Raising Generation Rx

Winner, 2016 Outstanding Publication in the Sociology of Disability, American Sociological Association, Section Disability and SocietyExamines the experiences of mothers coping with their children’s “invisible disabilities” in the face of daunting social, economic, and political realitiesRecent years have seen an explosion in the number of children diagnosed with “invisible disabilities” such as ADHD, mood and conduct disorders, and high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. Whether they are viewed as biological problems in brain wiring or as results of the increasing medicalization of childhood, the burden of dealing with the day-to-day trials and complex medical and educational decisions falls almost entirely on mothers. Yet few ask how these mothers make sense of their children’s troubles, and to what extent they feel responsibility or blame. Raising Generation Rx offers a groundbreaking study that situates mothers’ experiences within an age of neuroscientific breakthrough, a high-stakes knowledge-based economy, cutbacks in public services and decent jobs, and increased global competition and racialized class and gender inequality. Through in-depth interviews, observations of parents’ meetings, and analyses of popular advice, Linda Blum examines the experiences of diverse mothers coping with the challenges of their children’s “invisible disabilities” in the face of daunting social, economic, and political realities. She reveals how mothers in widely varied households learn to advocate for their children in the dense bureaucracies of the educational and medical systems; wrestle with anguishing decisions about the use of psychoactive medications; and live with the inescapable blame and stigma in their communities.

Mother and feminist sociologist Blum takes a scholarly look at how 'mother blame' and financial difficulties add to the challenge of raising children with conditions such as ADHD, Asperger's, and autism...Parents of children with disabilities that aren't immediately obvious can benefit from reading about others in their shoes and from considering Blum's take on this important public-health issue., It is personal, written accessibly, and provides a substantive grounding in the political and health context it critiques. Placing the experiences of mothers and their children at the center of the issue around medicalization and disability shifts the debate and places lay experience at the core., In this detailed and insightful book, Linda Blum carefully and thoughtfully lifts the lid on the lives of 48 women who identify as mothers of children with & invisible disabilities., A valuable contribution to the national dialogue on health care and education, told through the voices of the mothers whose children's futures should be of concern to all of us., An insightful portrayal on the struggles of mothers under various strains of inequality and discrimination.

Linda M. Blum is Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University. She is the author of Between Feminism and Labor: The Significance of the Comparable Worth Movement, At the Breast: Ideologies of Breastfeeding and Motherhood in the Contemporary United States, and Raising Generation Rx: Mothering Kids with Invisible Disabilities in an Age of Inequality.