The Effects of Maternal Parenting Stress Trajectory on Affective Parenting and Socioemotional Development of Preschooler: Differences Between Employed and Unemployed Mothers

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the trajectory of maternal parenting stress during infancy according to the employment status of mothers when each year's depression was controlled and examine the longitudinal effects of parenting stress on affective parenting and socioemotional developmental outcomes for preschoolers. Methods: Using latent growth modeling, the first 4 waves of panel data collected from 2,078 mothers and their babies were analyzed. This nationwide data was provided from the 2008 Panel Study on Korean Children, conducted by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education. Results: First, maternal parenting stress showed a linear increasing pattern, and there were individual differences in intercept and slope. Second, when each year's maternal depression was controlled, the intercept of parenting stress was lower, but the rate of increase was higher. In multiple group analyses, this increasing pattern of parenting stress was significant only in unemployed mothers. Lastly, the increase of unemployed mothers' parenting stress had direct effects on child emotionality and peer interaction and had an indirect effect on child peer interaction (mediated by affective parenting). Conclusion: The current study verified that the longitudinal effects of increasing parenting stress of unemployed mothers on affective parenting and child socioemotional development when maternal depression level was controlled. These results imply that we need to pay more attention to emotional health and resources of unemployed mothers and provide them with social support as well as employed mothers.