Mothers Speaking to Mothers: A Cross-Generational Conversation

Abstract

As described in chapter one, the five mothers who participated in the group interview represent a subset of the 15 mothers interviewed individually. All reside within a particular geographic region of a southeastern state. I recruited members of this group on the basis of their availability and willingness to participate. I had intended to recruit a diverse group with respect to race/culture and class; however, as I describe more extensively in chapter one, this goal proved more difficult to achieve than originally anticipated. Thus, all members of the group are White and represent the middle- to upper-class socioeconomic range. However, the group composition does reflect each generation of mothers as defined in the study. Mimi and Lindsey, whose respective children were born in 1968 and 1977, represent the first generation; Sue, whose child was born in 1984, represents the middle generation; and Kim and Katie, whose respective children were born in 1989 and 1990, represent the most current generation (see appendix F).