Parenting Double-Bind and the Intergenerational Dynamics of Autonomy and Relatedness

Abstract

This article discusses the potential role of parenting double bind interactions on the shifts in the balance and forms of coexistence between autonomy and relatedness across generations, using three case-studies conducted among Punjab (Sikh), Indo-Mozambican (Muslim) and Cape Verdean (Christian) migrant families settled in Portugal. Although the double bind construct has been applied mostly on psychological dysfunctional families, the comparative analysis shows that double binds within the mother–child relationship should be reconceptualised as potentially adaptive and creative responses to changing multilayered demands rather than as an inability to resolve a conflicting impasse. By adjusting, through caregiving, culture-specific developmental goals and practices to unequal balances between autonomy and relatedness in their current migration context, the mothers we worked with represent a stark contrast with official political discourse which tends to view migrant mothering as simply based on intergenerational continuity.