Annual of social work, Vol. 30 No. 3, 2023.
Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.3935/ljsr.v30i3.424
CHALLENGES OF PARENTHOOD OF ADOLESCENTS: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PARENTS’ EXPERIENCES
Ivana Macuka
orcid.org/0000-0002-8753-8991
; University of Zadar, Department of Psychology
Abstract
Parental role is one of the most demanding life experiences that can simultaneously be highly fulfilling, but is also very challenging and stressful. Parents frequently state that the period of adolescence of their children is one of the most challenging phases of parenthood due to intense changes in the development of children that affect their relationshionship with a child. Research focused on parents is scarce in Croatia, particularly qualitative research focused on the subjective experiences of parents. The dynamics of a modern family, expectations of parents, rapid technological growth and availability of different information about adolescents and positive parenthood are only some of the factors that can form the subjective experience of the parental role. The aim of this research is to grasp personal experience and challenges faced by parents of children in early adolescence. The qualitative research was conducted in different regions of Croatia (in Split, Biograd na moru, Benkovac and Varaždin), with the participation of 25 parents (19 mothers and 6 fathers) in four focus groups. In the analysis of the results obtained, the research questions posed to the parents are examined in detail, with a categorization of individual topics related to their subjective experience of parenthood and the opinion of what is it like to be a parent today compared to previous generations of parents. The paper also presents the analyses of the responses of parents about the educational methods used and the key problems that they state related to the communication with children and the reasons for conflicts, as well as perceived sources of support in parenthood.
Keywords
subjective experiences of parents; qualitative research; adolescents; focus group
Hrčak ID:
317341
URI
Publication date:
30.4.2024.
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