Socioeconomic-related differences in Turkish mothers’ autonomy granting to adolescents

Abstract

This study aims to gain insight into mothers of adolescence’s conceptualization of the adolescence period and their understanding toward adolescence’s autonomy in the context of their socioeconomic status (SES), more specifically their education level. The sample consisted of 20 high-SES (Mage = 45.87, SDage = 3.51) and 20 low-SES mothers (Mage = 40.20, SDage = 4.93) who have children in the mid-adolescence period (20 girls, 20 boys, Mage = 15.71, SDage = .55). For data collection, each mother was interviewed in-depth individually and filled out a demographic information form. Mothers were asked to describe the period of adolescence, its difference from childhood and adulthood, as well as their expectations of a well-functioning adolescent. Finally, mothers were asked to reflect on possible generational differences in autonomy granting. Results revealed that mothers from low-SES were more likely to associate the adolescence period with children’s experience of anger, annoyance, and negative mood than high-SES mothers. It was also found that high-SES mothers mentioned about individualistic competences and low-SES mothers mentioned about relational competences when they describe a well-functioning adolescence based on their maternal beliefs. There were also differences in some topics of psychological autonomy granting (asking for child’s opinions and voicing own opinions) between two groups of mothers, mothers from high-SES group who indicated their positive attitude toward this dimension of autonomy were more than low-SES group. Generational differences were also more apparent in the response of low-SES mothers, while high-SES mothers mentioned about more similarities with their own parents.