Father

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Father and child

A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological father is the male genetic contributor to the creation of the infant, through sexual intercourse or sperm donation. A biological father may have legal obligations to a child not raised by him, such as an obligation of monetary support. An adoptive father is a man who has become the child's parent through the legal process of adoption. A putative father is a man whose biological relationship to a child is alleged but has not been established. A stepfather is a non-biological male parent married to a child's preexisting parent and may form a family unit but generally does not have the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent in relation to the child.

The adjective "paternal" refers to a father and comparatively to "maternal" for a mother. The verb "to father" means to procreate or to sire a child from which also derives the noun "fathering". Biological fathers determine the sex of their child through a sperm cell which either contains an X chromosome (female), or Y chromosome (male). Related terms of endearment are dad (dada, daddy), baba, papa, pappa, papasita, (pa, pap) and pop. A male role model that children can look up to is sometimes referred to as a father-figure.

Paternal rights

Stockholm pedestrian sign father and daughter

The paternity rights of a father with regard to his children differ widely from country to country often reflecting the level of involvement and roles expected by that society.

Unlike motherhood, fatherhood is not mentioned in Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Paternity leave

Parental leave is when a father takes time off to support his newly born or adopted baby. Paid paternity leave first began in Sweden in 1976, and is paid in more than half of European Union countries. In the case of male same-sex couples the law often makes no provision for either one or both fathers to take paternity leave.

Child custody

Fathers' rights movements such as Fathers 4 Justice argue that family courts are biased against fathers.

Child support

Child support is an ongoing periodic payment made by one parent to the other; it is normally paid by the parent who does not have custody.

Paternity fraud

An estimated 2% of British fathers experiences paternity fraud during a non-paternity event, bringing up a child they wrongly believe to be their biological offspring.

Role of the father

Father and child, Dhaka, Bangladesh

In almost all cultures fathers are regarded as secondary caregive This perception is slowly changing with more and more fathers becoming primary caregivers, while mothers go to work, or in single parenting situations and male same-sex parenting couples.

Fatherhood in the Western World

A father and his children in Florida

In the West, the image of the married father as the primary wage-earner is changing. The social context of fatherhood plays an important part in the well-being of men and their children.^[7] In the United States 16% of single parents were men as of 2013.^[8]

Importance of father or father-figure

Involved fathers offer developmentally specific provisions to their children and are impacted themselves by doing so. Active father figures may play a role in reducing behavior and psychological problems in young adults.^[9] An increased amount of father–child involvement may help increase a child's social stability, educational achievement,^[10]: 5 and their potential to have a solid marriage as an adult. Their children may also be more curious about the world around them and develop greater problem-solving skills.^[11] Children who were raised with fathers perceive themselves to be more cognitively and physically competent than their peers without a father.^[12] Mothers raising children together with a father reported less severe disputes with their child.^[13]

The father-figure is not always a child's biological father, and some children will have a biological father as well as a step- or nurturing father. When a child is conceived through sperm donation, the donor will be the "biological father" of the child.

Fatherhood as legitimate identity can be dependent on domestic factors and behaviors. For example, a study of the relationship between fathers, their sons, and home computers found that the construction of fatherhood and masculinity required that fathers display computer expertise.^[14]

Determination of parenthood

Paternal love (1803) by Nanette Rosenzweig, National Museum in Warsaw

Roman law defined fatherhood as "Mater semper certa; pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant" ("The [identity of the] mother is always certain; the father is whom the marriage vows indicate"). The recent emergence of accurate scientific testing, particularly DNA testing, has resulted in the family law relating to fatherhood experiencing rapid changes.

History of fatherhood

Painter Carl Larsson playing with his laughing daughter Brita

Many male animals do not participate in the rearing of their young. The development of human men as creatures which are involved in their offspring's upbringing took place during the stone age.

In medieval and most of modern European history, caring for children was predominantly the domain of mothers, whereas fathers in many societies provide for the family as a whole. Since the 1950s, social scientists and feminists have increasingly challenged gender roles in Western countries, including that of the male breadwinner. Policies are increasingly targeting fatherhood as a tool of changing gender relations. Research from various societies suggest that since the middle of the 20th century fathers have become increasingly involved in the care of their children.

Patricide

In early human history there have been notable instances of patricide. For example:

• Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. 1243–1207 B.C.E.), Assyrian king, was killed by his own son after sacking Babylon.
• Sennacherib (r. 704–681 B.C.E.), Assyrian king, was killed by two of his sons for his desecration of Babylon.
• King Kassapa I (473 to 495 CE) creator of the Sigiriya citadel of ancient Sri Lanka killed his father king Dhatusena for the throne.
• Emperor Yang of Sui in Chinese history allegedly killed his father, Emperor Wen of Sui.
• Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman who, according to legend, killed her father after he imprisoned and raped her. She was condemned and beheaded for the crime along with her brother and her stepmother in 1599.
• Lizzie Borden (1860–1927) allegedly killed her father and her stepmother with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. She was acquitted, but her innocence is still disputed.
• Iyasus I of Ethiopia (1654–1706), one of the great warrior emperors of Ethiopia, was deposed by his son Tekle Haymanot in 1706 and subsequently assassinated.

In more contemporary history there have also been instances of father–offspring conflicts, such as:

• Chiyo Aizawa (born 1939) murdered her own father who had been raping her for fifteen years, on October 5, 1968, in Japan. The incident changed the Criminal Code of Japan regarding patricide.
• Kip Kinkel (born 1982), an Oregon boy who was convicted of killing his parents at home and two fellow students at school on May 20, 1998.
• Sarah Marie Johnson (born 1987), an Idaho girl who was convicted of killing both parents on the morning of September 2, 2003.
• Dipendra of Nepal (1971–2001) reportedly massacred much of his family at a royal dinner on June 1, 2001, including his father King Birendra, mother, brother, and sister.
• Christopher Porco (born 1983), was convicted on August 10, 2006, of the murder of his father and attempted murder of his mother with an axe.

Terminology

Biological fathers

Paternal bonding between a father and his newborn daughter

Father and son

Emperor Pedro II of Brazil with his daughter Isabel, Princess Imperial, c. 1870. She acted as regent of the Empire of Brazil for three times during her father's absences abroad.

• Baby Daddy – A biological father who bears financial responsibility for a child, but with whom the mother has little or no contact.
• Birth father – the biological father of a child who, due to adoption or parental separation, does not raise the child or cannot take care of one.
• Biological father – or sometimes simply referred to as "Father" is the genetic father of a child.
• Posthumous father – father died before children were born (or even conceived in the case of artificial insemination).
• Putative father – unwed man whose legal relationship to a child has not been established but who is alleged to be or claims that he may be the biological father of a child.
• Sperm donor – an anonymous or known biological father who provides his sperm to be used in artificial insemination or in vitro fertilisation in order to father a child for a third-party female. Also used as a slang term meaning "baby daddy".
• Surprise father – where the men did not know that there was a child until possibly years afterward
• Teenage father/youthful father – Father who is still a teenager.

Non-biological (social and legal relationship)

• Adoptive father – the father who has adopted a child
• Cuckolded father – where the child is the product of the mother's adulterous relationship
• DI Dad – social/legal father of children produced via Donor Insemination (where a donor's sperm were used to impregnate the DI Dad's spouse)
• Father-in-law – the father of one's spouse
• Foster father – child is raised by a man who is not the biological or adoptive father usually as part of a couple.
• Mother's partner – assumption that current partner fills father role
• Mother's husband – under some jurisdictions (e.g. in Quebec civil law), if the mother is married to another man, the latter will be defined as the father
• Presumed father – Where a presumption of paternity has determined that a man is a child's father regardless of if he actually is or is not the biological father
• Social father – where a man takes de facto responsibility for a child, such as caring for one who has been abandoned or orphaned (the child is known as a "child of the family" in English law)
• Stepfather – a married non-biological father where the child is from a previous relationship

Fatherhood defined by contact level

• Absent father – father who cannot or will not spend time with his child(ren)
• Second father – a non-parent whose contact and support is robust enough that near parental bond occurs (often used for older male siblings who significantly aid in raising a child, sometimes for older men who took care of younger friends (only males) who have no families)
• Stay-at-home dad – the male equivalent of a housewife with child, where his spouse is breadwinner
• Weekend/holiday father – where child(ren) only stay(s) with father on weekends, holidays, etc.

Non-human fatherhood

For some animals, it is the fathers who take care of the young.

• Darwin's frog (Rhinoderma darwini) fathers carry eggs in the vocal pouch.
• Most male waterfowl are very protective in raising their offspring, sharing scout duties with the female. Examples are the geese, swans, gulls, loons, and a few species of ducks. When the families of most of these waterfowl travel, they usually travel in a line and the fathers are usually the ones guarding the offspring at the end of the line while the mothers lead the way.
• The female seahorse (Hippocampus) deposits eggs into the pouch on the male's abdomen. The male releases sperm into the pouch, fertilizing the eggs. The embryos develop within the male's pouch, nourished by their individual yolk sacs.
• Male catfish keep their eggs in their mouth, foregoing eating until they hatch.
• Male emperor penguins alone incubate their eggs; females do no incubation. Rather than building a nest, each male protects his egg by balancing it on the tops of his feet, enclosed in a special brood pouch. Once the eggs are hatched however, the females will rejoin the family.
• Male beavers secure their offspring along with the females during their first few hours of their lives. As the young beavers mature, their fathers will teach them how to search for materials to build and repair their own dams, before they disperse to find their own mates.
• Wolf fathers help feed, protect, and play with their pups. In some cases, several generations of wolves live in the pack, giving pups the care of grandparents, aunts/uncles, and siblings, in addition to parents. The father wolf is also the one who does most of the hunting when the females are securing their newborn pups.
• Coyotes are monogamous and male coyotes hunt and bring food to their young.
• Dolphin fathers help in the care of the young. Newborns are held on the surface of the water by both parents until they are ready to swim on their own.
• A number of bird species have active, caring fathers who assist the mothers, such as the waterfowls mentioned above.
• Apart from humans, fathers in few primate species care for their young. Those that do are tamarins and marmosets. Particularly strong care is also shown by siamangs where fathers carry infants after their second year. In titi and owl monkeys fathers carry their infants 90% of the time with "titi monkey infants developing a preference for their fathers over their mothers". Silverback gorillas have less role in the families but most of them serve as an extra protecting the families from harm and sometimes approaching enemies to distract them so that his family can escape unnoticed.

Many species, though, display little or no paternal role in caring for offspring. The male leaves the female soon after mating and long before any offspring are born. It is the females who must do all the work of caring for the young.

• A male bear leaves the female shortly after mating and will kill and sometimes eat any bear cub he comes across, even if the cub is his. Bear mothers spend much of their cubs' early life protecting them from males. (Many artistic works, such as advertisements and cartoons, depict kindly "papa bears" when this is the exact opposite of reality.)
• Domesticated dog fathers show little interest in their offspring, and unlike wolves, are not monogamous with their mates and are thus likely to leave them after mating.
• Male lions will tolerate cubs, but only allow them to eat meat from dead prey after they have had their fill. A few are quite cruel towards their young and may hurt or kill them with little provocation. A male who kills another male to take control of his pride will also usually kill any cubs belonging to that competing male. However, it is also the males who are responsible for guarding the pride while the females hunt. However, the male lions are the only felines that actually have a role in fatherhood.
• Male rabbits generally tolerate kits but unlike the females, they often show little interest in the kits and are known to play rough with their offspring when they are mature, especially towards their sons. This behaviour may also be part of an instinct to drive the young males away to prevent incest matings between the siblings. The females will eventually disperse from the warren as soon as they mature but the father does not drive them off like he normally does to the males.
• Horse stallions and pig boars have little to no role in parenting, nor are they monogamous with their mates. They will tolerate young to a certain extent, but due to their aggressive male nature, they are generally annoyed by the energetic exuberance of the young and may hurt or even kill the young. Thus, stud stallions and boars are not kept in the same pen as their young or other females.

Finally, in some species neither the father nor the mother provides any care.

• This is true for most insects, reptiles, and fish.

Mother

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother

Portrait of a woman holding a baby, c. 1900 – c. 1920

Statue of a mother with children at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa

A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestational surrogacy.

A biological mother is the female genetic contributor to the creation of the infant, through sexual intercourse or egg donation. A biological mother may have legal obligations to a child not raised by her, such as an obligation of monetary support. An adoptive mother is a female who has become the child's parent through the legal process of adoption. A putative mother is a female whose biological relationship to a child is alleged but has not been established. A stepmother is a non-biological female parent married to a child's preexisting parent, and may form a family unit but generally does not have the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent in relation to the child.

A father is the male counterpart of a mother. Women who are pregnant may be referred to as expectant mothers or mothers-to-be. The process of becoming a mother has been referred to as "matrescence".

The adjective "maternal" refers to a mother and comparatively to "paternal" for a father. The verb "to mother" means to procreate or to sire a child, or to provide care for a child, from which also derives the noun "mothering". Related terms of endearment are mom (mama, mommy), mum (mummy), mumsy, mamacita (ma, mam) and mammy. A female role model that children can look up to is sometimes referred to as a mother-figure.

Types of motherhood

Map of countries by crude birth rate

Map of countries by fertility rate

Mother and child. Gandola Monastery, Lahaul, India.

Biological mother

Biological motherhood for humans, as in other mammals, occurs when a pregnant female gestates a fertilized ovum (the "egg"). A female can become pregnant through sexual intercourse after she has begun to ovulate. In well-nourished girls, menarche (the first menstrual period) usually takes place around the age of 12 or 13.

Typically, a fetus develops from the viable zygote, resulting in an embryo. Gestation occurs in the woman's uterus until the fetus (assuming it is carried to term) is sufficiently developed to be born. In humans, gestation is often around 9 months in duration, after which the woman experiences labor and gives birth. This is not always the case, however, as some babies are born prematurely, late, or in the case of stillbirth, do not survive gestation. Usually, once the baby is born, the mother produces milk via the lactation process. The mother's breast milk is the source of antibodies for the infant's immune system, and commonly the sole source of nutrition for newborns before they are able to eat and digest other foods; older infants and toddlers may continue to be breastfed, in combination with other foods, which should be introduced from approximately six months of age.

Childlessness is the state of not having children. Childlessness may have personal, social or political significance. Childlessness may be voluntary childlessness, which occurs by choice, or may be involuntary due to health problems or social circumstances. Motherhood is usually voluntary, but may also be the result of forced pregnancy, such as pregnancy from rape. Unwanted motherhood occurs especially in cultures which practice forced marriage and child marriage.

Non-biological mother

Mother can often apply to a woman other than the biological parent, especially if she fulfills the main social role in raising the child. This is commonly either an adoptive mother or a stepmother (the biologically unrelated partner of a child's father). The term "othermother" or "other mother" is also used in some contexts for women who provide care for a child not biologically their own in addition to the child's primary mother.

Adoption, in various forms, has been practiced throughout history, even predating human civilization. Modern systems of adoption, arising in the 20th century, tend to be governed by comprehensive statutes and regulations. In recent decades, international adoptions have become more and more common.

Adoption in the United States is common and relatively easy from a legal point of view (compared to other Western countries). In 2001, with over 127,000 adoptions, the US accounted for nearly half of the total number of adoptions worldwide.

Surrogate mother

Main article: Surrogacy

A surrogate mother is a woman who bears a child that came from another woman's fertilized ovum on behalf of a couple unable to give birth to children. Thus the surrogate mother carries and gives birth to a child that she is not the biological mother of. Surrogate motherhood became possible with advances in reproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilization.

Not all women who become pregnant via in vitro fertilization are surrogate mothers. Surrogacy involves both a genetic mother, who provides the ovum, and a gestational (or surrogate) mother, who carries the child to term.

Lesbian and bisexual motherhood

The possibility for lesbian and bisexual women in same-sex relationships to become mothers has increased over the past few decades due to technological developments. Modern lesbian parenting originated with women who were in heterosexual relationships who later identified as lesbian or bisexual, as changing attitudes provided more acceptance for non-heterosexual relationships. Other ways for such women to become mothers is through adopting, foster parenting or in vitro fertilization.

Transgender motherhood

This section is about transgender women who are parents. For pregnancy in transgender men and nonbinary people, see Transgender pregnancy.

Transgender women may have biological children with a partner by utilizing their sperm to fertilize an egg and form an embryo. For transgender women, there is currently no accessible way to carry a child. However, research is being done on uterus transplants, which could potentially allow transgender women to carry and give birth to children through Caesarean section. Other types of motherhood include adoption or foster parenting. However, adoption agencies often refuse to work with transgender parents or are reluctant to do so.

Social role

See also: Sociology of the family § Sociology of motherhood

Sikkimese mother with child

Percentage of births to unmarried women, selected countries, 1980 and 2007

Mother and children (Mahabalipuram, India)

The social roles associated with motherhood are variable across time, culture, and social class. Historically, the role of women was confined to some extent to being a mother and wife, with women being expected to dedicate most of their energy to these roles, and to spend most of their time taking care of the home. In many cultures, women received significant help in performing these tasks from older female relatives, such as mothers in law or their own mothers.

Olga Pearson Engdahl was American Mother of the Year in 1963.

Regarding women in the workforce, mothers are said to often follow a "mommy track" rather than being entirely "career women". Mothers may be stay at home mothers or working mothers. In recent decades there has been an increase in stay at home fathers too. Social views on these arrangements vary significantly by culture: in Europe for instance, in German-speaking countries there is a strong tradition of mothers exiting the workforce and being homemakers. Mothers have historically fulfilled the primary role in raising children, but since the late 20th century, the role of the father in child care has been given greater prominence and social acceptance in some Western countries. The 20th century also saw more and more women entering paid work. Mothers' rights within the workforce include maternity leave and parental leave.

The social role and experience of motherhood varies greatly depending upon location. Mothers are more likely than fathers to encourage assimilative and communion-enhancing patterns in their children. Mothers are more likely than fathers to acknowledge their children's contributions in conversation. The way mothers speak to their children ("motherese") is better suited to support very young children in their efforts to understand speech (in context of the reference English) than fathers.

Since the 1970s, in vitro fertilization has made pregnancy possible at ages well beyond "natural" limits, generating ethical controversy and forcing significant changes in the social meaning of motherhood. This is, however, a position highly biased by Western world locality: outside the Western world, in-vitro fertilization has far less prominence, importance or currency compared to primary, basic healthcare, women's basic health, reducing infant mortality and the prevention of life-threatening diseases such as polio, typhus and malaria.

Traditionally, and still in most parts of the world today, a mother was expected to be a married woman, with birth outside of marriage carrying a strong social stigma. Historically, this stigma not only applied to the mother, but also to her child. This continues to be the case in many parts of the developing world today, but in many Western countries the situation has changed radically, with single motherhood being much more socially acceptable now. For more details on these subjects, see Legitimacy (family law) and single parent.

The total fertility rate (TFR), that is, the number of children born per woman, differs greatly from country to country. The TFR in 2013 was estimated to be highest in Niger (7.03 children born per woman) and lowest in Singapore (0.79 children/woman).

In the United States, the TFR was estimated for 2013 at 2.06 births per woman. In 2011, the average age at first birth was 25.6 and 40.7% of births were to unmarried women.

Health

Main article: Maternal mortality

Maternal mortality map, given as the annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live births in 2012

 

Infant mortality rates under age 1, per 1,000 live births in 2013

A maternal death is defined by WHO as "the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes".

About 56% of maternal deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and another 29% in South Asia.

In 2006, the organization Save the Children has ranked the countries of the world, and found that Scandinavian countries are the safest places to give birth, whereas countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the least safe to give birth. This study argues a mother in the bottom ten ranked countries is over 750 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth, compared to a mother in the top ten ranked countries, and a mother in the bottom ten ranked countries is 28 times more likely to see her child die before reaching their first birthday.

The most recent data suggests that Italy, Sweden and Luxembourg are the safest countries in terms of maternal death and Afghanistan, Central African Republic and Malawi are the most dangerous.

Childbirth can be a dangerous process in the absence of effective measures to reduce death. When none of these measure are taken, the maternal death rate has been estimated as being within the order of magnitude of 1,500 deaths per 100,000 births. Modern medicine has greatly alleviated the risk of childbirth. In modern Western countries the current maternal mortality rate is around 10 deaths per 100,000 births.

Religious

The Hindu mother goddess Parvati feeding her son, the elephant-headed wisdom god Ganesha

Nearly all world religions define tasks or roles for mothers through either religious law or through the glorification of mothers who served in substantial religious events. There are many examples of religious law relating to mothers and women.

Major world religions which have specific religious law or religious texts that comment on mothers include: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Some examples of honoring motherhood include the Madonna or Blessed Virgin Mother Mary for Catholics, and the multiple positive references to active womanhood as a mother in the Book of Proverbs.

Hindu's Mother Goddess and Demeter of ancient Greek pre-Christian belief are also mothers.

Mother-offspring violence

Main articles: Matricide and Filicide

Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1862. Clytemnestra was murdered by Orestes and the Furies torment him for his crime.

History records many conflicts between mothers and their children. Some even resulted in murder, such as the conflict between Cleopatra III of Egypt and her son Ptolemy X.

In modern cultures, matricide (the killing of one's mother) and filicide (the killing of one's son or daughter) have been studied but remain poorly understood. Psychosis and schizophrenia are common causes of both, and young, indigent mothers with a history of domestic abuse are slightly more likely to commit filicide. Mothers are more likely to commit filicide than fathers when the child is 8 years old or younger. Matricide is most frequently committed by adult sons.

In the United States in 2012, there were 130 matricides (0.4 per million people) and 383 filicides (1.2 per million), or 1.4 incidents per day.

In art

Charity, by French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1878

Lemminkäinen's Mother, an 1897 painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela: She is shown having just gathered her son's Lemminkäinen's broken body from the dark river.

This Congolese figure was used to protect women who had lost successive children to miscarriages or infant death and is considered one of the great masterpieces of African Art. Brooklyn Museum

Throughout history, mothers have been depicted in a variety of art works, including paintings, sculptures and written texts, that have helped define the cultural meaning of 'mother', as well as ideals and taboos of motherhood.

Fourth century grave reliefs on the island of Rhodes depicted mothers with children.

Paintings of mothers with their children have a long tradition in France. In the 18th century, these works embodied the Enlightenment's preoccupation with strong family bonds and the relation between mothers and children.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Mary Cassatt was a painter well known for her portraits of mothers.

American poet, essayist and feminist Adrienne Rich has noted "the disjuncture between motherhood as patriarchal institution and motherhood as complexly and variously lived experience". The vast majority of works depicting motherhood in western art history have been created by artists who are men, with very few having been created by women or mothers themselves, and these often focus on the "institution of motherhood" rather than diverse lived experiences. At the same time, art concerning motherhood has been historically marginalized within the feminist art movement, though this is changing with an increasing number of feminist publications addressing this topic.

The institution of motherhood in western art is often depicted through "the myth of the all-loving, all-forgiving and all-sacrificing mother" and related ideals. Examples include works featuring the Virgin Mary, an archetypal mother and a key historical basis for depictions of mothers in western art from the European Renaissance onwards. Mothers depicted in dominant art works are also primarily white, heterosexual, middle class and young or attractive.

These ideals of motherhood have been challenged by artists with lived experience as mothers. An example in western contemporary art is Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document. Bypassing typical themes of tenderness or nostalgia, this work documents in extensive detail the challenges, complexities and day-to-day realities of the mother-child relationship. Other artists have addressed similar aspects of motherhood that fall outside dominant ideals, including maternal ambivalence, desire, and the pursuit of self-fulfillment.   While the ideal of maternal self-sacrifice and the 'good mother' forms an important part of many works of art relating to the Holocaust, other women's Holocaust and post-Holocaust art has engaged more deeply with mothers' trauma, taboos, and the experiences of second and third-generation Holocaust survivors. For example, works by first-generation survivors of the Holocaust such as Ella Liebermann-Shiber and Shoshana Neuman have depicted mothers abandoning and suffocating their children in an effort to stay alive themselves.

Increasingly diverse representations of motherhood can be found in contemporary works of art. Catherine Opie's self-portrait photographs, including of herself nursing, reference the existing Virgin Mary archetype while subverting its norms around sexuality by centering her identity as a lesbian. Rather than attempting to make her experience of motherhood fit into existing norms, Opie's photographs are "non-traditional and non-apologetic representations".

In her 2020 photography collection, Solana Cain explored the meaning of joy for Black mothers to challenge the lack of images in mainstream media that represent Black motherhood. Renee Cox's Yo Mama series of nude self-portraits challenge historical representations of both the black female body and of maternity and slavery in the US, the latter of which is often characterized by the "extreme passivity and devalued love" typically associated with motherhood.

Synonyms and translations

Mother with child in Peru

Mothers with children in liberated Guinea-Bissau, 1974

Main article: Mama and papa

The proverbial "first word" of an infant often sounds like "ma" or "mama". This strong association of that sound with "mother" has persisted in nearly every language on earth, countering the natural localization of language.

Familiar or colloquial terms for mother in English are:

• Ma(মা), Mata (মাতা), Amma (আম্মা), Ammu (আম্মু) used in Bangladesh, India.
• Aama, Mata used in Nepal
• Mom and mommy are used in the United States, Canada, South Africa, and parts of the West Midlands including Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
• Inay, Nanay, Mama, Ma, Mom, Mommy are used in the Philippines
• Mum and mummy and mama are used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Ireland.
• Ma, mam, and mammy are used in Netherlands, Ireland, the Northern areas of the United Kingdom, and Wales; it is also used in some areas of the United States.
• Mama was imported into Japan from American influence post-World War II, and is a less formal term for mother

In many other languages, similar pronunciations apply:

• Amma (அம்மா) or Thai (தாய்) in Tamil.
• Bi-ma (बिमा) in Bodo.
• Maa, aai, amma, and mata are used in languages of India like Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu etc.
• Mamá, mama, ma, and mami in Spanish
• Mama in Polish, German, Dutch, Russian and Slovak
• Māma (妈妈/媽媽) in Chinese
• Máma in Czech and in Ukrainian
• Maman in French and Persian
• Ma, mama in Indonesian
• Mamaí, mam in Irish
• Mamma in Italian, Icelandic, Latvian and Swedish
• Māman or mādar in Persian
• Mamãe or mãe in Portuguese
• Mā̃ (ਮਾਂ) in Punjabi
• Mõujì in Kashmiri
• Maa(ମା), Bou/Bau(ବୋଉ/ବଉ) in Odia
• Mama in Swahili
• Em (אם) in Hebrew
• A'ma (ܐܡܐ) in Aramaic
• Má or mẹ in Vietnamese
• Mam in Welsh
• Eomma (엄마, pronounced [ʌmma]) in Korean
• Mma in Tyap
• In many south Asian cultures and the Middle East, the mother is known as amma, oma, ammi or "ummi", or variations thereof. Many times, these terms denote affection or a maternal role in a child's life.

Etymology

Statue of Mother Armenia, aerial view in Yerevan

The modern English word is from Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor, from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr (cf. East Frisian muur, Dutch moeder, German Mutter), from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (cf. Irish máthair, Tocharian A mācar, B mācer, Lithuanian mótė). Other cognates include Latin māter, Greek μήτηρ, Common Slavic *mati (thence Russian мать (mat')), Persian مادر (madar), and Sanskrit मातृ (mātṛ).

Notable mothers in mythology

• Bachue
• Bithiah
• Demeter
• Yashoda
• Dewi Sri
• Eve
• Gaia
• Isis
• Jocasta
• Juno
• Kwan Yin
• Mary
• Parvati
• Queen Maya
• Sita
• Venus

Zoology

In zoology, particularly in mammals, a mother fills many similar biological functions as a human mother.

Mammals

Many other mammal mothers also have numerous commonalities with humans.

Primates

The behavior and role of mothers in non-human species is most similar in species most closely related to humans. This means great apes are most similar, then the broader superfamily of all apes, then all primates.

Meta-emotion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-emotion

Meta-emotion is "an organized and structured set of emotions and cognitions about the emotions, both one's own emotions and the emotions of others". This broad definition of meta-emotion sparked psychologists' interest in the topic, particularly regarding parental meta-emotion philosophy.

Meta-emotion refers to the idea that whenever we elicit a certain emotion, we also deal with subsequent emotions regarding how we experienced the primary emotion. While some psychologists have examined the influence of meta-emotions on how individuals interpret and deal with their own and others' emotions, much of the literature regarding meta-emotion has focused on how parental meta-emotion affects the social-emotional development of their children.

Meta-emotions can be short-term or long-term. The latter can be a source of discouragement or even psychological repression, or encouragement of specific emotions, having implications for personality traits, psychodynamics, family and group dynamics, organizational climate, emotional disorders, but also emotional awareness, and emotional intelligence.

Research by Gottman

In 1997, Gottman, Katz, & Hooven used the term meta-emotion to describe parents' reactions to their children's emotional displays. Baker, Fenning, & Crnic (2010) defined meta-emotion philosophy as "parental attitudes toward emotion".

Broadly speaking, meta-emotion encompasses both feelings and thoughts about emotion. According to Gottman et al. (2006), the term meta-emotion does not merely refer to an individual's emotional reactions to his or her own emotions, but refers also to the "executive functions of emotion". Greenberg (2002) suggested that meta-emotions are to be considered a type of "secondary emotion", a temporal concept in which a secondary emotion follows a primary emotion. For example, anxiety (the secondary emotion) may follow anger (the primary emotion).

The term meta-emotion was unexpectedly coined as a result of the initial work of Gottman et al. (1996). For years, developmental psychology research has focused on parental affect, responsiveness, and parenting style. Gottman, Katz, & Hooven (1996) believed that there was not enough attention given to parents' feelings and thoughts about their own emotions and their children's emotions. While researching the effects of parents' marital relationship on children, Gottman et al. (1996) found that there was a large variety of attitudes and philosophies that parents held about their own emotions and their children's emotions. In order to examine these differences, Katz & Gottman (1986) developed a meta-emotion interview and deemed the term "meta-emotion structure", to refer to parents' feelings about feelings. They believed that meta-emotion was a "pervasive and understudied dimension in emotion research". Katz & Gottman (1986) paralleled their concept of meta-emotion with that of the meta-cognition construct Metacognition. Hooven, Gottman, & Katz (1995) used the term "meta-emotion structure" to refer to "the parents' awareness of specific emotions, their awareness and acceptance of these emotions in their child, and their coaching of the emotion in their child". The results of their study demonstrated that parental meta-emotion variables were related to their abilities to both interact with their children and resolve marital conflict. Gottman, Katz & Hooven (1996) suggested that parents' own feelings and thoughts about their emotions strongly influence the ways in which they parent.

Types of parental meta-emotion philosophy

In their paper published in 1996, Gottman, Katz & Hooven outlined different types of parental meta-emotion philosophy. These include emotion-coaching philosophy and a dismissing meta-emotion philosophy. That there are two major meta-emotion philosophies continues to be the general consensus among psychologists studying meta-emotion: emotion-coaching philosophy, in which the parents are comfortable with the emotions of themselves and their children, and an emotion-dismissing philosophy in which parents view negative emotions as harmful.

Emotion-coaching philosophy

Parents who follow an emotion-coaching philosophy tend to be aware of their emotions and the emotions of others. They are able to talk about these emotions and help their children understand and express their emotions, particularly sadness and anger. The authors found a distinction between emotion-coaching philosophy and parental warmth.

There are five major characteristics of the emotion-coaching philosophy:

• The parent is aware of the child's emotion.
• The parent sees the child's emotion as an opportunity for intimacy or teaching.
• The parent helps the child to verbally label the emotions the child is having.
• The parent empathizes with or validates the child's emotion.
• The parent helps the child to problem solve (280).

A crucial aspect of the emotion-coaching philosophy is that the parent utilizes the child's negative emotions to form an emotional connection with their child, primarily for the reasons of intimacy and teaching.

Dismissive philosophy

Parents with a dismissing meta-emotion philosophy feel as though their child's anger or sadness could be harmful to their child, that their primary job is to alleviate these harmful emotions as quickly as possible, and that their child should know that these negative emotions will not last. Although parents with a dismissing philosophy may be sensitive to their child's emotions and truly want to be helpful, these parents believe that ignoring or denying negative emotions is the best approach to helping their children. Parents with a dismissing meta-emotion philosophy are often unable to provide insight into their child's emotions and do not view negative emotions as an opportunity for growth or intimacy. Parents may partake in a dismissing approach by attempting to distract the child or belittling the causes of the negative emotions.

Disapproving philosophy

Another possible type of parental meta-emotion is the disapproving philosophy. These parents reprimand their children for any type of emotional expression, even if the child's actions are appropriate. As a result, these children start to view their emotions as inappropriate and invalid, and have a difficult time with emotion regulation. For disapproving parents, negative emotions require a disciplinary response. Some disapproving parents may view their child's negative emotions as a means by which the child is attempting to manipulate or control the parent.

Impact of parental meta-emotion on children and adolescents

There have been many studies examining the impact of different parental meta-emotion philosophies on adolescents. For example, researchers have studied the relation between meta-emotion philosophy and adolescent depression, as well as the impact of parental meta-emotion on adolescent affect and coping skills. Other psychologists have examined the impact of maternal meta-emotion philosophy on children's attachment inclination.

Gottman et al. (1997) highlighted two specific aspects of parental meta-emotion that impact children and family outcomes: 1) emotional awareness, and 2) emotion coaching. Gottman, Katz, & Hooven—among the leading psychologists regarding meta-emotion—firmly believe in the significant impact of parental meta-emotion on many aspects of their children's lives: "There is evidence that from the beginning of a child's life, parents' interaction with the child has implications for the child's ability to self-regulate, focus attention, share intersubjective meaning, for the essential affectional bonds with parents, and be able to interact with a changing environment".

There has been a growing interest in examining the impact of the various types of parental meta-emotion philosophies on children's emotional states and depressive symptoms. For example, Hunter et al. (2011) examined the associations between the meta-emotion philosophies of fathers, mothers, and adolescents. They found that when parents held an emotion-coaching philosophy, the adolescents tended to have fewer behavioral and emotional issues. They concluded that: "The quality of the meta-emotion philosophy developed by adolescents may have implications for their mental health. In particular, evidence suggests that beliefs about emotion are relevant to depressive disorders, with negative beliefs associated with an increased risk for adolescent depression." Similarly, Katz & Hunter (2007) examined the effects of maternal meta-emotion on adolescent depressive symptoms. The authors found that adolescents with high levels of depressive symptoms tended to have mothers who were less accepting of their own emotions. Mothers who were more accepting of their own emotions tended to have adolescents with higher self-esteem, fewer externalizing problems, and fewer depressive symptoms. In conclusion, this study demonstrated a strong correlation between maternal meta-emotion philosophy and adolescent depression. Thus, these authors suggest that meta-emotion philosophy is related to adolescent depression and affect.

Another study found that mothers with a meta-emotion philosophy that is higher in both awareness and acceptance were correlated with fewer negative social behaviors during mother-child interactions. This suggests that maternal meta-emotion philosophy also influences the interactions between the mother and her adolescent. It would be interesting to examine whether or not this holds true for fathers and their adolescents as well.

Aside from examining the impact of parental meta-emotion on children's affect and depressive symptomatology, some psychologists have researched the influence of meta-emotion on the development of children's coping strategies. were interested in studying the nature versus nurture debate regarding children's development of coping strategies. To do so, they examined the impact of both temperament (nature) and parental meta-emotion philosophy (nurture) on the development of coping skills in early adolescents. The authors found many interactions between parental meta-emotion and the adolescent's temperament. For example, they found that emotion-coaching parenting was related to distraction coping strategies for children with lower negative affect and higher surgency. The authors concluded that parental meta-emotion philosophy styles can interact with a child's temperament and predict the adolescents' coping styles.

Impact on marital conflict or stability

Gottman et al. examined whether meta-emotion variables applied solely to parenting styles or if these variables also impacted a couple's marriage, reviewing the longitudinal stability of the participants' marriage and how the couples resolved their conflicts. They assessed both parents' sadness and anger meta-emotions.

Fathers

Gottman et al. found that fathers who are more aware of their sadness were more affectionate and have wives who were "less contemptuous and belligerent". Fathers who followed an emotion-coaching philosophy with concern to both sadness and anger were less defensive and more affectionate, but fathers who were merely aware of their own anger and their child's anger were more defensive and belligerent. Thus, the father's awareness of his anger was not necessarily a positive quality with concern to his marriage. On the other hand, fathers who maintained an emotion-coaching philosophy were more affectionate with their spouses and have wives who were also more affectionate and less contemptuous.

Mothers

Gottman et al. examined mothers' sadness and anger meta-emotions as well. They found that mothers who were aware of their own sadness and their children's sadness were less belligerent, and had husbands who were also less belligerent and contemptuous. Mothers who followed an emotion-coaching philosophy with concern to sadness tended to have husbands were "less disgusted and less belligerent". Gottman et al. found that mothers who were aware of their children's anger were less contemptuous, but also less affectionate toward their husbands. They concluded that for mothers, awareness of their child's emotions had a positive impact on marital interaction, but for fathers, awareness of his child's anger did not have positive implications for his marriage.

Friendships in adolescence

Rowsell et al. studied relationship between meta-emotion and friendships in adolescence. Students from five Australian high schools completed questionnaires. The total sample of participants was 795. They found that emotion identification skill in early adolescence was predictive of friendships for females in late adolescence. Specifically, girls starting out with low emotion identification skill in Grade 8 tended to have fewer female friendships and more male friendships in Grade 12. There were no effects for males. Lower initial emotion identification skill was associated with significant improvements in awareness over time, but these improvements had no effect on friendships in Grade 12. The emotion identification skill that girls enter high school with may influence their friendship composition into late adolescence.

Measuring meta-emotion philosophy

The meta-emotion interview is the most widely used measurement tool of meta-emotion. Each parent is separately interviewed about their own encounters with anger and sadness, their beliefs about emotional expression, and their attitudes and responses to their children's sadness and anger. This interview was semi-structured, allowing for flexibility for both the interviewer and the interviewee. The interview was audio-taped and designed to evaluate three dimensions of meta-emotion for sadness and anger: the parent's awareness of their own emotion, their awareness of the child's emotion, and the coaching of the child's emotion.

Gottman, Katz, & Hooven updated their first meta-emotion interview to target parents' awareness of their own emotions and their children's emotions, as well as the parents' method of interacting with their children when the child is actively experiencing emotions. The interview outlines four types of parenting styles: emotion-coaching, laissez-faire, dismissing, and disapproving. It is an hour-long structured interview that is scored from audio-tapes.

The primary goal of the most recent Meta-Emotion Interview (MEI) is to gain a clear idea of how an individual experiences a particular emotion. Although it was first used to examine the emotions of sadness and anger, it has since been expanded to include pride and love/affection. The MEI focuses on one emotion at a time—all the questions are answered about one particular emotion (i.e.: sadness) before the interviewer moves on to the next emotion. For each emotion, the individual is first asked about their childhood and how their family handled and expressed each emotion. Then, they are asked about how they experience the emotion now. The questions particularly target how they experience each emotion in their relationships with their spouse and/or child. The MEI also addresses nonverbal expressions of emotion. For example, the interviewer asks what the individual looks like when he or she experiences a particular emotion (i.e.: "What do you look like when you are sad?"). The MEI is videotaped and then coded using the MEI Coding System, which focuses on four main dimensions of emotion: awareness, acceptance, dysregulation, and coaching. Awareness refers to the extent to which the individual acknowledges that they are experiencing an emotion. Acceptance refers to whether the individual not only allows themselves to experience the emotion, but also feels comfortable expressing it. Dysregulation relates to the individual's reported difficulties regulating their expression of the particular emotion. Finally, coaching refers to the degree to which individuals are able to identify and accept others' (i.e.: spouse or child) emotional experience in a positive manner.

Lagacé-Séguin & Coplan (2005) constructed the first published self-report parenting scale (the Maternal Emotional Styles Questionnaire) used to measure emotion coaching and emotion dismissing meta-emotion philosophy. The psychometric properties (i.e, reliability and validity) of the MESQ were found to be more than acceptable and the measure has been used in conjunction with child temperament to predict social outcomes for children based on theory of Goodness of Fit.