maternal stress

Objective: Unmanaged stress during parenthood can lead to poor performance of the family and inappropriate parenting in general. Therefore, it is necessary to identify optimal methods of dealing with stress. Methods:  The present qualitative study was based on a grounded theory approach. The population included women (living in Tehran in 2021), who were satisfied with their lives and had at least one 6-year old child. After the initial investigation, from among 51 women, 11 women whose level of satisfaction with life was above the mean were selected through purposive sampling method. The research instrument included Diener's (1985) Satisfaction with Life scale and semi-structured interviews. The data obtained from the interview were analyzed through Strauss and Corbin’s method. Results: The qualitative analysis of the interviews showed that satisfied women used strategies, such as preventing the spread of the problem, changing the situation, self-empowerment in processing negative emotions, communication activism, educational activism, conscious problem solving, and seeking professional help to deal with their maternal stress. The central factors included not giving up, solving the problem and activism to solve it. The causal factors included worrying about child's developmental delay/ developmental disorders, financial pressure, and role density/ role conflict. The underlying factors included agreement or disagreement in spouses' training methods, dynamism and activism, modeling and gaining experience, persistence and perseverance, feeling self-inefficiency in training, realism/ perfectionism, mother's independent personality/ feeling lonely, and living in the present time/ worrying about the future. The intervening factors included unwanted pregnancy/ spouse’ unwillingness to have children, perceiving the ineffectiveness of the efforts, comparing the growth of peers, worrying about providing facilities for the child's growth, and weakness in emotional regulation/ depression. The facilitating factors included the calmness of the child, the mother's personal space and recreation, the support of the spouse and families, and the mother's openness to experience. Finally, the consequences of coping with maternal stress included managing the emotions of the mother and the child, the child's taking responsibility, the enrichment of the marital relationship, the intimate relationship/ acceptance, and parents’ acceptance of the child and their companionship. Conclusion: The results of the current study can be the basis for future studies. It can also assist formulating educational and therapeutic programs aimed at dealing with the stress caused by the birth of the first child.

The present research was conducted with the aim of developing an educational model for women to cope with maternal stress based on the coping methods of satisfied women and its effectiveness in their cognitive emotion regulation. The research design was mixed methods. The participants in the qualitative phase of the study included the women (living in Tehran in 2021), who were satisfied with their lives and had at least one 6-year old child. In the first phase, after the initial screening, from among 51 women, 11 women whose level of satisfaction with life was above the mean were selected through purposive sampling method. Using in-depth interviews, an educational model for women to cope with their maternal stress was prepared in 10 sessions. In the second phase, the validity of the educational model was confirmed using Content Validity Ratio (CVR) index of Lawshe (1975). In the third phase, the population and the statistical sample were selected, and using the multi-baseline design, the educational model was implemented. Through available sampling method, the mothers who met the inclusion criteria were provided with Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire; they were asked to fill out the questionnaire. Finally, from among the 14 mothers who were examined, three mothers who both had the inclusion criteria and were volunteers participated in the study and were trained in 10 sessions. Findings: The results showed that the educational model of women's coping with maternal stress based on the coping methods of satisfied women was effective in their cognitive emotion regulation.