Defining a theoretical framework for information seeking and parenting. Concepts and themes from a study with mothers supportive of attachment parenting
| Pages | 186-209 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2016-0047 |
| Published date | 13 March 2017 |
| Date | 13 March 2017 |
| Author | Michela Montesi,Belén Álvarez Bornstein |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Defining a theoretical framework
for information seeking
and parenting
Concepts and themes from a study with
mothers supportive of attachment parenting
Michela Montesi
Facultad de Ciencias de la Documentación, Madrid, Spain, and
Belén Álvarez Bornstein
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –Information seeking for child-rearing is an increasingly popular topic in the medical and social
science literature, though a theoretical framework in which to understand this phenomenon is still missing.
The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach –The authors present results from a qualitative research in which data
were obtained from 21 interviews and the personal experience of one of the authors. Participants were all
mothers supportive of attachment parenting, a parenting style inspired by attachment theory which
advocates making parenting decisions on a strong basis of information. They were recruited in several
Spanish autonomous communities and interviewed between April and July 2015.
Findings –Results were analyzed using grounded theory and allowed to define five major themes: becoming
a mother implies a new perception of oneself in which it is common to feel more in need for information; the
need to search for information originates in situations of “conflict”or crisis, or as a consequence of conflicting
information; information is judged and weighed on the basis of affect and perceptions; scientific and
experiential knowledge are valued as complementary; and finally, information seeking appears as one activity
of identity work.
Originality/value –Placing conflict, instead of uncertainty, at the beginning of the search process allows to
emphasize the role of information seeking in mediating relationships and interactions at a societal level.
From this point of view, the authors understand that LIS should pay more attention to information seeking as
an important factor in social change.
Keywords Conflict, Affect, Motherhood, Information seeking, Identity work, Information sources,
Experiential knowledge, Attachment parenting, Conflicting information
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Parenting these days implies consuming a great deal of information. The Pew Research
Center statistics on health information seeking on the web indicate that pregnancy and
delivery are amongst the most searched topics by Americans (Fox and Duggan, 2013). The
reasons for going online include a higher degree of consciousness and less support from
family members (Plantin and Daneback, 2009). In their review, Plantin and Daneback (2009)
concluded that on the web parents find information and support, obtain experiential advice,
and make up for the diminished support from family members and friends by interacting
with other parents. It comes as no surprise then that parents’information seeking has
become a topic of interest for many disciplines, since at least the beginning of the twenty-
first century, including the health sciences, sociology, feminist studies, education and
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 2, 2017
pp. 186-209
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-04-2016-0047
Received 27 April 2016
Revised 15 July 2016
Accepted 4 September 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
The authors would like to thank all participants in this study for the time and precious information
they gave to the authors. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their
helpful comments and contribution to the improvement of this paper.
186
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73,2
information science. The first works on the topic published in the medical literature date
back to 1997, according to Daneback and Plantin (2008). These earliest studies tended to
recommend useful websites to parents, whereas since approximately 2002 research centered
on online support groups (Daneback and Plantin, 2008). Much work has been done on the
topic within the health sciences, since the presence of parents on the social web may have
important implications for certain health services and improve both mother and child’s
health (Nieuwboer et al., 2013). Some studies have even found a relationship between the
presence on the social web and mothers’well-being, as through the internet women can
connect with their extended family and friends and feel a stronger social support
(McDaniel et al., 2012). Social support seems to be a major asset of social media use for
parents (Doty and Dworkin, 2014). Niela-Vilén et al. (2014) review several studies on parents’
information seeking on the social web, confirming its double function both informative and
supportive-emotional. On different social platforms, parents obtain information from
professional sources as well as other parents’experiences at the right time. Social media and
parenting were also the topic of a Pew Research Center report in which mothers appeared to
use social media more often than fathers, and parents in general turned out to use the
internet more often than the general adult population (Duggan et al., 2015).
Information seeking for parenting, as health information seeking in general, is mostly a
femaleactivity.InthestudiesreviewedbyPlantin and Daneback (2009), 85-95 percent of
parental internet users resulted to be women, while respondents to Radey and Randolph’s
(2009) survey about information sources used for parenting were mostly women
(69 percent mothers against 31 percent fathers). This explains why this topic has also been
studied in sociology and feminist literature. Within the sociology of motherhood,
information has been mentioned as a key element of the so called “intensive mothering”
ideology, a parenting style based on expert knowledge, emotionallyabsorbing and of high
dedication (Chae, 2015). Conceptualized for the first time by sociologist Hays (1996),
intensive mothering has been criticized because conceives of motherhood as a stage in
which mothers set their own needs aside and dedicate entirely to their children
(Medina and Magnuson, 2009). Some recent feminist literature has studied the topic of
“mommy bloggers”with special interest. Reproducing the genre of diary, blogs allow
mothers to tell their daily life, showing the ugly face of mothering against the idealized
discourse of mass media. In this sense, keeping a blog becomes a liberating activity for
their authors (Lopez, 2009). On the other hand, blogs allow the creation of a community in
which participants give and receive support and end up becoming friends. Dialoguing and
interacting with other members of their community, bloggers discover themselves and
define their identity (Webb and Lee, 2011).
Feminist themes emerge also in some works carried out within the areas of artificial
intelligence and human-computer interaction, and Valtchanov et al. (2014) describe
the empowering functionalities of a social networking site for mums in terms of
“cyberfeminism.”Gibson and Hanson (2013) confirm that information and communication
technologies provide mothers with the tools to improve their self-esteem and reinforce their
identity. Schoenebeck (2013), analyzing a sample from 51 million posts sent to the website
YouBeMom.com, highlights that this space of interaction offers mothers anonymity and
opportunities to get rid of their inhibition. Ringel Morris (2014) suggests that social network
sites should make design and usability changes in order to meet the different needs of new
mothers, including supporting social information seeking.
Education and pedagogy as well have shown some interest in the topic of parenting
information seeking. Radey and Randolph (2009) surveyed 1,240 parents to find out which
demographic factors had an impact on the information sources used and the use of the
internet. They found that education levels, age and marital status were all related with the
use of different information sources –newspapers, television, books, family and friends,
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