Objective To explore whether practical wisdom may provide a useful lens for understanding how mothers can address difficult childrearing problems more effectively when raising adolescents. Background One of the major difficulties of raising adolescents is that there are no clear‐cut responses or universal solutions to many of the problems that regularly arise. Parents are expected to make responsible decisions about complex, indefinite problems even though they may lack a thorough understanding of the situation and have little formal training in childrearing. Practical wisdom—the ability to make sound, ethical judgments and decisions about difficult and uncertain problems—may be a valuable asset for addressing such challenges. Method Thirty mothers of adolescents (12–17 years of age) were asked to reason aloud about how they would respond to a series of hypothetical childrearing dilemmas. Results Guided by prior work on practical wisdom, our qualitative analysis identified a complex combination of eight interrelated parenting wisdom strategies: Compassion for Self and Child, Integrative Thinking, Parenting Knowledge, Perspective‐Taking, Problem‐Framing, Purpose Identification, Reflection, and Socioemotional Awareness. Conclusion The findings provide evidence that mothers sometimes use a process that has been historically conceptualized as practical wisdom and offer insight into what some of these practices entail. Implications The identification of these wise problem‐solving strategies highlight an important overlooked aspect of childrearing and hold promise as a valuable asset for helping mothers address difficult parenting problems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.