Maternal stress and perceptions of self-efficacy in socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers: an explicative model.
Studies have demonstrated that maternal stress and perceptions of self-efficacy influence a mother's performance, affecting her ability to interact with her child and to understand and answer his needs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate maternal stress and the perception of self-efficacy in the mothers of infants who are cared for in child-care centers and belong to the poorest segment of the Chilean population. To this end, these aspects were studied in 121 low-income, high-social-risk mothers with children between the ages of 4 and 9 months. The final goal was to generate an explicative model of self-efficacy and maternal stress that considered characteristics of the family and the child. The results revealed that family characteristics - especially household size, per capita incomes and mother age - are more relevant for explaining maternal self-efficacy and stress. The findings and implications for practice are discussed.
Psychology School, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. chfarkas@uc.cl
Chamarrita
C
Farkas
Nelson
N
Valdés
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002677:Chile; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010465:Perception; D011203:Poverty; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035862:Vulnerable Populations; D055815:Young Adult