2011 Volume 25 Issue 2 Pages 181-190
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between Life Habits, Mental Health and Parenting Self-efficacy of mothers with infants.
Methods
The subjects of the study were mothers with infants, who resided in urban districts of the Kansai area. The items surveyed under the ethical considerations were as follows: personal background, status of healthy life habits, GHQ-12 and Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale. The questionnaires were mailed in advance to the guardians, who had been scheduled for health checkups for infants. After the health checkups for infants, the questionnaires were collected from 648 subjects, of which 579 effective responses (effective response rate: 67.6%) were analysed.
Results
1. In the assessment of healthy life habits, an average of 4 out of 7 listed items were practised by mothers. The number or age of the infants did not affect this data.
2. The item 'quitting/non-smoking' (90.0%) ranked the highest, followed by the other 3, namely, 'reasonable drinking' (84.5%), 'having breakfast' (81.2%) and '6-8 h of sleep' (80.8%). Conversely, 'regular exercise' (6.0%) and 'not eating between meals' (7.4%) ranked the lowest, showing that these habits were difficult to develop.
3. Mothers with poor sleep habits showed significantly poorer mental health. This was particularly observed in the group that fell into the sleep category of '6 h or less'. This group showed an odds ratio 2.75 times higher than that of the group within the sleep category of '6-9 h or less'. Thus, the 6-h sleep group demonstrated significantly poorer mental health.
4. The group within the category of 'regular exercise' showed an odds ratio 2.96 times higher than that of the group that did not exercise, demonstrating significantly higher parenting self-efficacy.
Conclusion
The results of the study suggest that in mothers with infants, mental health deteriorates under conditions of sleep deprivation. Furthermore, parenting self-efficacy, which is a predictor of stress reaction, is believed to be closely correlated with the habit of 'regular exercise'. Therefore, The results suggest the importance of providing a mother with support that help her adopt health practices based mental health.
