CHILDREN AND BLESSING

Paraskevopoulou-Kollia Efrosyni-Alkisti, Michalakopoulos Christos-Apostolos

Abstract


When a child is born, God (or whatever other force we believe in) smiles at us. In Greece, we have a word that we use when referring to some good luck that is associated with certain stages of our fate. This word is “gouri” (γούρι), essentially a “blessing”, or a “godsend” if you are more religiously inclined. We, therefore, decided to conduct this research because we regard it as highly important to determine and recognise the extent to which having children is indeed considered a blessing, as well as to identify mentalities, traditions, thoughts, views, and even fatigue and pain, not only in people who have children but also those we don’t – either because they never wanted to or because it never happened. These people, our cohort of subjects, are the key that unlocked the way to many beautiful things, as well as to some other, less colourful realities.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


social research, social work, Greece, qualitative research, children and blessing

Full Text:

PDF

References


Alsaawi, A. 2014. "A critical review of qualitative interviews." European Journal of Business and Social Sciences 3 (4). https://ssrn.com/abstract=2819536 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2819536.

Amorim, M. 2019. Are grandparents a blessing or a burden? Multigenerational coresidence and child-related spending. Social Science Research, 80, 132-144.

Baker, S.E., and E. Rosalind. 2012. "How many qualitative interviews is enough? Expert voices and early career reflections on sampling and cases in qualitative research." National Centre for Research Methods, 2-42.

Cameron, L. (2019). Social protection programs for women in developing countries. IZA World of Labor.

Carman, C.A. 2011. Stereotypes of giftedness in current and future educators. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 34(5), 790-812.

Cheung, F.M., and D.F. Halpern. 2010. Women at the top: Powerful leaders define success as work+ family in a culture of gender. American psychologist, 65(3), 182.

Christopher, K. 2012. Extensive mothering: Employed mothers’ constructions of the good mother. Gender & Society, 26(1), 73-96.

Crul, M. 2016. Super-diversity vs. assimilation: how complex diversity in majority-minority cities challenges the assumptions of assimilation. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(1), 54-68.

Diakakis, M., M. Skordoulis, and E. Savvidou 2021. The Relationships between Public Risk Perceptions of Climate Change, Environmental Sensitivity and Experience of Extreme Weather-Related Disasters: Evidence from Greece. Water, 13(20), 2842.

Downe‐Wamboldt, B. 1992. "Content analysis: method, applications, and issues." Health care for Women International 13 (3): 313-321.

Eagly, A.H., and A.M. Koenig. (2021). The vicious cycle linking stereotypes and social roles. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30(4), 343-350.

Elo, S., and H. Kyngäs. 2008. "The qualitative content analysis process." Journal of Advanced Nursing 62 (1): 107-115.

Ercikan, K., and W.M. Roth. 2014. "Limits of generalizing in education research: Why criteria for research generalization should include population heterogeneity and uses of knowledge claims." Teachers College Record 116 (4): 1-28.

Furstenberg, F.F. 2014. Fifty years of family change: from consensus to complexity. Ann. Am. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci. 654 (1), 12–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271621452452

Gallagher, M., M. Smith, M. Hardy, and H. Wilkinson. 2012. Children and families’ involvement in social work decision-making. Children & Society, 26(1), 74-85.

Glesne, C. 2018. Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction [I Piotiki Ereyna Odigos gia neous epistimones]. Vol. 1. Athens, Greece: Metaixmio.

Grzymala-Kazlowska, A., and J. Phillimore. 2018. Introduction: rethinking integration. New perspectives on adaptation and settlement in the era of super-diversity. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(2), 179-196.

Herreros Sánchez, C. 2023. The myths of romantic love and gender violence, understanding in order to act. Comunitania. International Journal of Social Work and Social Sciences, (25), 111–120. https://doi.org/10.5944/comunitania.25.6

Hjálmsdóttir, A., and V.S. Bjarnadóttir. 2021. “I have turned into a foreman here at home”: Families and work–life balance in times of COVID‐19 in a gender equality paradise. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(1), 268-283.

Hsieh, H.F., and S.E. Shannon. 2005. "Three approaches to qualitative content analysis." Qualitative health research 15 (9): 1277-1288.

Isari, F., and M. Pourkos. 2015. Qualitative research methodology [in Greek Piotiki methodologia erevnas]. Athens: Association of Greek Academic Books. http://hdl.handle.net/11419/5826

Johansson, K., C. Aarts, and E. Darj. 2010. "First-time parents' experiences of home-based postnatal care in Sweden." Upsala journal of medical sciences 115 (2): 131-137.

Leavitt, C.E., B.T. McDaniel, M.K. Maas, and M.E. Feinberg. 2017. "Parenting stress and sexual satisfaction among first-time parents: A dyadic approach." Sex roles 76 (5-6): 346-355.

Magdalen Sister. 2012. Reflections on children in the Orthodox Church today. Essex: Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist.

Morse, J.M. 2008. Confusing categories and themes. Sage Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA.

Nolte, D.L., and H. Ratchel. 2009. Children learn what they live. Athens: Thyme [Thimari].

Oomens, S.,S. Geurts, and P. Scheepers. 2007. Combining work and family in the Netherlands: Blessing or burden for one's mental health?. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 30(4-5), 369-384.

Ochando Ramírez, M.V., and J.M. Morcillo Martínez. 2023. Thinking about quality from Social Work: opinions and proposals. Comunitania. International Journal of Social Work and Social Sciences, (25), 75–96. https://doi.org/10.5944/comunitania.25.4

Papageorgiou, I. 2015. "Introdunction." Sampling Theory [in Greek Theoria digmatolipsias]. Athens: Association of Greek Academic Books. http://hdl.handle.net/11419/1297

Paraskevopoulou-Kollia, E-A. 2008. "Methodology of qualitative research in social sciences and interviews [in Greek Methodologia piotikis erevnas stis kinonikes epistimes kai sinentefksis]." Open Education-The Journal for Open and Distance Education and Educational Technology [in Greek Anikti Ekpedefsi: to periodiko gia tin Anikti kai Ex Apostaseos Ekpedefsi kai tin Ekpedeftiki Texnologia] 4 (1):72-81.

Paraskevopoulou-Kollia, E -A., C -A. Michalakopoulos, S. Dedotsi, and Z. Kourti. 2023. Research the Qualitative Research [in Greek Erevnontas tin piotiki erevna]. Athens: Papazisis Publications [in Greek Athina: Ekdosis Papazisi].

Pascual Lavilla, S. 2023. The family: from the beggining to the latest changes in Spain. Comunitania. International Journal of Social Work and Social Sciences, (24), 9–24. https://doi.org/10.5944/comunitania.24.1

Petkou, D., V. Andrea, and K. Anthrakopoulou. 2021 The Impact of Training Environmental Educators: Environmental Perceptions and Attitudes of Pre-Primary and Primary School Teachers in Greece. Educ. Sci. 2021, 11, 274. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11060274

Prasad, B.D. 2008. "Content analysis." Research methods for social work 5: 1-20. "The Price of Parental Stress." 2020. Exploring your mind. Last Modified 07/06/2020. Accessed 27/12/2021. https://exploringyourmind.com/the-price-of-parental-stress/.

Reich, C.A. (2020). Individual rights and social welfare: the emerging legal issues. In Welfare Law (pp. 255-267). Routledge.

Rottenberg, C. 2017. Neoliberal feminism and the future of human capital. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 42(2), 329-348.

Rogowski, S. 2012. Social work with children and families: Challenges and possibilities in the neo-liberal world. British Journal of Social Work, 42(5), 921-940.

Saldana, J. 2009. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. London: SAGE.

Samulowitz, A., I. Gremyr, E. Eriksson, and G. Hensing. 2018. “Brave men” and “emotional women”: A theory-guided literature review on gender bias in health care and gendered norms towards patients with chronic pain. Pain Research and Management, vol. 2018, Article ID 6358624, 14 pages, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6358624

Schrock, D. 2013. "Equipping the Generations: Children: A Blessed Necessity for Christian Marriages." Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry 4: 62-64.

Settle, B., and B. Krista. 2014. "'It’s the Choices You Make That Get You There': Decision-Making Pathways of Childfree Women." Michigan Family Review 18 (1).

Sigalow, E., S. Michelle, and R.B. Meredith. 2012. "Religion and decisions about marriage, residence, occupation, and children." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 51 (2): 304-323.

The Guardian. 2017. "Childless: why is society so frightened of women without children?" YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9baT5xQri2o.

Williams, C.L. (2023). Still a man's world: Men who do women's work (Vol. 1). Univ of California Press.

---. 2020. "Being childfree by choice: five women on why they decided not to have kids" YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9Q644-1lNE.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejae.v9i1.5315

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright © 2015 - 2023. European Journal of Alternative Education Studies (ISSN 2501-5915) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms.

All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).