Anger factors impacting on life satisfaction of mothers with young children in Korea: Does mother's age matter?

Abstract

The relationship between adult anger and parent anger factors and maternal life satisfaction of mothers with young children and the moderation effect of maternal age on the relationship were examined. The participants were 325 mothers of young children and aged from 25 to 47 residing in metropolitan areas of Korea. Likert questionnaires requiring self-reporting by mothers, were used to examine mothers' experience of adult anger and parent anger as well as life satisfaction. The results of the study were as follows. First, both adult anger and parent anger predicted 10% of the variability of maternal life satisfaction and parent anger in the association with age improved the predictability to 22%. Second, adult anger management was positively associated with maternal life satisfaction while adult anger suppression was negatively associated with maternal life satisfaction. Third, the higher parent situational anger the mothers experienced, the lower life satisfaction they had and that was significant for young mothers only. The higher parent anger management difficulty mothers had, the lower life satisfaction they had and that was true for both young and old mothers.