Child age dependent predictors of South Korean mothers’ psychological distress

Abstract

This study examined the variables predicting South Korean mothers’ psychological distress and the difference in their effect on maternal distress by child age. Data were extracted from the Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC). Participants included 1292 mothers at the first time point (4 months after childbirth) and 1094 mothers at the second time point (when their children were 6 years old). Decision Tree Analysis was conducted using PASW 12.0. The results of the study are as follows. The variables segregating South Korean mothers into two groups with normal levels of psychological distress and with mild to severe distress symptoms differed by child age. The mothers’ psychological distress was affected by their negative self-efficacy, self-esteem, parenting stress, and marital conflict, when their child was 1 year old. However, their parenting stress and marital conflict were found to predict mothers’ psychological distress when their child was 6 years old. This study suggests that tailoring an intervention to consider specific characteristics at different stages of parenting is effective in order to alleviate mothers’ psychological distress.