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. 2021 Jan 15:11:609715.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.609715. eCollection 2020.

Assessing Mothers' Parenting Stress: Differences Between One- and Two-Child Families in China

Guoying Qian  1 , Jin Mei  1 , Li Tian  2 , Gang Dou  3
Affiliations

Assessing Mothers' Parenting Stress: Differences Between One- and Two-Child Families in China

Guoying Qian et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate mothers' parenting stress and explore its relationship with associated demographic variables in two-child families involving preschool children. A sample of 621 two-child families and a comparison group of 319 one-child families from China participated in the study; the children were aged between 3 and 7. The results showed that (1) mothers of two-child families had higher parenting stress than those of one-child families; (2) within the two-child families, demographic variables, such as birth order, gender combination, and the age gap were found to have significant effects on maternal stress levels; and (3) in two-child families, families with an income of less than 3000 yuan had significantly higher maternal stress than families with an income of more than 6000 yuan.

Keywords: mothers’ parenting stress; one-child families; parenting stress; preschool children; two-child families.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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