Abstract
There are many factors that effect maternal gatekeeping, which is defined as the behaviors of mothers that encourage, control or discourage the father-child relationship. In this study, it is aimed to examine the mother characteristics that affect the gatekeeping behaviors of mothers who have children in early childhood. The sample of the study consists of 385 mothers with a mean age of 32.71 (S = 7.61). Participants completed the Maternal Gatekeeping Scale, Parental Self-Efficacy Scale, Gender Roles Attitude Scale, Semantic Differentation Scale-Myself as Mother, Perception Measurement for Father’s Role, Parenting Daily Hassles Scale and demographic information form. According to the results of the hierarchical regression analysis conducted separately for each gatekeeping behavior; mother's perception of paternal role, perception of father's competence and motherhood self-assessment predicted the encouragement dimension positively and discouragement dimension negatively. In addition, it was found that the traditional gender roles of the mother negatively predicted the encouragement, but positively predicted the control. Finally, it was found that daily difficulties experienced by the mother in raising a child positively predicted discouragement and control. It is thought that the results obtained from the study are important in terms of understanding the mother characteristics underlying maternal gatekeeping behaviors and being a guide for intervention programs.
Keywords
Maternal gatekeeping, maternal self-assessment, traditional gender roles, paternity role perception, paternal competence