Differences in Parenting Stress between Married and Single First Time Mothers at Six to Eight Weeks After Birth

Abstract

Parenting stress has been shown to affect relationships between mothers and their infants. Single mothers may experience more parenting stress due to exposure to stressors that are unique to their environment. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to determine the differences between married and single first-time mothers on the Parenting Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF Abidin, 1995). A convenience sample of 22 single and 52 married first-time mothers were recruited from postpartum units in two large metropolitan hospitals in the southeastern United States. During hospitalization, participants completed a demographic sheet and at six weeks postpartum, were mailed the PSI/SF. T-tests were assessed for differences between mean scores. Study findings indicate significant differences between single and married first-time mothers on the Parental Distress subscale (t = -3.468, p = .001), the Difficult Child subscale (t = -2.032, p = .046), and Defensive Responding subscale (t = -3.720, p = .000), with single mothers consistently scoring higher than married mothers; however, there was not a significant statistical difference between mothers on the Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction subscale (t = -1.290, p = .201). Overall, single mothers scored higher on the Total Parenting Stress scores of the PSI/SF than married mothers (t = -2.858, p = .005), suggesting that single women experience more stress as a new mother than married new mothers. It is important to understand the specific stressors of new, single mothers and to develop nursing interventions that decrease parenting stress in single mothers.

Parenting Beliefs, Parental Stress, and Social Support Relationships

“…The PSI-SF demonstrated concurrent validity (r = .94, p \ .0001) with the long form of the PSI. Copeland and Harbaugh (2005) found reliabilities of .92 for the total scale, .87 for the PD subscale, .86 for the P-CDI subscale, .85 for the DC subscale and .80 for the DEF subscale. Reliability for all of the subscales in the current sample was as follows: Total Scale = .91, PD = .83, P-CDI = .85, and DC = .86.…”

“…Future studies may benefit from having more single, divorced, and separated participants, so that meaningful comparisons between samples may be made. Since being single seems to affect parenting stress and perceived social support (Copeland and Harbaugh 2005), having a larger sample of single participants may have highlighted issues regarding parental social support. Specifically, social support may be associated with perceptions of parent behavior importance in all areas and might influence the relationship between parental stress and parenting beliefs in a more varied sample with regard to marital status.…”

Predicting Change in Parenting Stress Across Early Childhood: Child and Maternal Factors

“…However, being a single parent is also associated with more distal contextual variables such as minority status, lower economic resources, and lower education levels thus complicating an understanding of the effects of single parenthood on parenting and child outcome (Copeland & Harbaugh, 2005;Ricciuti, 2004). The multiple demands of being a single parent may increase the risk for parental psychopathology (Davies, Avison, & McAlpine, 1997) and create greater stress related to parenting (Copeland & Harbaugh, 2005).…”

Motinų, auginančių raidos sutrikimų turinčius vaikus, motinystės streso ypatumai

“…Ištekėjusios ar partnerį turinčios motinos jaučia mažesnį motinystės stresą nei vienišos mamos (Copeland & Harbaugh, 2005). Tėvai, turintys galimybę rūpesčiais pasidalyti su kitais, dažniau mano galį įveikti kasdienius, su vaiko priežiūra susijusius sunkumus, jaučia bendrumo jausmą su kitais tėvai, o tai keičia jų požiūrį į kasdienius sunkumus ir padidina atsparumą tėvystės, motinystės stresui (Belsky, 1984;Sepa, Frodi, & Ludvigsson, 2004).…”