Maternal Concerns: What Do Mothers Really Worry about?

Despite the persistent myth of “fulfillment through motherhood”, mothering is generally considered to be a social process that includes multiple transitions, losses, and stresses. Maternal health and well-being are reported to influence maternal and child health. Maternal concerns are one source of this stress. The purpose of this study is to identify common maternal concerns and the overall level of maternal concern and to examine the relationships between maternal age, number of children, years of mothering, race, and income and the level of concern.

Maternal concerns were measured in a convenience sample of 40 women between the ages of 18 and 48 who had at least one child under the age of 18 living at home using the Everyday Stressors Index. Mean maternal age was 29.18 years; mean number of children was 2.23 and mean number of years mothering was 7.38. The sample was 50% Caucasian, 37.5% African American, and 12.5% other.  Sixty-two percent of the mothers identified their families as low income.

The mean cumulative score on the Everyday Stressors Index was 17.78 (on a scale of 0 to 60). Most frequently identified concerns included “not enough time to do what you want to do”, having too many responsibilities, problems with children’s behavior, not enough money for basic necessities, and owing money/getting credit. Concerns scoring as most troublesome included “not enough time to do what you want to do”, having too many responsibilities, not enough money for basic necessities, owing money/getting credit, and problems with your job/not having a job. A moderate, negative correlation was identified between maternal age and overall level of concern (Kendall’s tau = -.335, p = .01). A trend in the direction of a small, positive correlation was identified between the number of children and level of concern (Kendall’s tau = .202, p = .052). There was a difference in level of concern according to income (t = 3.256, p = .002) but not significant difference by race.

Concerns identified in this research and the generally low level of concern reported are similar to those reported in the literature.  Nurses encounter women at all stages of motherhood – child-bearing, child-rearing, and child-launching- and have a unique opportunity to assess maternal concerns and provide information and guidance to lessen their impact.  To assess accurately and intervene effectively, they need to use concerns frequently identified by mothers as the foundation for detailed assessment.  The nature of the concerns reported here is primarily social, indicating that nurses need to be familiar with community resources that can assist mothers to cope with their concerns. Future research should focus on larger, more diverse samples, examining changes in concerns across maternal transitions (infant to toddler, school age child to teen, empty nest to adult children), examining the link between concerns, other stressors, and maternal health and identifying and testing interventions to empower mothers to cope with their

concerns in a healthy way.