Analyse des représentations parentales dans le discours de parents d’enfant de 4 mois

Abstract

Aim

The child's place in our society has largely evolved over the past few decades. This has led to numerous public policies to tackle social inequalities in health care from an early age. Parenting support is one of the enhanced strategy actions and aims put in place, in particular, to strengthen the bonds of attachment and promote a child's development. The quality of attachment and parent–child interactions is correlated with parents’ representations of their children. The objective of the study is to report current parental representations of newborn children in the French population in general.

Method

As part of the PERL study, an ancillary study was conducted on parental representations. The interviews were conducted with the control families. The analysis was based on the method of conceptual categories in order to bring out the salient elements relating to parental representations and feelings associated with parenthood.

Results

Among the analyzed discourses, parents have constructed the representations of their child, from the child's age of 4 months. These representations identify the 4-month-old child as being capable of making choices, having preferences, acting in the environment, and communicating with others. In addition, parents’ representations of themselves highlighted various feelings experienced concerning parenthood, the exercise of this new role, and the new parental behaviors towards the child, as a result of the disruption of being a parent. Parents also experienced a variety of feelings associated with parenting, parenthood, and their new role.