Motherhood, Identity and Consumption
ABSTRACT - Research suggests that major life transitions (such as becoming a mother) impact upon consumption patterns. Adopting an inductive and interpretative methodology, we examine the transition to motherhood of four women. It is noteworthy that role transition is structured by whether these women embraced their maternal identity or distanced themselves from it. The paper demonstrates how consumption is used in role enactment and identity construction. The paper concludes that, for these women, the 'nesting instinct’ equates with consumption.
Citation:
Rob Jennings and Lisa O’Malley (2003) ,"Motherhood, Identity and Consumption", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, eds. Darach Turley and Stephen Brown, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 221.
Research suggests that major life transitions (such as becoming a mother) impact upon consumption patterns. Adopting an inductive and interpretative methodology, we examine the transition to motherhood of four women. It is noteworthy that role transition is structured by whether these women embraced their maternal identity or distanced themselves from it. The paper demonstrates how consumption is used in role enactment and identity construction. The paper concludes that, for these women, the 'nesting instinct’ equates with consumption. ----------------------------------------
Authors
Rob Jennings, University of Nottingham, UK
Lisa O’Malley, University of Limerick, Ireland
Volume
E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6 | 2003
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