The impact of mothers’ departure on adolescents’ identity in rural China: A feminist intersectional perspective

The mother's departure, both as a factual description and a metaphor for women's resistance to patriarchy, has become an important issue in certain parts of the world. This paper explored the systemic injustices suffered by mothers who left home in rural Western China and their complex impact on adolescents’ identity. Using a reflexive thematic analysis approach, we conducted life story interviews with nine adolescents. Synthesizing the findings, they revealed that adolescents’ identities may depend on their age at the time of separation from their mothers. Younger children feel abandoned by their mothers and fall into self-doubt (Theme 1). The abandonment is an event that makes them feel deeply ashamed; and they can only respond to the inquiries of those around them with self-silence (Theme 2). They express disappointment at their fathers’ lack of responsibility and emotional attachment to their grandmothers (Theme 3). As the children grow older, they come to understand the pressures of their mother's forced departure, and they begin to resist the voices of others and actively construct a new self (Theme 4). The study also found that gendered power relations in patrilineal families, gossiping in neighboring communities, and bullying by school peers all constitute structural oppression against adolescents, putting their identity legitimacy under significant challenge. Therefore, we call for a systematic social transformation to reduce public prejudice and discrimination against nonmainstream families and their children.