Evaluating the correlation between maternal role and parenting behavior

Abstract

Objective: The descriptive and correlational study was conducted to evaluate the correlation between the maternal role and parenting behavior in the early postpartum period. Methods: The study was conducted with 291 mothers, who applied to the ObstetricPostpartum services of Maternity Hospital in Erzurum between 1 May 2015 and 18 September 2015. The data was collected by using the personal information form, Myself as Mother Scale and Postpartum Parenting Behavior Scale. The data were evaluated by using the descriptive statistics, t-test, one way analysis of variance, Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney-U, and Pearson Correlation Analysis. Results: While the mean score obtained by the mothers from the Myself as Mother Scale was 52.16 +/- 6.63 points, their Postpartum Parenting Behavior Scale mean score was 4.68 +/- 1.34 points. The mothers' age, educational status, place of residence, income level perception, working status, type of family, number of pregnancies and living children, planned status of the pregnancy, status of receiving antenatal care, and delivery method affected the maternal role. The mothers' age, educational status, place of residence, income level perception, working status, number of pregnancies, living children, and stillbirths, status of planning the pregnancy, status of receiving antenatal care, and delivery method were effective on the parenting behavior. It was found that there was a statistically significant and very weak correlation between the mean scores of Myself as Mother Scale and Postpartum Parenting Behavior Scale (r= 0.142, p= 0.015). Conclusion: It was determined that as gaining maternal role in the early postpartum period increased, the success of the parenting behavior also increased at very weak level.