The Contribution of Individual, Personality, and Contextual Factors to Parenting Stress Among Mothers of More Than One Child: A Comparison of “Late” Parenthood Mothers to “On Time” Parenthood Mothers

Parenting stress is defined as the experience of distress or discomfort that arises from demands that accompany the parental role. Parenting stress stems from parental perceptions regarding the behavior of their children as well as perceptions of one’s own performance as a parent in regard to various parenting roles and tasks, and reflects a negative emotional response that occurs when the inherent demands of parenting conflict with or exceed the resources available to the parent.

High levels of parenting stress can be potentially harmful to various aspects of the parent’s and child’s life. A review of the literature on the topic indicates that, over the past 40 years, there has been a consistent increase in both research and clinical efforts aimed at understanding the factors that contribute to parenting stress. However, the primary effort has been directed towards researching parenting stress among clinical samples, in relation to complex life circumstances, and during major life transitions. Much less attention has been given to addressing the etiology of parenting stress that arises from normative parenting hassles associated with daily parenting duties and tasks. In this regard, there have been even fewer studies addressing parenting stress among mothers of multiple children. From the limited research that does exist, it appears that mothers of multiple children experience higher levels of parenting stress than mothers of one child. In addition to performing parenting tasks that are specific to the various and cumulative needs of each individual child and of all the children collectively, mothers of multiple children engage in establishing an individual relationship with each child while also mediating and managing the sibling relationships among the children.

In addition to the unique challenges mothers of multiple children may face, it is important to consider the changing patterns of parenthood that have occurred in recent decades; these patterns indicate a phenomenon of “late” parenthood, such that an increasing number of women are postponing parenthood until their late 30s or beyond. Thus, a need arises to focus research efforts on understanding the role of the timing of the transition to parenthood in explaining parenting stress levels. From the scant research that has been documented in the literature, an inconsistent picture emerges regarding parenting stress among mothers in “late” parenthood, with even less known about parenting stress during the early childhood stage. In fact, most of the previous studies that examined parenting stress among mothers in “late” parenthood focused on the period of the birth of the first child and the transition to parenthood during the post-birth period. However, the various and cumulative challenges and needs involved in parenting more than one child – measured by the degree of parenting stress – may be particularly high during the early childhood stage, a period of time that is considered to be one of the more intense and active periods of parenting.

Accordingly, the main goal of the present study was to examine the factors that contribute to explaining parenting stress among mothers of more than one child in the early childhood stage. A supplemental goal of the study was to evaluate the role of the timing of the transition to parenthood – “late” parenthood vs. “on time” parenthood – in relation to parenting stress and the various factors that contribute to it.

In order to examine these aims, and with regard to a literature review showing that the factors that may contribute to parenting stress primarily fall into three clusters – individual characteristics of the parent, contextual factors, and factors related to the child – the current study utilized Belsky’s process of parenting model (Belsky, 1984) as an ecological systems theoretical perspective to guide the research. Accordingly, the present study examined the contribution of parenting self-efficacy and psychological hardiness, which was representative of the mother’s individual factors. Within the cluster of contextual factors, the contribution of co-parenting, work-family conflict and support from grandparents was assessed. In regard to the child characteristics cluster, the contribution of child development (i.e., typical development vs. atypical development) was evaluated; if any of the mother’s children were diagnosed with a disability or with a developmental delay, the child development variable for that mother would fall under the category of atypical. In addition, the present study sought to adapt Belsky’s model to examine parenting stress among mothers of more than one child by additionally considering the sibling relationships between the children, a significant subsystem of the larger family unit. The inclusion of this factor denotes an extension of the model’s traditional emphasis on the characteristics of one specific child in the family.

A convenience sample of 501 Jewish Israeli mothers of more than one child in the early childhood stage (2-8 years old) participated in this study (N = 501), across two distinct groups according to the timing of the transition to parenthood: “on time” parenthood and “late” parenthood. The “on time” parenthood group included mothers who gave birth to their first child between the ages of 27-30 (n = 250); this age range was an entry criterion for this group and reflects the social timetable for the transition to parenthood in Israel, based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics that indicates the typical age range for first-time births among Jewish women in Israel. The second group – the “late” parenthood group – included mothers who gave birth to their first child at age 35 or above (n = 251); this age range is defined based on the research literature’s definition of “late” parenthood. In other words, this group consisted of mothers who gave birth outside of the social timetable (off time). The focus on Jewish Israeli mothers specifically was determined in accordance with 2020 data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics which indicated that 93% of first-time births among women 35 years or older are attributed to Jewish Israeli women.

The current study was a cross-sectional study. Data collection was conducted online via Qualtrics. Participants completed a research questionnaire that included measures assessing parenting stress, parenting self-efficacy, psychological hardiness, co-parenting, work-family conflict, grandparent support, and mothers’ perception of the quality of their children’s sibling relationships. The information regarding the child’s development, as well as additional socio-demographic data, was collected through a background questionnaire.

Study findings showed that the factors across all three clusters explained 32% of the variance in the parenting stress of mothers of more than one child. Results showed that mothers’ individual factors – parenting self-efficacy and psychological hardiness – significantly contributed to explaining parenting stress levels. In addition, although the factors of the contextual cluster were found to contribute least to parenting stress, findings revealed that co-parenting and work-family conflict significantly contributed to explaining parenting stress; while the contribution of grandparent support was not significant. In regard to the factors of the children in the family subsystem cluster, findings indicated that the quality of sibling relationships significantly contributed to explaining parenting stress; the contribution of child developmental status was not significant.

In addition to the unique contributions of the factors within the three clusters to explaining parenting stress, there were a number of significant mediation paths among mothers of more than one child: parenting self-efficacy mediated the relationship between co-parenting and parenting stress; work-family conflict mediated the relationship between psychological hardiness and parenting stress; and sibling relationships mediated the relationship between parenting self-efficacy and parenting stress as well as the relationship between co-parenting and parenting stress. These mediation effects correspond with the central assumptions of the family systems theory, according to which the individual factors of the parent, and the interpersonal processes occurring within the family subsystem, have the ability to influence relationship dynamics in another family subsystem (e.g., the spousal relationship). Thus, research findings support the “spillover hypothesis,” according to which attitudes, abilities, perceptions, feelings and behaviors in one domain of an individual’s life – or in the subsystem in which he or she is intertwined – can “spill over” into the attitudes, abilities, perceptions, feelings and behaviors in the subsystems and other domains of life.

Further, findings indicated that the timing of the transition to parenthood – “late” parenthood vs. “on time” parenthood – did not moderate the direct associations between the factors of the three clusters and parenting stress nor the indirect associations described in the previous paragraph (i.e., no moderated mediation effects); in other words, effects were similar across both “late” parenthood mothers and “on time” parenthood mothers. These findings are consistent with the findings of the multivariate analyses of co-variance, which indicate that “late” parenthood mothers and “on time” parenthood mothers are more similar than they are different when it comes to parenting stress, as well as in regard to the contribution of the factors across the three clusters in explaining parenting stress. In fact, the only variable in which a difference was found between the two groups of mothers was co-parenting – “late” parenthood mothers reported lower co-parenting levels than “on time” parenthood mothers.

When viewing these results from the perspective of the “established adulthood” period (Mehta et al., 2020) – a new concept in the theory and research of adult human development – we may conclude that the boundaries that have defined life transitions as “on time” vs. “off time” are blurring. The significant demographic changes that have taken place during the past half-century, have manifested in a general trend of marrying and giving birth to one’s first child at a later age and have shaped the current conceptualization of established adulthood. Established adulthood is thus differentiated from emerging adulthood and midlife period in regard to individuals’ experiences, challenges and responsibilities across various contexts (e.g., health, career, family), as well as intersecting - and sometimes conflicting - demands across contexts (e.g., work-family conflict) and refers to adults between the ages of 30-45. In relation to the current study, at the time of data collection, the mean age of mothers in the “on time” parenthood group was 35.7 and the mean age of mothers in the “late” parenthood group was 42.4. Therefore, both “on time” and “late” parenthood mothers were in the established adulthood period. The significance of this is that mothers in both groups were likely have similar experiences in regard to the intensity and demands that characterize the established adulthood period, specifically an intersection of demands across work and family domains, as well managing multiple demands within the family domain.

The theoretical contribution of the study is first and foremost in its use of an integrative and multivariate model to explain parenting stress among mothers of more than one child. The model represents an adaptation of Belsky’s process of parenting model for evaluating parenting stress by including an examination of sibling relationships, an addition that extends beyond the traditional focus of the model on the characteristics of a specific child within the family. This extension is important because children in a family are inherently interconnected, and together, they represent an important subsystem of the family.

In addition, the general pattern indicating a lack of differences between “late” parenthood mothers and “on time” parenthood mothers is a particularly important contribution of the present study. This finding supports the notion that the timing of the transition to parenthood does not necessarily influence the level of parenting stress or the factors that are associated with it among mothers of more than one child in the early childhood stage. As such, the results of the present study join findings from other studies that challenge the assumption that mothers in “late” parenthood are a homogenous group with idiosyncratic parenting experiences.

Furthermore, the results of the present study contribute to and add to the knowledge about parenting processes during the established adulthood period, while describing the factors that contribute to the parenting stress experienced by mothers of more than one child. On a practical level, deepening the understanding of these factors may help professionals adapt and promote interventions aimed at helping mothers of more than one child cope with the daily parenting tasks that are typical when caring for children in the early childhood stage, as they are also dealing with the intersecting demands typical of the established adulthood period.