Abstract
Purpose : To determine the prevalence of mothers having difficulties in raising their infants and elucidate the relationship between such emotional experiences and the mothers' attributes.
Subjects : The subjects were all mothers (n=910) with infants and resided in one of the two cities in Chiba Prefecture. All subjected gave informed consent to the current study prior to participation.
Method : In October 2005, a postal survey was conducted using an anonymous questionnaires. To locate those mothers experiencing disquiet as described above, a questionnaire regarding support in child-rearing (for infants), which was prepared by Japan Child and Family Research Institute was employed.
Results : There were 390 effective responses. Seventy-six mothers (21.0%) reported difficulties in raising their child. Among these, 16 (4.4%) expressed Difficulties in raising in both categories I and II and were ranked 5. Among those mothers without difficulties in child-rearing (79.0%), 45.0% professed to be totally free of such experiences. Among the effects of 7 maternal attributes such as age and family members, a correlation with a history of pregnancy complications was noted (p<0.05). There was correlation with any of 7 attributes related to the child such as sex and health status.
Conclusion : About 21% of mothers reported sense of difficulty in child-rearing, which was an increase over that in the 2000 report. Especially the number of mothers having a strong sense of difficulties increased and a correlation with pregnancy complications was noted. It is urgent that we make an effort to ease difficulties in child rearing. For such a purpose, it is necessary to develop both a universal scale to measure these difficulties and a method for preventing their exacerbation.
