Ideas about the stressfulness of the parental role in potential parents: objective and subjective determinants

Abstract

Studying stress factors of childbirth intentions is an important parameter in population development policy making. There is no data on the comparison of the relative importance of different types of determinants and stress inducing factors of parenting in the scientific literature.The aim. To study the factors determining the ideas about the stressfulness of the parental role among modern youth.Methods. The sample consisted of 364 students with no parenting experience. Three groups were identified, differing in their orientation towards having children: a group with a focus on single-child parenting (257 people); group with childfree focus (32 people); group with a focus on multi-child parenting (75 people). The following methods were used: socio-demographic questionnaire; “Parental Stress Scale” (J.O. Berry, W. Jones, 1995; adapted by Yu.V. Misiyuk, I.V. Tikhonova, 2022); “Intensive Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire (M. Liss, H.H. Schiffrin, V.H. Mackintosh, H. Miles-McLean, M.J. Erchull, 2013; adapted by Yu.V. Misiyuk, 2022); express version of the “World Assumptions Scale” (R. Yanoff-Bulman; modified by M.A. Padun, A.V. Kotelnikova; author’s semi-structured interview.Results. We analyzed the ideas about the stress that is associated with fulfilling the parental role. Parameters that potentially act as the factors determining the stressfulness of parenthood are considered. The specificity of ideas on parental stress and its determinants is analyzed in accordance with the dominant orientation towards childbearing.Conclusion. Ideas about the stressfulness of the parental role are determined by objective (age, status of personal relationships, education) and subjective (assessment of family relationship, attitudes towards the need to stimulate the child’s development, essentialism and satisfaction from raising children) factors, but subjective ones have the greatest weight. The specificity of the determination of ideas about parental stress depending on the orientation towards childbearing has been revealed.