Author(s): Özlem DOGAN-TEMUR and Hatice Zeynep INAN
Mothers are expected to take the responsibility of childrearing and childbearing of their children. Although “motherhood” in terms of women taking care of their own children has always been present in our lives, the level and nature of mothers’ interaction with their children shows varieties in different cultures. For example, variations of mother-child interaction in “play” and the structure of that play has become of interest to many educators and researchers. However, there is a gap in the literature about the nature and level of motherchild play. The current research aimed to interpret the mother-child play in-depth by examining how particular mothers perceive their children’s play by utilizing a qualitative research method, namely phenomenography. Some of the most important results of the study are as follows: there was the low level of awareness of mothers about what is play and what is not; mothers stated that they usually played with their children when they were available from their duties at home and set aside about 1 hour each day for play; mothers stated that they had a wide variety of objectives and aims for their play with their children, but homemaker mothers had more objectives for play than do employed mothers; mothers believed in the benefits of play for their children, mostly psycho-motor and cognitive developmental benefits; and both employed and homemaker mothers considered some other people responsible for playing with their children.
The Journal of International Social Research received 8982 citations as per Google Scholar report
