 0.033 2.255 0.640

0.402
0.765 0.235 0.075 12.454** 0.0009 0.413 3.188

Results (cont)
Results reveal a significant difference between the foster and biological mothers on the Acceptance-rejection (AR) dimension. Foster mothers were found to have a more extreme views towards the positive side, i.e., acceptance. Love-hate (LH) dimension shows a significant difference between the foster and biological mothers. On analyzing the responses of the foster and biological mothers it was seen that for foster mothers , the fulfillment of the childs needs was the primary concern with the greater orientation towards the acceptance of their childs behaviors, demands and actions. On the contrary, biological mothers also accepted their childs views but were more oriented towards the practical aspect of child rearing involving time and economic factors.

Results (cont)
Democratic- authoritarian (DA) dimension reveals both biological and foster mothers tend to be more democratic with increasing age of the child.

Discussion
The results showed a significant difference between the child rearing attitude of foster and biological mothers on the acceptance-rejection (AR) and Love-hate (LH) dimension. No significant difference was obtained for the dimension of dominance-submission (DS), encouragement-discouragement (ED), reward-punishment (RP), trust-distrust (TD) and tolerance-hostility (TH) in either foster vs biological mothering or the two age groups of children. For the dimension of democratic-authoritarian (DA), the impact of two age groups was evident for both the foster and biological mothers.

Discussion (cont)
The underlying principle for both foster and biological mothers is the same, that is to work towards a sense of belongingness to the child. According to Symonds (1939), the two dimensions of acceptancerejection and love hate represent the same psychological dimension at home. Both the mothers were more oriented towards the acceptance (love) dimension. The parental acceptance and rejection together form the warmth dimension of parenting (Kagitcibasi, 1999). The warmth dimension relates to the quality of affectional bond between the mother and the child.

Discussion (cont)
The biological mothers in contrast to foster mothers were more willing to give to accept that scolding will be given to the child if he does not follow the parental decisions. In the dominance-submission domain both the sets of mothers were found high on the submissive attitude. In the dimensions of encouragement-discouragement, trust-distrust and reward-punishment, where no significant difference was observed, both sets of mothers were effective in giving comforting messages when the child felt low, and giving empathic support.

Discussion (cont)
The results indicated an impact of both age groups of children on democratic-authoritarian (DA) child rearing attitude of foster and biological mothers. The issues of limit setting were centered around: the safety of the child Family conventions Making decisions about the activities.

Discussion (cont)
Four issues taken up during the semi-structured interview: Thought of adopting a child and support of husband in the dcision Reaction of family members towards the idea of adoption

Preference for girl child or boy child

Telling the child about adoption.

Conclusion
The present study tries to diminish the boundaries between the attitude of foster and biological mothers. The core of parenting has remained the same over generations, that is, to work towards the welfare of the child and make them contributing members of the society. The study was an effort to spread awareness about the usefulness of adoption and how a child contributes positively to the world of parents.

Evaluation of the study

Limitations and criticisms

The study incorporated only working women, whereas in the Indian context most women are still home-makers. The study only involved the perspective of mothers, and not that of children.

The findings of the structured interview were not very clearly delineated.
The means and standard deviations for each of the domains of the Parentchild relationship test were not mentioned.

Gender of the child was not kept constant, nor was it randomized.
Only one test was used to assess the child-rearing attitude of foster and biological mothers.

What more could be done

The gender of the child could also have been made an independent variable because in the Indian context people prefer adopting a male child over female child. The children of older age groups could have also been incorporated in order to judge their attitude towards the parents and then this could be compared across adopted and biological children. The sample size could have been larger, which would help us to get a clearer picture. Some other tests could have also been used to study the dynamics between parents and children, such as some cards of TAT for parents and CAT for children. Attitude of fathers could also be assessed.

Positive aspects of the study

The present study is a comprehensive one. The study focused on foster mothering which is a relatively understudied area in the Indian context. The study made an attempt to clear some of the misconceptions about foster parenting. It can prove to be helpful in understanding the dynamics of the relationship between the adopted children and the foster mothers. This study can be used as a basis for further such researches on foster parenting.