Relationship between stressors, stress reactions and hardiness in Japanese mothers of early neonatal babies: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

AimMothers of early neonatal babies are often in stressful situations. The stress of child rearing has been reported to influence the mental health of mothers. Hardiness, one of the individual factors affecting the cognitive evaluation of stress, may relate to stress for mothers of early neonatal babies. The aim of the present study is to clarify the relationship between stressors, stress reactions and hardiness of mothers with early neonatal babies.MethodsWe conducted a cross‐sectional study using self‐administered questionnaires. Survey items included demographic characteristics, hardiness, stressors, and stress reactions. A total of 226 mothers returned the completed questionnaire. Data analyzed correlation, t tests and multiple regression using SPSS 24.0.ResultsThe mothers' hardiness was not related to their demographic characteristics. Hardiness had a negative correlation with stressors and stress reactions. Hardiness mitigated especially anxiety/uncertainty and depression/feeling of insufficiency. Compared with those with high levels of hardiness, mothers with low hardiness exhibited higher levels of newborn baby stressors, breast‐feeding stressors, anxiety/uncertainty and depression/feeling of insufficiency.ConclusionHardiness showed a buffering relationship with stressors and stress reactions, especially anxiety. Understanding hardiness levels may be useful for choosing which nursing care methods are implemented as each mother begins child rearing.

Influence of hardiness, mother-child interactions, and social support on parenting stress among North Korean refugee mothers: a cross-sectional study

“…We performed multiple regression analysis to identify the factors influencing parenting stress in NKR mothers; the results revealed that the explanatory power for the effects of hardiness and having four or more supporters on parenting stress was approximately 19%, while the factors with a fairly strong influence on parenting stress were hardiness and the number of supporters. Studies on the mothers of premature babies [ 29 ] and the mothers of children with special needs [ 30 ] lend support to the finding that psychological hardiness is a critical factor in parenting. Moreover, the bulk of parenting stress arose from parental factors and not child-related factors, highlighting the need for programs that improve hardiness, which would enable individuals to bolster their strength to control themselves and positively perceive stress as an opportunity for growth and development.…”

Predictive role of NICU‐related stress, postpartum depression trajectory and family coping on growth trajectory of moderate‐to‐late preterm infants: A longitudinal study

“…A systematic review showed that (Surkan et al, 2011) the probability of weight and length delay in infants of mothers with postpartum depression is 1.4-1.5 times higher than that of infants born to mothers without such symptoms, and the proportion of infants with delayed weight and length growth would decrease by 23%-29%, indicating the negative effects of postpartum depression on the early growth of the infants. Besides, Due to the MLPIs' immaturity and the NICU-related stress, their parents may face a variety of difficulties, for example, feeding difficulties (Dempsey & Keller-Margulis, 2020;Konno, 2021), maladjustment of parents' roles (Pichler-Stachl et al, 2019;Shiff et al, 2021) and a lack of contact and interaction in parent-infant dyads (Kim et al, 2020). These challenges undermine the family's coping ability and prevent infants from receiving effective care after discharge, affecting preterm infants' weight and even causing readmission or death.…”

“…Due to the MLPIs' immaturity and the NICU‐related stress, their parents may face a variety of difficulties, for example, feeding difficulties (Dempsey & Keller‐Margulis, 2020; Konno, 2021), maladjustment of parents' roles (Pichler‐Stachl et al., 2019; Shiff et al., 2021) and a lack of contact and interaction in parent–infant dyads (Kim et al., 2020). These challenges undermine the family's coping ability and prevent infants from receiving effective care after discharge, affecting preterm infants' weight and even causing readmission or death.…”