Theorizing Motherhood and Emerging Adulthood: Representations, Explorations, and Contentions

While motherhood as an area of scholarship has been significantly advanced with extensive global theorizations, examinations of the thinking and experiences around mothering emerging adults are still in need of deeper interrogation. This edited volume addresses this gap with a rich array of empirical, reflective and creative pieces that speak to the contextual, emotive or affective, discursive and performative aspects of mothering. The volume is framed around the theoretical concepts of normative motherhood, maternal regret, silence and maternal/social transitions. The contributing authors bring to light new and innovative analyses on subjects including, but not limited to, eco-disconnect, non-proximate and e-mothering, neurodiversity, abuse, mental health issues and mothering, tiger mothering and racialized understandings of mothering emerging adults. The findings revealed within this volume broaden our understanding of the often-unexamined latter period of the motherhood arc.