Parenting Support for Mothers offered by the Elderly

Influences on the Elderly’ s Physical and Mental Health and the Parenting Stress of the Mothers

Abstract

This study clarified the types of parenting support given by senior volunteers to mothers and the influence it had on their physical and mental health status. The participants were thirty-eight community-dwelling elderly people and twenty three mothers, who lived in Hyogo, Japan. We carried out a baseline survey in November 2004, and a follow-up was completed a year later. In the parenting support group;PSG, the internal locus of control scores and 5m maximum walking speed significantly increased when measured one year later. In 2005, scores of Type A behavior, Locus of Control and learning activities, and the percentages of meeting the children in the neighborhood and reading book groups in the PSG were significantly higher than those in the non PSG. The Parenting Stress Index score for the mothers who did not receive parenting support significantly increased during the one year period. It was found that the parenting support by the senior volunteers had a positive influence on the physical and mental health status of the senior volunteers and mothers.