This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0192513X08315362v1 29/10/1298    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Trinder, L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Maternal Gate Closing and Gate Opening in Postdivorce Families

Newcastle University, United Kingdom, liz.trinder{at}newcastle.ac.uk

This study explores the processes by which custodial mothers can support and inhibit fathers' relationships following divorce and separation. It draws on qualitative interviews with resident mothers and nonresident fathers from 54 separated families, including 22 sets of former couples. The study found that mothers adopt a range of strategies, from proactive gate opening to gate closing, and that these strategies appear influential. Maternal perceptions of paternal competence and child welfare beliefs, parental relationship quality, and parental role bargains were strongly linked to different types of maternal gatekeeping. Informed by systems theory, the interviews of former couples suggest that gate work, whether gate opening or gate closing, can be a dynamic transactional process rather than a linear and unidirectional process running from mothers to fathers.

Key Words: gatekeeping • facilitation • visitation • divorce

This version was published on October 1, 2008

Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 29, No. 10, 1298-1324 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0192513X08315362


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?