| Abstract [eng] |
Metrikytė, O (2026). Being a mother and a psychologist: school psychologists' experiences of motherhood during their child's adolescence. Master's thesis. Vilnius: Vilnius University 61 pp. The intersection of professional and motherhood roles is one of the most personally experienced yet academically least explored aspects of school psychologists' lives. Since the majority of school psychologists are women and mothers (Livingston, 2018), Bryant and Constantine (2006) emphasised the need to examine their unique work and life-related experiences and found that balancing multiple roles is directly associated with their overall life satisfaction. However, research examining the overlap between school psychologists' professional experience and motherhood remains scarce, and the experience of motherhood specifically during a child's adolescence within this professional group remains entirely unexplored. The aim of this study is to reveal school psychologists' experiences of motherhood during their child's adolescence. Seven women working as school psychologists and raising adolescents aged 10–19 participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four main themes emerged from the study. Theme 1, “Through experience and knowledge towards authentic motherhood”, reveals motherhood as a unique constellation of each woman's circumstances and experiences, in which the profession occupies only one of many places, painful childhood experiences become a significant impulse to parent differently and the myth of the perfect psychologist-mother gives way to an authentic maternal reality. Theme 2 “Mutual enrichment of professional and motherhood roles” emerged as a reciprocal process in which professional knowledge enhances motherhood and motherhood experience deepens professional understanding. Theme 3, “Internal conflict and tension arising from professional and motherhood roles”, manifests through the difficulty of separating roles, self-criticism, and anxiety generated by professional knowledge. Theme 4, “Motherhood during child’s adolescence: between being present and letting go”, revealed adolescence as a stage requiring conscious connection, self-regulation, and support for the adolescent's autonomy, alongside the growing importance of consistent parenting and the natural transmission of psychological values. The findings of this study may serve as a valuable resource both for supervisors seeking guidance in conversations with psychologist-mothers and for the specialists themselves, aiming to recognise and normalise their own experiences. |
