Influence of support by elderly persons on Japanese mothers' child care‐related stress

Abstract

This study examined the influence of child-care support by elderly persons on mothers' child care-related stress in Japan. A cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2007 by using an anonymous questionnaire. This study focused on the "child-care salon" (hereafter referred to as "salon") as a type of parenting support activity by elderly persons in the community. For the analysis, 119 salon participants and a control group of 107 mothers who had not participated in a salon were recruited. As a result of a multiple regression analysis, participation or non-participation in the salon had no influence on the 'threat of loss of personal identity' stress, which was similar to a sense of social isolation because of child care. However, as a result of investigating the influence of the participation frequency on stress score for participants alone, mothers with less participation had a higher stress score than mothers with greater participation. That suggested the importance of intervention for a decrease of social isolation in mothers, especially in the initial stage of salon participation.

Relationship in Japan between maternal grandmothers’ perinatal support and their self‐esteem

“…A relatively new phenomenon in Japan is the "child-care salon," offering parental support from older people in the community. A higher frequency of child-care salon participation reportedly reduces child-care-related stress (Kusano et al, 2010).…”

Social prescription for isolated parenting in Japan: Socioeconomic characteristics of mothers with weak social connectivity in their community

“…Thompson (2015) identified the importance of connecting informally with people who also contribute to child-rearing by helping in monitoring the child's well-being. People connecting informally are known as natural mentors or natural helpers (Cowen et al, 1981;Rhodes et al, 1994) and play an important role in supporting childrearing in the community (Kusano et al, 2010) pregnant women needs to be expanded, not only to those in their teens but also to those in their early twenties.…”

Characteristics and related factors of Japanese mothers who have faced difficulties with childrearing

“…Health checkups for children are a good opportunity to assess not only the development of the child but also potential cases of child maltreatment (Arimoto & Murashima, 2007). Each municipality has also developed various health-promoting services for families with children, and detection mothers at high risk of maltreating their children (Kusano, Ono, & Hayakawa, 2010).…”

“…Clarifying the characteristics of mothers who may require support with childrearing would contribute to the prevention of child maltreatment, by providing more effective care for them (Kayama, Sagami, Watanabe, Senoo, & Ohara, 2004). Most previous studies focused on the characteristics of mothers who abused their children, which included a history of maltreatment during childhood (Keenan et al, 2003), young age (Hovdestad, Shields, Williams, & Tonmyr, 2015;Putnam-Hornstein, Cederbaum, King, Eastman, & Trickett, 2015;Yamaoka et al, 2015), social isolation (Berlin, Appleyard, & Dodge, 2011;Kusano et al, 2010), and low income (Eckenrode, Smith, McCarthy, & Dineen, 2014). In addition, previous studies on parenting difficulties faced by new mothers focused on the daily hassles of parenting (Bayrampour et al, 2016;Yang, Peden-McAlpine, & Chen, 2007), the anxieties of childrearing (Sato, Kato, & Kakee, 2008a), and maternal mental health problems (Fujiwara, Okuyama, & Izumi, 2012).…”