Abstract
The objective of this paper was to examine how child-rearing anxiety of mothers is maintained through a model of metacognitive therapy (MCT). Based on the MCT model, we created a model that containing two processes: metacognitive beliefs about worry enhance worry, and worry enhances child-rearing anxiety. The respondents were 188 mothers whose children (from 3 years to 5 years of age) go to kindergarten or day-care center. The results of a path analysis showed that negative metacognitive beliefs had a strong positive effect on worry, and that worry had a moderately positive effect on child-rearing anxiety. However, worry had a mildly positive effect on child-rearing time which is a factor of child-rearing anxiety. The study therefore suggests that the maintenance process of child-rearing anxiety can be explained by the MCT model.
