Browsing by Author "De Goede, Christine"

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    Challenges couples face in managing family routines after the transition to parenthood
    (Stellenbosch University, Department of Social Work, 2016) De Goede, Christine; Greeff, Abraham
    Family routines improve family stability. However, it is unclear what impedes the formation of stable routines after life transitions. In this paper we discuss normative challenges that 10, mostly low-income, couples face in managing routines after becoming parents. Qualitative analysis revealed three themes: temporal incongruence, schedule derailment, and factors that increase task and temporal complexity. The seven sub-themes of the latter theme were transport limitations, workplace schedules, extended family involvement, child-related difficulties, health complications, incongruence between family member needs, and a composite of these factors. Results underscore the need to address context-specific family challenges related to time restrictions and scheduling.
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    Family routines during the adjustment and adaptation process of the transition to parenthood
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-03) De Goede, Christine; Greeff, A. P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The family life cycle perspective (McGoldrick & Carter, 2003) recognises that one normative life stressor for families is the transition to parenthood. Still, the Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation (McCubbin & McCubbin, 1996) holds that one protective resource that could help the family in the face of a stressor is family routines. Even though the Ecological-cultural Niche Model (Gallimore, Goldenberg & Weisner, 1993) gives us some understanding of the family routine as a psychological construct, many gaps exist in the literature. The aim of this qualitative grounded theory study was to better understand family routines as a resilience resource during the transition to parenthood. This aim was broken down into five research questions: (1) What do daily routines look like in the lives of firsttime parents? (2) Why are these family routines important to first-time parents? (3) What challenges do first-time parents face in sustaining their daily routines? (4) What assists firsttime parents in maintaining their daily routines? (5) What accommodations do first-time parents make to adapt to the arrival of their first child? In terms of methodology, ten Coloured couples whose first child was between one and four years of age and who resided in one northern suburb of Cape Town took part in semi-structured interviews. In terms of research question one, the data analysis revealed that family routines look like a sequence of unfolding activities and that this sequence is situated within a temporal structure; that the specific sequence and temporal structure are designed by the family to be functional; but that there also is temporal incongruence in the sequence of routines. Related to question two, the participants felt that their routines were important because a family routine is an opportunity to spend time together, and it is an opportunity for improving child development. For question three, the data analysis revealed that the challenges first-time parents face in sustaining their routines are extra-familial and intra-familial barriers that increase the task and temporal complexity of routines. The analysis of question four revealed that what assists parents in maintaining routines are extra-familial and intra-familial resources that decrease the task and temporal complexity of routines. Lastly, themes related to research question five showed that the accommodations that parents make in routines that help them adapt are temporal accommodations and idiosyncratic accommodations. In future, researchers and theorists should not only investigate an individual family routine in isolation (e.g. just dinnertime or just bedtime), but also look at the structure of the entire daily schedule, the scheduling process, and how the functionality of this daily schedule affects the experience of individual routines. Greater emphasis should also be placed on diverse samples from many ecological and cultural contexts in order to identify more extra-familial and intra-familial barriers and resources that affect the maintenance of a satisfying daily schedule.
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    The management of family routines by single, Xhosa-speaking mothers with young children
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) De Goede, Christine; Greeff, A. P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The majority (40%) of South African children are raised by single mothers. Single mothers often deal with a unique combination of social and economic stressors, putting them and their children at greater risk of a range of negative outcomes. Yet family routines can be a vital resilience resource. Routines help to maintain order and stability in the home; they foster a sense of belonging and group cohesion; and they are spaces where caretakers teach children unique context-specific competencies and values. In this grounded theory study, single (i.e. unmarried and unpartnered) Xhosa-speaking mothers (N = 26) who live in abject poverty were sampled from several peri-urban, informal settlements outside of Cape Town, South Africa. The study’s aim was to understand how these women manage their family routines after becoming parents. Semi-structured interviews (n = 21) and naturalistic home observations (n = 8) showed that routines can be hampered by maternal Intrapsychic risks (e.g. cognitive and affective difficulties such as stress and anxiety, feelings of worthlessness or psychological unpreparedness for motherhood), normative Parenting challenges (e.g. child misbehaviour or parental inexperience), Scheduling challenges (e.g. time starvation or chaotic daily rosters), Interpersonal risks (e.g. community stigma, not meeting family-of-origin expectations, or conflict with the biological father), and Economic risks (e.g. unemployment, halted education, or lack of basic needs). Yet women inherently also experienced personal growth during this phase of life and tapped into an extensive range of intra- and interpersonal competencies. The management of family routines concerned five adaptive processes: Managing maternal mental health (e.g. cognitive, affective, conative and behavioural strategies that mothers used to retain or regain positive feelings, achieve role balance, and increase motivation); Assistive parent-child actions and interactions during routines (e.g. immediate mother-child transactions within the proximal space that improved task execution and mother-child experiences); Scheduling actions (e.g. strategies that helped women manage limited resources such as time, balance packed rosters, and improve timetable stability); Managing and coordinating significant adult relationships (e.g. extra- and intrafamilial adult relationships that mothers cultivated and accessed for support); and Attenuating economic risks. The findings demonstrate the profoundly dynamic nature of the management process, highlighting key pre- and postpartum contextual obstacles, as well as powerful strengths in single-mother families. To bolster family routines, practitioners should not focus exclusively on postpartum phases of adaptation, but also consider the events that cause women’s single-parent status and the impact of these experiences on maternal mental health.