Good mother, bad mother: Perception of mothering by rural African-American women who use cocaine

    Authors

    E. J. Brown

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Addict. Nurs.

    Keywords

    parenting behavior; cocaine; African; American; rural; ethnography; DRUG-USE; SUBSTANCE-ABUSE; CARE; FAMILIES; SERVICES; CHILDREN; ADJUSTMENT; CONTEXT; IMPACT; PARENT; Substance Abuse; Nursing

    Abstract

    To understand the culture of rural African-American women who use cocaine, ethnographic research was conducted in a rural county by means of in-depth interviews and participant observation with 30 respondents. Twenty-four respondents were mothers, 21 of whom had minor children. Respondents were recruited by ethnographic mapping, participant observation, use of key informants, and snowball sampling. Fourteen major themes emerged from the data; however, parenting and related subthemes are the focus of this paper. Within the parenting theme, 14 subthemes about good parenting and 6 subthemes about bad parenting emerged as a cohesive pattern of the mothers' perceptions. Overall, respondents bought into the mainstream ideology of motherhood and experienced some stress resulting from their attempts to fulfill their multifaceted mothering role. Most perceived that they were good mothers despite their use of cocaine. Research, service, and social policy recommendations are made.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Addictions Nursing

    Volume

    17

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    21

    Last Page

    31

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000238123200004

    ISSN

    1088-4602

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