Araştırma Makalesi

In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture

Cilt: 23 Sayı: 2026 23 Eylül 2026
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In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture

Öz

With the spread of digital culture, parenting has become a discursive field in which expert knowledge circulates rapidly and motherhood and fatherhood are redefined. This study critically examines how digital parenting narratives are constructed through therapeutic culture and the norms, responsibilities, and forms of authority that produce desirable parenting. Accordingly, the Bir Aile Meselesi YouTube channel was designated as the case for a qualitative case study, and the spoken narratives of three parenting-focused episodes were analyzed thematically. The findings reveal a powerful narrative that constructs the child as a unique subject to be understood and the parent as responsible for interpreting the emotional needs underlying the behavior and regulating the relational climate. While compassion, connection, healthy communication, and self-reflexivity offer transformative alternatives to punitive approaches, they also transform parenting into an ongoing project of self-improvement. Although structural problems surrounding parenting are often reduced to matters of individual awareness and inner balance, clinical experience, personal narrative, vulnerability, and discursive appeals to audience participation are mobilized as resources through which speakers claim legitimacy for the channel’s therapeutic authority. Ultimately, through a call to abandon perfection, parenting is reframed around a new normative ideal: the “therapeutically competent parent.”

Anahtar Kelimeler

digital culture, therapeutic culture, parenting narratives, YouTube

Kaynakça

  1. Amouroux, R., Gerber, L., Jaccard, C., & Aronov, M. (2023). Historicizing “therapeutic culture”—Towards a material and polycentric history of psychologization. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 59(3), 237–245. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.22273
  2. Aubry, T., & Travis, T. (2015). Introduction: Rethinking therapeutic culture. In T. Aubry & T. Travis (Eds.), Rethinking therapeutic culture (pp. 1–23). University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo19993017.html
  3. Bir Aile Meselesi. (2025a). Bölüm 78 I Çocuk Yetiştirmenin Püf Noktası [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H27T62ORL5A
  4. Bir Aile Meselesi. (2025b). Bölüm 92 I Anne Babalıktan Yoruldum [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8-S8113ggU
  5. Bir Aile Meselesi. (2025c). Bölüm 112 I Ebeveynlik Rehberi [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8-WNv2ngXg
  6. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
  7. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE.
  8. Cabanas, E. (2020). Therapeutic discourses: Editor’s introduction. In D. Nehring, O. J. Madsen, E. Cabanas, & D. Kerrigan (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of global therapeutic cultures (pp. 51–53). Routledge.
  9. Creswell, J. W. (2017). Araştırma deseni: Nitel, nicel ve karma yöntem yaklaşımları (S. B. Demir, Trans.). Eğiten Kitap.
  10. Culic, D. (2021). Therapeutic fathering in the absence of a good internal father. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 22(2), 129–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/15240657.2021.1913349

Kaynak Göster

APA
Ergen, Y. (2026). In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture. OPUS Journal of Society Research, 23(2026), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.26466/opusjsr.2011131
AMA
1.Ergen Y. In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture. OPUS TAD. 2026;23(2026):1-15. doi:10.26466/opusjsr.2011131
Chicago
Ergen, Yunus. 2026. “In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture”. OPUS Journal of Society Research 23 (2026): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.26466/opusjsr.2011131.
EndNote
Ergen Y (01 Eylül 2026) In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture. OPUS Journal of Society Research 23 2026 1–15.
IEEE
[1]Y. Ergen, “In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture”, OPUS TAD, c. 23, sy 2026, ss. 1–15, Eyl. 2026, doi: 10.26466/opusjsr.2011131.
ISNAD
Ergen, Yunus. “In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture”. OPUS Journal of Society Research 23/2026 (01 Eylül 2026): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.26466/opusjsr.2011131.
JAMA
1.Ergen Y. In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture. OPUS TAD. 2026;23:1–15.
MLA
Ergen, Yunus. “In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture”. OPUS Journal of Society Research, c. 23, sy 2026, Eylül 2026, ss. 1-15, doi:10.26466/opusjsr.2011131.
Vancouver
1.Yunus Ergen. In pursuit of the perfect parent: Parenting narratives in digital therapeutic culture. OPUS TAD. 01 Eylül 2026;23(2026):1-15. doi:10.26466/opusjsr.2011131