Development and assessment of a course program to improve mothers' child care happiness

Abstract

Purpose
We developed and evaluated a six-session program over three months, each session lasting two hours, for mothers of infants in order to increase the level of happiness in raising their children.
Method
We conducted this program twice with nine to ten mothers per group. A total of 19 mothers participated in the program (experimental group). We evaluated psychological indicators (i.e., psychological scales) such as feelings of stress and happiness in raising children and self-esteem, as well as physiological indicators (i.e., autonomic nervous activity, brain waves, salivary chromogranin) such as levels of relaxation and stress. These indicators were assessed before participating in the first session of the program, after participating in the last session, and one month after participating in the last session.
Similar evaluations were made on a control group of 16 mothers who did not participate in the program. Contents of the program for enhancing feelings of happiness in raising children consisted of developing relationships by talking with others about oneself, reflecting on one's feelings towards one's children, valuing happy moments in raising children, recognizing each other's hard work, affirming oneself and gaining self-confidence, making a life plan, and having others listen to one's issues. In addition, each session incorporated deep abdominal breathing and stretching exercises for smiling. Two-way analysis of variance was performed on each of the psychological and physiological indicators to analyze the group and time effects.
Results
Analysis of psychological indicators revealed no significant differences, except for the main effect of group on psychological fatigue due to stress in raising children. However, the effects were confirmed on some physiological indicators: significant differences were found in the main effect of group on heart rate, main effect of time on high frequency (HF) components of autonomic nervous activity, and two-way interaction effect on alpha-1 and alpha-3 brain waves. Alpha-3 brain waves were higher in the experimental group, indicating that the classroom allowed for concentration in a state of relaxed wakefulness.
Conclusion
Our future task is to develop a course program that is even more effective than the one described here. In particular, future programs should provide time for chatting with children present and time for individual counseling after each session, as well as continued support after program completion.