Maternal stress and perceptions of self-efficacy in socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers An explicative model

Studies have demonstrated that maternal stress and perceptions of self-efficacy influence a mother s performance affecting her ability to Interact with her child and to understand and answer his needs The purpose of this study was to evaluate maternal stress and the perception of self-efficacy in the mothers of Infants who are cared for in child-care centers and belong to the poorest segment of the Chilean population To this end these aspects were studied in 121 low-income high-social-risk mothers with children between the ages of 4 and 9 months The final goal was to generate an explicative model of self-efficacy and maternal stress that considered characteristics of the family and the child The results revealed that family characteristics - especially household size per capita incomes and mother age - are more relevant for explaining maternal self-efficacy and stress The findings and implications for practice are discussed (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved