2013 Volume 27 Issue 1 Pages 16-28
In regards to the psychological significance of child rearing to adult women, the Parenting Self-Efficacy among Mothers Scale (MoSE) was developed and examined. The MoSE scale was developed to solve the problems of existing scales in order to create less ambiguous definitions and to be more adequate for the current condition for adult women with children in Japan. The MoSE scale was designed to tap three dimensions of mothers’ self-efficacy, i.e.: maternal selfefficacy, parenting self-efficacy, and maternal satisfaction.
Using a sample of 1048 adult women, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the factor structure of the MoSE scale. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three factor structure for the MoSE scale, i.e.: “maternal satisfaction,” “maternal self-efficacy,” and “parenting self-efficacy.” The reliability for each subscale was examined using Cronbach’s alpha. A good internal consistency was shown (“maternal satisfaction,” alpha＝.84; “maternal self-efficacy,” alpha＝.79; “parenting self-efficacy,” alpha＝.71). Then, internal and external validity for the MoSE scale were examined. Internal validity was examined by testing construct validity, which was supported by the result from CFA, and criterion validity, which was supported by the strong correlation (r＝.62) with the Parenting Self-efficacy Scale (Kanaoka, 2006). External validity was examined by testing the relationship among external factors, such as parenting stress, economic distress, subjective well-being, and demographic factors. The weak to moderate negative correlation with parenting stress (rs＝－.14 to －.44) and moderate positive correlation with subjective well-being (rs＝.26 to .44) supported the external validity. These results indicated that the MoSE scale can be a useful instrument for practitioners and researchers of adult women's life-span development and parenting support.
