Abstract
Approximately four million women become mothers every year in the United States alone (CDC 2013). Motherhood is often seen as a life changing experience, and one that carries with it a great deal of significance for a woman’s identity and self-concept (Michaels and Goldberg 1988). Indeed, according to Michaels et al. (1982), the transition to parenthood is likely the most universally-occurring adult developmental transition, and one that has psychological, sociocultural, and biological implications. Women in particular experience profound psychological and biological changes, including noticeable appearance-related changes such as an increased body size and/or different body shape. As a result, a new mother is faced with having to forge a new, postpartum identity, and consumption often plays an important role in this process (Prothero 2002; Thomsen and Sorensen 2006). This study examines how new mothers use consumption to establish identity and the importance of consumption in conveying this identity to others.
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© 2016 Academy of Marketing Science
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Brown, V., Hodges, N.N. (2016). Through the Looking-Glass: Reflections on the Role of Consumption in the Journey to Motherhood. In: Obal, M., Krey, N., Bushardt, C. (eds) Let’s Get Engaged! Crossing the Threshold of Marketing’s Engagement Era. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11815-4_108
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11815-4_108
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-11814-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-11815-4
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