Poster #93 - From Parenting Stress to Social Interactive Parenting: Analysis of Parenting Support From Ecological Contexts

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

As the employment rate of mothers has increased over time, there is a growing concern for identifying available and affordable parenting support to allow mothers the opportunity to balance both work and family. Korea, in special, is gaining attention for having its fertility rate hovering far below the average of advanced countries. Economic and societal pressures, as well as a specific conservative gender role, are still prevalent in this society, and thus, a large number of Korean women choose to either stop working or decrease their economic activities to raise their own children. Therefore, it is the right time to consider what credential supportive factors working mothers in Korea need to raise an infant within a comprehensive framework.
The importance of ensuring suitable parenting support is recognized as an essential step to increase female workers’ participation in the labor force. As none of the previous studies were conducted regarding the associations among parenting stress, parenting styles, and circumstantial parenting support, this study has examined the effect of multidimensional support on parenting-related issues theoretically and empirically with dual-income families from non-Western cultures. Hence, the objective of our work is to examine working mothers’ parenting stress in relation to social interactive parenting. Also, the mediating effects of parenting support in contextual circumstances was considered in a comprehensive manner.
The participants in the study included employed mothers from 445 dual-working families who have at least one infant and completed the nationwide panel study of Korean children. Mothers’ parenting stress was measured by the Korean version of Parenting Stress Measure (Kim & Kang, 1997), mothers’ parenting was assessed by the Parental Style Questionnaire (Bornstein et al., 1996), the three measurement of family functioning was measured by marital satisfaction (Chung, 2004), marital conflict (Markman, Stanley, Blumberg, 2001) and fathers’ involvement in parenting. Mothers also reported their perceived levels of social support (Lee & Ok, 2001) and community support (Seo et al.,2005). Structural equation modeling was used to assess the relations between variables. First, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out, and the estimated model demonstrated good fit to the data. Next, the fit indexes for a structural analysis among variables also indicated a good fit of the data to the following hypothesized structure as illustrated in Figure 1: χ2= 229.911 (df = 112, p <.001), CFI = .964, TLI = .956, RMSEA = .049.
The results verified that parenting stress was significantly related to the social interactive parenting of mothers, and this association was mediated only through the perceived social support of mothers. Related to social support, the quantity of social relationships within a mothers’ social network became a protective factor in the link of parenting stress to social interactive parenting. Based on results from these analyses, implications for understanding the importance of supportive factors in helping mothers manage both work and family balance after childbirth will be discussed in depth.

Authors

• Yea-Ji Hong, Seoul National University
  Presenting Author

• Kangyi Lee, Seoul National University
  Non-Presenting Author