Identity Salience and Motherhood: A Test of Stryker's Theory

Abstract

Based on a sample of 132 primiparous women, Stryker's (1968) central hypotheses concerning the salience of mothering identity are supported weakly: 1) the readiness to invoke a mothering identity in diverse situations (i.e., identity salience) covaries with the intensity of feelings associated with being a «good» or a «bad» mother (conceptualized as identity prominence); 2) both aspects of identity are predicted from the qualitative but not the quantitative dimension of role commitment; 3) identity predicts two facets of role behavior: making sacrifices for the child and acceptance of mothering burdens. Predictions of identity and behavior are improved marginally by including role praise, role gratification, and role strain in the analysis. Child's age, mother's age, and marital status are significant background variables