Questioned parents and the professional gaze. Negotiating the organizational narratives of the at-risk parent

What is it about?

This article aims at a better understanding of parents’ identity work when their parenting skills are questioned, in an organizational setting. The parents in this study were assessed as at risk of unsatisfactory parental functioning due to problems related to drugs, mental health and/or psychosocial functioning, and they were observed and offered guidance at an extended health centre in Norway. The article explores how individual self-presentations are interwoven with and dependent on organizational narratives of identity. Approach: Based on an analysis of 16 qualitative interviews, three exemplary cases are analysed in detail. Findings: Parents and service providers negotiate which organizational narratives of identity that are available, and the narratives are integrated in parents’ self-presentations in different ways. The most common strategy is to accept the organizational narratives offered, but they are also transformed and rejected. The experience of being seen by an empathic professional gaze contribute to the creation of an acceptable self-narrative. Practical implications: Tending to parents’ identity needs should be an integral part of services provided. If parents are to cooperate with state services and engage in interventions, their needs for preserving an acceptable and coherent self-narrative must be considered. We suggest that a more explicit awareness of how service provision entails both help and control, and how this may affect clients’ identity work and cooperation, could be useful for health visitors and other professionals interacting with parents.

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