ABSTRACTFIGURING OUT MOTHERHOOD:A QUALITATIVE STUDY GROUNDED IN THE EXPERIENCES OF FIRST-TIME MOTHERS ByKayla Shareen-Runyan Katterman The transition to parenthood is believed to be one of the most challenging normative developmental life stages and has been associated with interpersonal distress, a decline in relationship satisfaction, increased divorce rates, and decreased family functioning; ultimately affecting later child well-being. Transition to parenthood literature is saturated with research focused on postpartum couple relationship outcomes, yet studies aimed at capturing lived transition experiences from a new parents' perspective are scarce. The present study utilized an ecological framework to address this gap by exploring new mothers' experiences of transitioning to motherhood. This study also draws from symbolic interactionism to explore how first-time mothers' indeed make sense of becoming a mother. A qualitative approach guided this study in which data was collected through 18 semi-structured interviews with first-time mothers in a committed relationship who had given birth within the past 12 months. The present sample represented a primarily Caucasian, middle-class, and educated group of new mothers. Data analysis followed the principles outlined by the reformulated grounded theory including the constant comparative method and a sequential process of open, axial, and selective coding of the data. Throughout the duration of the study, specific processes were carried out to ensure trustworthiness of the research findings. The findings revealed that first-time mothers encountered both internal and external processes that unfolded across the transition experiences, leading mothers to make sense of first-time motherhood. Mothers described five themes including influential systems relating to the transition, experiences of first-time motherhood, influential feedback experiences and processes, interpersonal process of figuring out first-time motherhood, understanding and meaning-making of first-time motherhood that ultimately informed construction of first-time mother's understanding and meaning making of lived experiences. Specifically, mother's described that these themes worked together wherein influential Systems and feedback experiences and processes provided the context in which experiences of first-time motherhood and the interpersonal process of "figuring it out" occurred. This daily feedback loop informed their greater understanding and meaning assigned to the transition experience. In sum, participants contributed to the understanding of a reciprocal path of motherhood experiences and demonstrated that there is not one linear way to achieve mastery of first-time motherhood. The emergent theory could inform future explorations of the transition to motherhood experience. This study also suggests implications for clinical intervention.
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