An Ecological Study on Working Mother's Parenting Stress

직장보육시설을 이용하는 취업모의 양육스트레스에 관한 생태학적 연구 -만 6세 이하 자녀를 둔 전문직, 사무직 및 생산직 여성을 중심으로-

The purpose of this study was to investigate working mothers'parenting stress. The study was approached from an ecological perspective. Data were collected from 185 mothers who were professionals, office or labor workers, and have their children enrolled at the day care center located at their workplace. All the subjects lived in Seoul. The results of this study were as follows: 1. The working mothers'parenting stress was found to be at a moderate level(Mean=2.30). 2. The hierarchical and stepwise regression analyses revealed that significant variables in explaining the parenting stress of working mothers were the degrees of attachment with the subject's mother($\beta$=-.24), age($\beta$=-.23), the degrees of flexibility in working conditions($\beta$=-.19), educational level($\beta$=.18), the degrees of husbands'participation in child care($\beta$=-.17), and the number of children ($\beta$=.16). These variables explained 17.2% of working mother's parenting stress. 3. It was found that the effect of microsystem variables on working mothers' parenting stress were greater than the combined effects of mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem variables.