Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

This paper provides enlightenment on the meaning of the coping experience for new mothers. Coping strategies used by mothers of young children is an important area to explore because feeling in control of one’s environment has important consequences for health, well-being, and feelings of confidence and adequacy in the motherhood role. From a wellness and empowerment perspective, effective coping depends on an individual’s personal evaluation of the situation. Much of the existing research on women’s mental health has not clarified the nature of the coping experience from a subjective wellness perspective, nor taken a grounded theory approach using the participant’s own words and meanings to describe the experience. Well or healthy mothers constitute the majority of the population, however, the focus has been on “not-coping,” or unhealthy approaches. Taking a new health promoting approach, this paper will illustrate the strategies mothers use to positively cope with their environment. As past ‘health’ literature has primarily focused on a deficit and illness-based model of coping, this discussion opens up new horizons and dialogues related to what “coping” can actually mean when underpinned by a well-being paradigm.