The objective of this study was to reveal how mothers who are raising a child perceive the existence of a “mom friend” (friend who is also a mother and is met through the shared commonality of raising a young child) through the process of constructing a relationship with mom friends. A semi structured interview was conducted with seven mothers as participants. The participants are full time homemakers with children who completed kindergarten. The interview asked questions about their relationships with other mothers from the time of pregnancy to immediately after their child started attending elementary school. The data was analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach.
As a result, four categories of[ acknowledging the existence],[ judging the quality of the relationship], [positioning], and [progresses in relationship], as well as eleven subcategories and thirty-two concepts included there, were developed. When mothers perceive the existence of mom friend by[ acknowledging the existence]. By interacting through various [judging the quality of the relationship], they determine the [positioning], ranking them within their lives. Thereafter, they experience [progresses in the relationship]. These results indicate that for mothers, the way they perceive mom friends continuously changes within the process of repeated constructions of relationships. It was implied that mom friends have by no means a stable existence and can be either positive or negative, depending on the changes to their child-raising state and the surrounding environment.
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