Rotkirch Anna, Janhunen Kristiina
Population Research Institute, Väestöliitto, Helsinki, Finland.
Evol Psychol. 2010 Feb 18;8(1):90-106. doi: 10.1177/147470491000800108.
The recent emphasis on humans as cooperative breeders invites new research on human family dynamics. In this paper we look at maternal guilt as a consequence of conditional maternal investment. Solicited texts written by Finnish mothers with under school-aged children in 2007 (n = 63) described maternal emotions perceived as difficult and forbidden. Content analysis of guilt-inducing situations showed that guilt arose from diverging interest and negotiations between the mother and child (i.e., classic parent- offspring conflict). Also cultural expectations of extensive and perpetual high-quality maternal investment or the "motherhood myth" induced guilt in mothers. We argue that guilt plays an important role in maternal-investment regulation. Maternal guilt is predicted to vary with social and cultural context but also to show universal characteristics due to parent-offspring conflict and allomaternal manipulation. Results are preliminary and intended to stimulate research into the mechanisms, gender differences and cultural variations of guilt and other social emotions in human parenting.
最近对人类作为合作繁殖者的强调引发了对人类家庭动态的新研究。在本文中，我们将母亲的内疚感视为有条件母亲投资的结果。2007年收集的芬兰有学龄以下儿童的母亲撰写的文本（n = 63）描述了被视为困难和禁忌的母亲情绪。对引发内疚感的情况进行的内容分析表明，内疚感源于母亲和孩子之间利益的分歧和协商（即经典的亲子冲突）。此外，对广泛且持久的高质量母亲投资的文化期望或“母亲神话”也会使母亲产生内疚感。我们认为，内疚感在母亲投资调节中起着重要作用。预计母亲的内疚感会因社会和文化背景而异，但由于亲子冲突和异亲操纵，也会呈现出普遍特征。研究结果是初步的，旨在激发对人类养育中内疚感和其他社会情绪的机制、性别差异及文化差异的研究。
