Motherhood is a powerful and influential cultural mechanism (Smart, 1996). There is a cultural ideology around motherhood that associates mothers with specific knowledge and abilities, and renders them as caring and competent. This ideology is engaged in the regulation of the personal attributes, behaviours, rights and obligations to which mothers must adhere, and is invoked in judgements about the goodness of particular mothers (Clumpus, 1996; Macleod, 2001; Smart, 1996)

The research literature and popular media establish single young motherhood as a social problem. For the category young mother, the characteristics, features, and generalized expectations that have come to dominate the mainstream discourse have been those of a s ocial problem. Research studies cite rising incidence rates, review prevention and intervention strategies, and relate the significant risks of being and having a young mother who is unmarried (e.g., Akinbami, Cheng, & Kornfeld, 2001; Copeland, 1981; Jaffee, Caspi, Moffitt, Belsky, & Silva, 2001; Luster & Mittelstaedt, 1993; Prater, 1995). Some of these noted risks for young mothers are clinical levels of stress, low educational achievement, low employment potential, poverty, disrupted identity formation and diminished life direction (Akinbami et al., 2001; Copeland, 1981; Coren, et al., 2002; Larson, 2004; Letourneau, Stewart, & Barnfather, 2004.)

This problem characterization of young mothers enables negative identity inferences about those for whom the category is potentially relevant. Age, marital status and economic status all define young motherhood as problematic (Prettyman, 2005). While the deficit model of adolescent motherhood has been criticized for confounding socioeconomic status with age in comparative studies of mothering and for ignoring potential positive effects of parenting for adolescents, this critique has not made its way into mainstream discourse (Kelly, 1996). Rather, the production of academic research and media accounts of young motherhood continues to enforce the normative attributes of mothering, family and adulthood. Specifying "young" reinforces assumptions about what it means to be a "mother" and positions young mothers as pathologized others (Macleod, 2001). Employing qualifiers such as "teenage" or "young" or "single" marks an unusual case of mother that needs to be distinguished from taken-for-granted assumptions about what it means to be a "good" mother. "Single" "young" mother can become the grounds for resistance as speakers refuse to take up the identity made available by a problematic category.

In this study, I examine the discursive construction and deployment of the category single young mother in the everyday talk of those for whom this identity is potentially relevant. In particular, I focus on the ways in which the category is invoked and taken up or resisted as a resource for identity.

Method

Discursive psychology informs the theoretical and methodological approach of the study (for discussion of discursive psychology see Edwards & Potter, 1992; Potter & Wetherell, 1987; and Potter & Edwards, 2001). Briefly, discourse, including spoken and written forms, is recognized a social practice that is not simply about things, but also does things. Analysis examines the detailed construction of people's everyday talk and its social accomplishments.

The University of Guelph Research Ethics Board approved the study and data were collected from L iterature for Life's Women with Words book groups. Prior to data collection, I attended the book groups to introduce myself and the research I was doing. I asked each group for their permission to return at a later date and record their discussion. On the agreed-upon date, I returned to the group with a video recorder. Each participant was provided with a consent form that explained the research and detailed the ways in which the discussion would be used. Confidentiality was maintained and participants are represented by pseudonyms. Book groups at three different locations were video recorded over the period of one week in May 2004. The three group discussions yielded a total of 209 minutes of video recording and 85 pages of transcripts. Excerpts from two of these groups were used in analysis for this study.

This study investigated the ways in which members of a problematic social category locally construct the meaning and relevance of the category to their own identities. In these discussions, participants distanced themselves from stereotypes and avoided negative identities made available by the category-based inferences.

The psychological category "stereotype" was deployed to separate speakers from their construction of an identity category to which, by all conventional accounts, they belong. By establishing their version as accounts of other people's views, participants diminished their accountability for the f eatures and attributes they associated with the category. This practice allowed them to use intensely negative descriptions, for example, "whores" and "sluts," without incriminating themselves as endorsing these views. As well, speakers established general representations of and responses t o category members while avoiding specifying particular individuals or singular events.

This study also demonstrates the subtle and complex practices of discursive resistance. The participants' version of category features and attributes stereotypically assigned to the category single young mothers was aligned with the social-problem characterization that dominates the mainstream research literature and media. While this characterization seemingly made available negative inferences and subject positions, speakers actively resisted this version as a legitimate resource for constructing their own identities as single and/or young mothers. The context of discussing stereotypes allowed participants to establish an otherness to the category. Classifying category associations as a stereotype implies that they are over-generalizations based on ignorance and not particular knowledge and, therefore, not representative of actual single and/or young mothers. Participants negatively positioned those who hold stereotypical associations by implying ignorance and poor judgment. The associated features and activities were made to appear ridiculous and the endorsement of these associations ignorant and old-fashioned. Stereotypical associations were made to be an inappropriate resource for making inferences about the kind of mothers or women participants were.

The facilitator's delicate management of her interaction with book group participants also implicatedparticipants' identity as single young mothers. The facilitator established the authority of participants' knowledge and experience over her own, implicitly making relevant their identities as single young mothers. Participants, too, implicitly made relevant their membership in the category single young mothers, orienting to the category in specific ways at specific times of the discussion. Their talk engages varying levels of complexity and subtlety in constructing and orienting to the category, while at the same time undermining the legitimacy of category-based inferences.

Variation within and across discussions and interactions amongst participants and facilitators highlights the practices of pedagogy and book therapy. Bibliotherapy is an approach within the mental health and counselling fields in which books and reading are used as a means to encourage reflection, exploration of problems, and self-change. These discussions contribute to the understanding of the ways in which bibliotherapy can be accomplished.

Part of the mission of Literature for Life is commitment to helping young mothers develop "their ' voice' to overcome personal adversity" (Literature for Life Mission Statement, 2003). This invocation of "voice" implies issues of empowerment and identity politics, which refers to the practices whereby marginalized groups seek to be in control of their own identities (Sampson, 1993). Sampson argues that changing power relations and achieving control is accomplished through the transformation of discourse.

Participants' discussion can be seen as a way of accomplishing empowerment in that they overcome the voices of others to establish an alternative discourse in which young mothers are repositioned as good mothers and promoted as intelligent, competent, and caring. This study shows that book groups allow participants to develop their voice and change the dominant discourses about young mothers. While the book groups discussions are one contribution to the development of voice, another is Literature for Life's publication of Yo'Mama!, a magazine written "by young mothers for young mothers." Writing articles for the magazine can also been seen as a way of accomplishing empowerment as contributors construct an alternative discourse of single young mothers and engage their audience in the resistance of stereotypes.

For members of a counter-normative or problematic category, resistance may be foundational to the establishment of identity. From the wrong side of a normative ideal, (stereo)typical category associations may serve as a place from which to make the move from "other" to "I" so that discursive resistance can serve as a strategy to move ideological boundaries.