Finding beauty in the struggle: Using relational dialectics theory to analyze discourses that influence what it means to be both mom and caregiver to a child with medical complexities

Abstract

One in four chronically ill children in the United States has a complex chronic condition (CCC) (Rezaee & Pollock, 2015). Most parental caregivers for children with CCCs are mothers as they work to meet societal expectations of what “good mothering” entails (Israr, 2019; Benjamin et al., 2019). “Good” mothers must be “committed, ever available, [and] deeply involved” while caring for their child in a “seamless, … natural, and organic” way (Musick et al., 2016). Relational dialectics theory (Baxter, 2008) analyzes how communication is ripe with contradictions, or discourses. Our study focuses on how dominant centripetal discourses interplay with each other to create transformative instances.