Child Behavior and Parenting Stress between Employed Mothers and at Home Mothers of Preschool Children

AbstractThe main purpose of this research is to identify parenting stress and child's behavioral problems among preschool children. Samples comprised of 60 children with employed mothers and another 60 with at home mothers from a southern city of Peninsular Malaysia. Parental Stress Scale (PSS) was used to assess mothers’ parenting stress levels whereas the adapted Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to assess children's behavior problems. Research results revealed that there were no significant difference in parenting stress between employed mothers and at home mothers. In addition results also showed that the levels of parenting stress for the two groups of mothers were relatively the same. However, the result of Pearson's correlation indicated that there was a strong positive correlation between PSS and CBCL (employed mothers, r = 0.460; at home mothers, r = 0.590). The results portrayed the possibility of maternal personality influence that may need further research