Parenting-related Stress In Mothers OF Toddlers (1-3 Years) at Piliyandala MOH Area

Abstract

Abstract: Parents of toddlers are at risk of increased parenting-related stress as toddlerhood is considered as a period with challenging behaviors due to significant physical and emotional development of the child. This descriptive cross-sectional study aims to examine the parenting-related stress levels and identify the factors affecting stress in mothers of toddlers (n=423) registered at Child Welfare Clinics of Piliyandala MOH area. The validated version of the Parental Stress Scale (PSS) was used as the data collection tool and a systematic random sampling technique was used. A Chi-square test was used to assess the associations between categorical variables. The mean age of the mothers was 30.62 (±4.77) years and 29.8% (n = 126) were employed. According to the subscales of PSS, the mean score of the Parental Stress (PS) subscale of mothers was 28.72 (Scale;15- 49) and 51.3% (n=217) were reported with a higher level of stress. The mean of Lack of Parental Satisfaction (LPS) subscale was 11.30 (Scale; 8-23) and nearly 40% (n=170) were reported with a higher LPS score which is above the mean. Further, parental stress was significantly associated when the age of the toddler is between 1-2 years (p = 0.03), having more than one child (p = 0.00), the toddler is being in the second or higher ordinal position (p = 0.02), unemployed mothers (p = 0.00) husband educated up to O/L or less (p = 0.02), temporary residence (p =0.03) and husband being alcoholic (p = 0.01). In conclusion, the majority of the mothers of toddlers showed a higher level of parental stress and a considerable percentage is having a lack of parental satisfaction.