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Altering the Parenting Role: Parents’ Experience of Supporting the Health and Well-Being of Their Adolescent Girls

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Abstract

Background

In research the relationships between parents and their adolescent daughters have been viewed from problem oriented perspectives, usually exploring negative effects and health-related problems. Health and well-being are complex phenomena and knowledge is needed on how parents can support the health and well-being of their daughter.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to illuminate parents’ experiences of supporting the health and well-being of their adolescent girls.

Methods

A descriptive design with a phenomenological approach including interviews, individually or in group with ten mothers and five fathers was conducted.

Results

Supporting the health and well-being of adolescent girls was experienced as challenging. The parents needed to altering the parenting role: from being the one who had previously set the limits they needed to rethink and be available for support. In this process interplay, communication and trust were important to support the health and well-being of the girls in an efficient way. This meaning was further illuminated by four constituents: Balancing the need for control, maintaining a trusting relationship, interplay to facilitate their daughters’ transition to independence, and an ambiguous parenting role.

Conclusions

This study highlights the importance of parents being involved in the everyday life of their adolescent daughter to support her health and well-being. The parents’ ability to contribute to the health and well-being of their girl seemed in this study dependent on their ability to communicate and alter the parenting role with sensitivity to the lifeworld of the adolescent girl.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the parents who willingly shared their life experiences with us and therefore made this research possible. This study was supported by grants from the Skaraborg Institute for Research and Development, Skövde, Sweden.

Conflict of interest

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Linnaeus University of Växjö, Växjö, Sweden

    Margaretha Larsson & Margaretha Ekebergh

  2. School of Health and Education, University of Skövde, Box 408, 54128, Skövde, Sweden

    Margaretha Larsson, Annelie Johansson Sundler & Maria Björk

  3. School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalens University, Västerås, Sweden

    Annelie Johansson Sundler

  4. The Research Group CHILD, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden

    Maria Björk

Authors
  1. Margaretha Larsson
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  2. Annelie Johansson Sundler
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  3. Margaretha Ekebergh
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  4. Maria Björk
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Margaretha Larsson.

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Larsson, M., Sundler, A.J., Ekebergh, M. et al. Altering the Parenting Role: Parents’ Experience of Supporting the Health and Well-Being of Their Adolescent Girls. Child Youth Care Forum 44, 419–432 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-014-9287-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-014-9287-5

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