In describing their children's birth
mothers, the adoptive mothers try to reconcile their gratitude for the opportunity to parent with an understanding of how they could relinquish a child.
For many of the
mothers, the most difficult aspect of coping with fathers' absence was the effect it had on their children.
Often, as treatment transforms their
mothers, the children have to get to know them all over again, Smith said.
Compared with normal
mothers, the mutant females took 8 times longer to build nests and 11 times longer to retrieve wayward pups.
The focus of the study was to present definitions of child support from both noncustodial fathers and custodial
mothers, the barriers they experience that prevent child support and visitation, and suggestions the parents have for improvements in the child support system.
Some of these groups were local, but Grant also investigates the role of three national organizations--the National Congress of
Mothers, the Child Study Association of America, and the American Association of University Women--in the delicate dance between valuing and resisting "scientific" child-rearing advice.
Among the
mothers, the operation had "no detectable effect on future fertility," the team reports.
Despite the broad consensus among policy makers, charities and women's groups in favor of some form of subsidy for poor
mothers, the passage of the mothers' pensions bill led to sharp conflict over the program's cost, and who would control it.
Among children with healthy
mothers, the younger subjects--between 5 and 6 years old--reported fre symptoms of guilt and little emotional involvement in the problems of others, but the older children in this group displayed a marked increase in guilt.