Part of an ongoing longitudinal research project, a study was made to develop a method and a multilevel model for evaluating at its earliest stages the relationship between a mother and her child. The main hypothesis of the study was that the early mother-child relationship, consisting of maternal responses and a mother's images of her role in…

Results of a longitudinal study provide several insights into the idealization of motherhood, the idealization of mothers' relationships with their children in the years from 1 to 4, and the development of children of women who idealize motherhood. In the mother, idealization is associated with low self-esteem, denial of ambivalent feelings and…

In modern societies, children are becoming more and more users of a child culture constructed by adults, rather than producers of their own culture. This paper describes a project, implemented in Nordic child care centers and early childhood classes, that provides children the opportunity to narrate and illustrate their own stories, written down…