The association between parent's personality variables child's temperament and quality of marital relationship to parenting stress and life satisfaction among parents of preschool children: Differences between mothers and fathers

The first years of parenthood are characterized by changes in various areas of life and the ability to cope with these changes is largely dependent on personal characteristics, personality and environmental factors pertaining to the parents and their children (Nelson, Kushlev, & Lyubomirsky, 2014). The aim of this study was to examine the integrated contribution of the personality variables: anxiety and avoidant attachment, self-awareness (rumination and reflection), perception of the temperament of the child (emotional, active, sociable and shy) and evaluation of the marital relationship, in order to predict the perception of stress in parenting (parental distress, dysfunctional parent-child interaction and perception of the child as difficult to handle) and satisfaction with life. A further purpose of the study was to examine whether fathers and mothers differ in these variables.
The study was conducted among 147 fathers and 147 mothers (n = 294) of preschool children (0-7). After they gave their consent to participate in the study the fathers and mothers completed structured questionnaires that included the following variables: parenting stress, life satisfaction (dependent variables), attachment style, self-awareness, child's temperament, evaluation of marital relationship and socio-demographic variables (independent variables).
The findings indicate that mothers compared to fathers are characterized by less avoidant attachment, and more rumination and reflection. It was also found that older age is related to more parental distress and less satisfaction with life. Moreover, higher education and better economic situation are also related to less parenting stress and more satisfaction with life. 

Insecure attachment was associated with more stressful parenting in all three dimensions, while rumination was associated with more distress and parental perception of the child as difficult to handle. Reflection was linked to less negative parental interaction with the child.
Regarding the child's characteristics, both emotional and shy temperaments were associated with more stressful parenting in all three dimensions, while sociable temperament was associated with lower parental perception of the child as difficult to handle.
Better marital relationships were found to be associated with less parental stress in all three dimensions. With regard to life satisfaction, avoidant attachment and rumination were linked to less satisfaction with life, as were emotional and shy child temperaments. Better marital quality was associated with greater life satisfaction.
Finally, it was found that reflection, as a dimension of self-awareness, moderates the connection between avoidant attachment and parental stress, in the dimensions of parental distress and dysfunctional parent-child interaction. 
The importance of the study is that it lays out a map of variables that may contribute to a reduction of parenting stress and an increase in life satisfaction among parents of preschoolers. Given the fact that the early years of parental care serve as the basis for the child's emotional and physical development, the findings of this research may help professionals who work with parents of young children to build empirically based interventions for these parents, including differential interventions for mothers and fathers.