Parenting Stress in Preterm and Full-term Infant Mothers by Their Children’s Developmental Stages

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare parenting stress in preterm mothers with that in fullterm infant mothers according to the developmental stages of their children.Methods: This study used the secondary data analysis approach. Ninety-one preterm infant mothers and 364 full-term infant mothers were selected from the Panel Study on Korean Children using the propensity score matching method. Parenting stress measured at the infancy, toddler, preschool, and early schoolage stages were collected with the characteristics of mothers and children such as age, education level, employment, gender, and gestational age of children. A linear mixed model was used to analyze the effect of developmental stages of children on mothers’ parenting stress.Results: Parenting stress was higher in preterm infant mothers at each developmental stage than in fullterm infant mothers. Parenting stress in preterm infant mothers increased from the infancy stage to the toddler stage but decreased afterward, while parenting stress in full-term infant mothers gradually decreased from the infancy stage to the school-age stage. The changes in parenting stress by developmental stage in preterm and full-term infant mothers were significantly different at the infancy and toddler stages (t=2.32, p=0.020).Conclusion: Parenting stress showed a different pattern between preterm infant mothers and full-term infant mothers. Special consideration should be given to develop an educational intervention to assist preterm infant mothers to manage their parenting stress effectively.