Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence of depressive symptoms among kindergarteners' mothers, to examine associations between mothers' feelings about child-rearing and depressive symptoms, to identify associations between such mothers' feelings and depressive symptoms, and to explore the use of extra child-care-hours at kindergartens by mothers. A questionnaire survey conducted in kindergartens revealed that 18.4% of 2,976 non-working mothers showed high scores on depressive symptoms, which is almost the same rate as postpartum depression. The result also revealed a correlation between depressive symptoms and feelings about child-rearing. Mothers with totals indicating higher perceived burdens of child-rearing tended to use extra child-care-hours more frequently and to feel less guilty about their childrearing methods than mothers having a low perceived sense of child-rearing burdens. We proposed screening and support systems for depressive mothers of kindergarteners.
