Scholarly record

REGRETTING MOTHERHOOD AS A NEW INVESTIGATION SUBJECT IN RUSSIAN SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE

M. Bicharova, I. Lebedeva, N. Tyrnova

Abstract

The article reflects the results of investigation the phenomenon “childfree”, the movement joining the people who voluntary refused from childbearing. During the analysis of motivational orientations, worldview positions and axiological guides of the ideology followers it was revealed a special kind of childfree. These are so-called “regretting mothers” – women having children but regretting of their birth. A wide discussion of this problem began after the publication of the study results of the Israeli sociologist O. Donat, devoted to the consideration of the ambiguous attitude to motherhood. Donat comes to conclusion that the almost taboo problem of maternity regret does not just exist, but goes beyond the tolerant European society and can be relevant in any country of the world. Perhaps for the first time this delicate topic was so clearly articulated by the scientific public. In Germany, it caused a particularly emotional response. German scientists conducted repeated studies and obtained similar results, having studied some aspects of the problem more deeply. The authors observe the book of German sociologist Ch. Mundlos “Wenn Mutter sein nicht glücklich macht: Das Phänomen Regretting Motherhood”, which gives life situations of German women who regret that they gave birth to their children. The parallel with similar situations in Russian families is made by the authors. The results of in-depth interview with an anonymous representative of “regretting mothers” are given in the article.

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