Relationships between Maternal Identity and Stress about Child-rearing.

Abstract

　　The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between maternal identity and stresses about child-rearing. The Maternal Identity Scale and the Child-rearing Stress Scale were administered to 216 mothers of young children. The main findings were follows. 1) Mothers who formed stable Maternal Identity had low child-rearing stress. 2) Employed mothers had more stable Maternal Identity than not-employed mothers. These findings suggested that employed mothers experienced a positive spillover from their roles of work positively affected their roles as mothers, and consequently employed mothers developed a stable Maternal Identity. Mothers who formed stable Maternal Identity were able to grasp, accept and carry out maternal-roles. As a result, their cognition that “child care is difficult” was decreased, and child-rearing related stress was decreased too.