Positioning the Past, Imagining the Future: Chinese Mothers’ Discursive Constructions of Caregiving Identity

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: (Re)Imagining Language, Identity, and Belonging Across Transnational Contexts

Abstract

This study examines how Chinese mothers construct their current caregiving identities by reflecting on their childhood relationships with their own parents. Using Positioning Theory as a guiding framework, we analyze narrative discourse drawn from interviews with 13 Mandarin-speaking mothers of young children in urban China. Our analysis identified four distinct storylines: (1) rejecting inherited emotional distance, (2) affirming intergenerational closeness, (3) negotiating caregiving with grandparents, and (4) redefining parenting as a forward-looking endeavor. These storylines illustrate how mothers use language to navigate shifting cultural expectations and make sense of caregiving across generations. This study addresses a gap in the literature on Chinese parenting by offering new insight into how caregiving values are interpreted, adapted, and reimagined.

Authors

• Chunru Dong, University of Maryland

• Jennifer Danridge Turner, University of Maryland