[[alternative]]A Study of Social Support, Parenting Stress and Maternal Confidence of First-time Mothers

[[abstract]]本研究旨在探討新手母親的社會支持、親職壓力與母育信心之現況及三者之間的關聯。研究採問卷調查法，研究工具為「人際支持量表」、「母育信心量表」及「親職壓力量表簡式版」。以雙北市育有一名一歲以下嬰兒的新手母親為研究對象，共取得173份有效問卷。研究發現新手母親所感受到的社會支持主要來源為娘家親友及配偶，主要的社會支持類型為評價性支持及情緒性支持。親職壓力部分，以「父母困擾」的面向壓力較大。至於母育信心量表得分，本研究新手母親均有中等以上的信心程度。另母育信心與嬰兒月齡有正相關，新手母親教育程度為「專科以下」者其母育信心大於「大學以上」的新手母親。家庭平均月收入為「五萬元以下」的新手母親，其親職壓力大於「五萬至九萬元」、「九萬元以上」的新手母親。在控制背景變項後，社會支持能正向預測母育信心，而負向預測親職壓力，又親職壓力亦負向預測母育信心。但當以親職壓力與社會支持為自變項預測母育信心，社會支持的預測力轉為不顯著，表示親職壓力在社會支持與母育信心之間具有完全中介效果。[[abstract]]The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of social support, parenting stress, and maternal confidence of first-time mothers and the correlation among these three factors. This study conducted questionnaire surveys to collect data, and the research tools included “interpersonal support evaluation list,” “maternal confidence questionnaire,” and “parenting stress index: short form.” This study enrolled first-time mothers taking care of an infant under the age of one in Taipei City or New Taipei City as the research subjects, and obtained a total of 173 valid questionnaires. This study found that the social support perceived by first-time mothers is mainly from their original family and spouse. The major types of social support are appraisal support and emotional support. In terms of parenting stress, the aspect of “parental distress” was higher. For the score of maternal confidence questionnaire, the confidence of first-time mothers was moderate and above. Moreover, maternal confidence was positively correlated with infant’s month of age. The maternal confidence of first-time mothers whose educational background was “under junior college” was greater than that of those whose educational background was “university and above.” The parenting stress of first-time mothers whose average family income was “under NTD 50,000” was greater than that of those whose average family income was “NTD 50,000~NTD 90,000” and “above NTD 90,000.” After the background variables were controlled, social support was a positive predictor for maternal confidence and a negative predictor for parenting stress. Parenting stress was also a negative predictor for maternal confidence. However, when parenting stress and social support were used as independent variables to predict maternal confidence, the predictive power of social support was not significant, suggesting that parenting stress had a complete mediating effect on the correlation between social support and maternal confidence