Prenatal Factors Associated with Parenting Stress in Infancy

Background/purpose:  Parenting stress is negatively associated with nurturing parenting and is more likely to increase harsh parenting.  As parenting stress is known as one of the risk factors for child maltreatment, it is critical to identify antecedents of parenting stress to inform early interventions to improve parenting and, consequently, children’s outcomes.  The main purpose of this study was to examine parental stress at 6 months after the birth of their children among primiparous mothers from diverse backgrounds.  

Methods: This study used data from the Parenting for the First Time Project, which collected data from a sample of primiparous women from primary care facilities in 4 cities in the U.S.  Data were collected from the prenatal stage through the first 36-months.  In this study, data from the prenatal stage and 6-month follow-up were used.  The mothers were divided into two groups: teenage mothers (58.06%) and adult mothers (41.94%).  The sample of mothers was ethnically and racially diverse (64.52% African-American, 18.77% White, and 16.72% Other).  The average age for the teen mothers at the time of the child’s birth was 17.39 years (SD=1.12) and 26.31 years (SD=3.63) for adult mothers.  Bivariate analyses were conducted to compare the difference among these groups of mothers.  Multiple regressions were used to examine the prenatal factors, such as social support, self-mastery, Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) score, Knowledge of Child Development Inventory- Short Form (KIDI-SF), and parenting style, associated with maternal parenting stress when the infants were 6-months old. 

Results: Bivariate analyses showed that teen mothers were less likely to endorse a positive parenting style, reported lower self-mastery, and scored lower on knowledge of child development than adult mothers.  Moreover, teen mothers scored higher on abuse potential and parenting stress than other mothers.  Multivariate analysis showed that higher prenatal self-mastery and positive parenting style was associated with lower parenting stress while higher prenatal child abuse potential was associated with higher parenting stress at 6 months.  Higher prenatal social support was associated with lower parenting stress.  Teen mothers were more likely to report higher parenting stress at 6 months than adult mothers while all other factors were controlled.  Mothers with boys were more likely to report higher parenting stress at 6 months. 

Conclusion/implications: This study found prenatal factors related to increased parenting stress: young motherhood, abuse potential, and the gender of their children.  The results also suggest protective factors that may help decrease parenting stress: self-mastery, endorsement of a positive parenting style, and social support.  These findings inform health professionals and social service providers that primiparous, especially young, mothers may need various preventive programs prior to the birth of their children to encourage self-mastery and promote positive parenting styles.  It would be also critical to help mothers tap in to social support networks and other resources available to mothers when they are nurturing their newborn children.  Helping expectant mothers prevent parenting stress may be one of ways to set the stage for better parenting, which promotes positive outcomes for children.