Parenting Journal · Volume 1 · Issue 5 · Licensed source edition
Unleashing the potential of metaphors: a categorization system for exploring return to work after maternity
Originally published 2024-02-20 · Archives of Women's Mental Health
Springer Science and Business Media LLC · DOI 10.1007/s00737-024-01446-0 ↗
Working-family evidence
Work, care and the whole person.
Develops a language-based way to surface meanings of re-entry—from a fresh start to a hostile place—so that parents can describe their transition in their own terms.
Directly examines work and family life, parenting, caregiving or employment policies for families.
Editorial reading guide · Independence
If returning to work were a picture or metaphor, what would this parent choose?
Develops a language-based way to surface meanings of re-entry—from a fresh start to a hostile place—so that parents can describe their transition in their own terms.
Study context
Two groups of working mothers describing return after maternity leave.
Age / stage: Adult mothers returning to work.
Read with three questions
- Which metaphor categories recurred across the two studies?
- What did agreement between coders show, and what did it not show?
- How could a conversation use a metaphor without diagnosing or labeling an employee?
Keep the limits in view
A qualitative categorization system is not a validated wellbeing intervention or diagnostic tool; coder agreement does not establish that an interpretation fits every parent.
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Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Sebastiano Rapisarda; Valentina Santoro; Laura Dal Corso (2024). Unleashing the potential of metaphors: a categorization system for exploring return to work after maternity Archives of Women's Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-024-01446-0
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-05. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.