Parental Aggravation, Daily Demands, and Emotional Support Associated With Worse Mental Health Among Mother in the United States

• In Event: Emerging Research on Maternal Mental Health

Abstract

The importance of coping with parental aggravation, and parenting demands perhaps by seeking emotional support is well established (Crnic & Low, 2002; McBride, Schoppe, & Rane, 2002; Deater-Deckard, 1998; Abidin, 1992). Each of these factors is not only associated with parental health and stress but can also impact family and children’s health (Luther &Eisenberg, 2017; Deater-Deckard, 1998). However, at the population level, little is known about how these factors are associated with maternal mental health and whether these associations are observed when controlling potential confounders. In this study, we examined parental aggravation, coping with daily demands of parenting, and emotional support with parenting and their association with maternal mental health status among the mothers of US children included in a nationally representative sample.
Data for this study comes from the 2018 National Survey of Child Health. Our analytic sample consisted of 18,754 mothers of children aged 0 to 17 years. A series of logistic regression models were fit to test the association between parental aggravation, emotional support and coping with daily demands, and maternal mental/emotional health status while adjusting for child’s age and gender, mothers' age, marital status, education, race, and socioeconomic status.
Approximately 5% of the mothers included in our analysis reported poor/fair self-reported mental health. Results derived from the fully specified model indicate that the three domains of interest were associated with maternal mental health status. Higher parental aggravation was associated with 66% higher odds of reporting poor/fair mental health (OR = 1.66, 95% C.I. = 1.52-1.83). Mothers who reported having a source of emotional support to cope with parenting or raising children had 78% higher odds of reporting poor/fair mental health status (OR = 1.78, 95% C.I. = 1.50, 2.09). Finally, mothers who reported to be poorly coping with the daily demands of parenting were 3.01 times more likely to report having poor/fair mental health status (OR=3.01, 95% C.I. = 2.64, 3.43).
Parenting burdens have been recognized as a key public health issue that has significant implications for maternal mental health (Mikolajczak and Roskam, 2020). This study highlights the impact that caregiving demands can have on mothers' mental health and the importance of providing formal and informal resources to foster mental well-being. Addressing maternal mental health at both the prevention and intervention level will lead to improved maternal health and wellbeing and, in turn, allow them to provide effective care for themselves and for their children.

Authors

• Kelly W. Ngigi, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Sunhye Bai, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Alexis R. Santos, The Pennsylvania State University