Relationship between parental growth and happiness with childcare in early childhood

• Project/Area Number: 25862267
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Community health nursing
• Research Institution: Health Sciences University of Hokkaido
• Principal Investigator: Akeno Seiko 北海道医療大学, 看護福祉学部, 助教 (20433451)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥780,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000); Fiscal Year 2013: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
• Keywords: 親性 / 母親 / 育児幸福感 / 育児支援 / 育児 / 発達 / 乳幼児期 / 乳幼児

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study was performed to examine the relationship between growth as a mother and happiness with childcare in early childhood. An anonymous self-recorded questionnaire was given to 1,103 mothers who participated in a health check-up of their infants. The Early Childhood Parenting Scale and the Childcare Happiness Scale were used to measure parental growth and happiness with childcare, respectively. Responses were obtained from 450 mothers (collection rate: 40.8%). These responses showed that the parenthood of mothers with higher childcare happiness was significantly higher than that of those with lower childcare happiness. This finding suggests that support for parental growth is important to allow mothers to be content with childcare.