The Relationships among Mother’s Resilience, Family Health Work, and Mother’s Health-Promoting Lifestyle Practices in Families with Preschool Children

Abstract

Hypotheses derived from the Developmental Model of Health and Nursing were tested by examining relationships among mothers’ resilience (health potential), family health-promoting activity (health work), and mothers’ health-promoting lifestyle practices (competence in health behavior) in 67 families with preschool children. Mothers completed a mailed survey containing self-report measures of the study variables and a demographic form. As hypothesized, both mother’s resilience and family health work were positively related to mother’s health-promoting lifestyle practices. Mother’s resilience was also associated with health work. Mother’s resilience and health work were found to predict 41% of the variance in mother’s health-promoting lifestyle practices, after controlling for the effects of family income. Mother’s resilience and health work were most strongly related to different, but complementary, aspects of mother’s health-promoting lifestyle practices. Implication for nursing practice and future research are identified.