Self -psychological issues for mothers who launch their firstborn to colleg

This exploratory study investigated adult use of normative life experience for achieving developmental progress. A semi-structured interview was administered to a nonclinical convenience sample of 15 mothers who were launching their firstborn child. Study subjects were the biological mothers of their index children, in their first marriages, and had additional children at home. Self psychology provided a useful theoretical framework for accessing internal process and conceptualizing the transformation of selfobject loss. The semi-structured interview administered to subjects investigated the cognitive, behavioral, and affective features of maternal response to launching. Content areas addressed maternal experience of parenting their index child, history of maternal transitional experience and loss, mothers' personal growth, and resolutions of this developmental phase. The results indicated that most mothers experienced some transient loss of self-cohesion or disruption in their sense of self as well as growth in the process of launching their firstborn child. Findings revealed pathways as well as derailments to transformation of selfobject loss. These pathways emphasized how each mother used the selfobject relationship with her index child in reworking her childhood disappointments and the importance of self and mutual regulation and responsiveness in negotiation of this selfobject relationship. Coping strategies specific to the launching phase were mentorship from launching experienced parents, the use of transitional selfobjects, and maintaining a sustaining selfobject milieu. Most mothers experienced an increased sense of pride and competence as a result of successfully launching their firstborn. Mothers reconciled choices made in the past, acknowledged their own aging, and were looking ahead to their self-development. Since this study explored the experiences of a small, homogeneous group of subjects, reported trends should be tested against the experiences of a larger sample.