Young females' images of motherhood

This paper reports on two studies into the images of motherhood held by you ng females. In Study I, we attempted to uncover general conceptual dimensio ns by which young Dutch females perceive motherhood. For this, a group of 6 4, predominantly White, participants of various ages and educational backgr ounds were interviewed about real-life mothers and female images derived fr om television. Qualitative analysis revealed 4 main conceptual categories: a mother's traditional orientation toward motherhood, her child-centerednes s, her self-assertive attitude, and a mother's open and social attitude. Th e items making up the 4 conceptual categories found in Study I, underwent f actor analysis in Study 2. Two main dimensions were found. One dimension re presented a traditional orientation toward motherhood whereas the other add ed a more contemporary perspective to motherhood, and represented a self-as sertive and relational orientation toward motherhood. In Study 2, we invest igated how young females viewed themselves as potential mothers with regard to these two dimensions. We analyzed whether differences in the views of y oung females about their future motherhood were dependent on level of educa tion, age, and image of their own mother. The 165, predominantly White, you ng females taking part were asked to rare themselves and their mother on a range of items, representing the two dimensions of motherhood. Although dau ghter ratings were positively related to the ratings they assigned to their mothers, daughter perceived themselves to function differently with respec t to the two dimensions of motherhood, compared to their own mother: They p erceived themselves as less traditional, and more self-assertive and relati onal oriented than their mothers.