The Effect of an Infant’s Mother’s Parenting Stress and Her Perception of Father’s Parenting Participation on Parent Role Satisfaction

Abstract

Objectives: This study investigates the effect of parenting stress on mothers of infants and the participation of fathers in raising the infants as perceived by the mothers, and a mother’s satisfaction of her role as a paerent. The infant stage is a period change, and the mothers go through a lot of stress during the stage. We will explore the ways to improve the role satisfaction in parents considering that it is a major change in their lives.Methods: Participants comprised 159 mothers of infants who agreed to participate in the study. They answered questionnaires on parenting stress, fathers’ parenting participation, and satisfaction in parents’ role. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to understand the influence.Results: The results revealed that the parent’s role satisfaction as perceived by a mother was significantly related to her parenting stress and the father’s participation in parenting. The lower the parenting stress and the higher the father’s participation in parenting, the higher was the parent’s role satisfaction. In particular, it was found that the negative interaction between parents and children, and the life factors of fathers, had a direct effect.Conclusion: This study explores how the parenting stress in mothers of infants and the participation of fathers as perceived by mothers affect the mother’s satisfaction with her role as a parent. It is necessary to find ways to reduce the stress of the mothers raising infants in order to increase their role satisfaction, and fathers need to take an active part in nurturing the infant.