Abstract
Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between mother's and child's temper and parenting stress. Methods : One hundred twenty healthy mothers (above 20 yrs old) who has a school-aged child (7-11 yrs old) participated after informed consent. The temperament of the children was analyzed by the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory 7-11 (JTCI 7-11) by their mothers. The temperament of the mothers was analyzed by the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised Short (TCI-RS) and the mother's parenting stress was analyzed by the Korean Parenting Stress Index (K-PSI). The relationships between mothers' and child's temperament and parenting stress were assessed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression test. Results : There were significant correlations between maternal temperaments and child's temperaments and maternal parenting stress. There was a positive correlation between mother's harm avoidance characteristic, child's novelty seeking degree and parenting stress. On the other hand, there was a negative correlation between child's persistence and parenting stress. In addition, interactions between child and mother temperament dimensions predicted higher levels of parenting stress. Parenting stress was higher in the group of high mother's harm avoidance with child's high novelty seeking and high mother's harm avoidance with low child's persistence. Conclusions : These results are showing that there are significant relationships between mother and child temperament and parenting stress in mothers with school-aged children.
