Abstract
Objective : To develop social health performance scales for mothers to seek how to support a mother caring for children as she plays a major role in making them socially independent. Procedure : We mailed anonymous personal response questionnaires to 743 mothers who have 18-month old infants scheduled to be given check-ups in B City in A Prefecture, and included 214 of the returned questionnaires in an analysis. Results : We drafted a social health performance questionnaire consisting of 23 items for investigation. We attempted factor analysis on 22 items excluding one item which showed ceiling effect, repeated factor analysis by promax rotation, and finally employed 4 factors and 19 items. Cronbach's alphas of the four factors were all more than .70. We detected a positive correlation between "No feeling of constraint in raising a child" and positive maternal consciousness (MP), and a negative correlation between the former and negative material consciousness (MN). Discussion : As a result of the examination of this social health performance scale consisting of 19 items, it was suggested that it could be an indicator for evaluating the awareness on the part of a mother regarding her acceptance of the maternal role, and interaction with society.
