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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 90 (2013) 895 903

6th International Conference on University Learning and Teaching (InCULT 2012)

Child behavior and parenting stress between employed mothers

and at home mothers of preschool children
Kee Jiar, Yeoa and Sieak Ling, Teob
ab

Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor, Malaysia

Abstract
The main purpose of this research is to identify parenting stress and childs 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 childrens 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 Pearsons
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.
2013
Published
by Elsevier
Ltd. Ltd.
2012The
TheAuthors.
Authors.
Published
by Elsevier
Selection and/or
peer-review
under
responsibility
of the Faculty
Education,
University Technology
Malaysia.
Selection
and/or
peer-review
under
responsibility
of the of
Faculty
of Education,
UniversityMARA,
Technology
MARA, Malaysia.

Keywords
e
:Parenting stress; Maternal stress, Child behavioural problems; Employed mothers; Stay-at-home mothers

1. Introduction
It is undeniable that parenting stress is mediated by a variety factors such as social support (Crnic &
Greenberg, 1987; Krauss, 1993), various stressful life events (Lavee, Sharlin, & Katz, 1996), and childs physical
problem (Dumas, Wolf, Fisman, & Culligan, 1991). In addition, ffactor of child characteristics such as difficult
behavior may also cause stress to mothers. Due to the different child characteristics among children, the level of
stress among the mothers is also different. In other words, the occurrence of parenting stress is mainly due to the

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kjyeo@utm.my

1877-0428 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Faculty of Education, University Technology MARA, Malaysia.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.166

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Kee Jiar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 90 (2013) 895 903

result of the interplay between child characteristics and parental characteristics, and situational variables
encompassing major life events that may occur in the parents life, such as maternal employment.
Over the past several years, a number of studies have shown a rise in behavior problems among preschoolers
(Keenan & Wakschlag, 2002) and children that show relatively serious disruptive and violent behavior problems
in early adolescence always have a history of problems that began in the preschool years (Loeber & Dishion,
1983; Moffitt, 1990). Some of the major factors associated with child behavior problems include harsh and
ineffective parenting, poor parental monitoring, lone parent status, and low socio-economic status (Webster et al.,
2001; Kwok et al, 2000). Therefore, child behavior problems among preschool children should not be overlooked
as it may bring serious effects in future.
1.1. Literature review
Employed mothers are multi tasking. One set of findings indicated that employed mothers can be subjected to
stress due to the reason of heavy responsibilities for household tasks and child cares in combination with
employment demands (Catherine, 1992). Employed mothers seem stressed out as they face the problem in
allocating their limited times for each of the task.
Many people might think at home mothers are free from stress as they just look after their children and take
good care of the family. But according to Crnic & Greenberg (1990), hassles that experienced by at home
mothers proved to be more powerful stress construct and it might influence micro social processes within parentchild relationships and contribute to dysfunction in children and families.
At home mothers are routinely challenged by child-rearing and care giving demands. They would definitely
have experienced with being nagged or whined at, settling arguments between siblings, repeatedly cleaning up
their childrens messes. Although these events sound trivial problems, their cumulative impact over a certain
period might become a meaningful stressor for a mother.
1.2. Purpose of the study
The main purpose of this study is to examine childrens behaviour and parenting stress among employed
mothers and at home mothers from Johor Bahru, the southern part of Malaysia. Parallel to this, the current study
is aimed to achieve the following objectives:
z The levels of parenting stress perceived by employed mothers and at home mothers.
z The levels of child behaviour problems (externalizing behaviour and internalizing behaviour) between
employed mothers and at home mothers.
z Whether there is any significant difference in parenting stress among employed mothers and at home mothers.
z Whether there is any significant difference in child behaviour problems among employed mothers and at
home mothers
z Relationship between the levels of child behaviour problems and the levels of parenting stress among
employed mothers.
z Relationship between the levels of child behaviour problems and the levels of parenting stress among at home
mothers.
z Influences of demographic factors on parenting stress among employed mothers and at home mothers.
2. Methodology
In this study, parenting stress and children behavioural problems were assessed among the preschool children
in a sample of 120 preschool children and their mothers from Johor Bahru. The sample was chosen based on
purposive sampling that the researcher would just interview mothers who have children from ages 4 to 6. It

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should be remarked that if there are more than one child who falls within the stated age group, then only one
child was selected as sample. Two groups of mothers (employed mothers and at home mothers) were requested to
complete the Parental Stress Scale (PSS) for assessing their parenting stress levels. In addition, they were asked
to rate their childrens behaviour problems by filling in the adapted version of Child Behaviour Checklist
(CBCL). One of the limitations of this survey is the concerned study relied mainly on the self-report from
mothers who might not be objective in some aspects because people do have different personality, value system,
response approaches, etc. The assessment reported by mothers which may not reflect the actual conditions of the
children.
3. Findings
To analyze the collected data, two types of statistical methods, descriptive and inferential analyses, were
applied to answer the research questions. In section A of the questionnaire, basic information is divided into two
parts: Part I contains information on mothers and their families and Part II on children who have being selected
by their mothers to be involved in this survey. Section B shows the analysis of data collected by using the
adapted Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) which serves the purpose in assessing the levels of child behaviour
problems. The last part of analysis is found in section C on Parental Stress Scale (PSS).
3.1. The levels of parenting stress among employed mothers and at home mothers.
The findings in Table 1 show that the majority mothers from both groups were experiencing mild parenting
stress: employed mothers = 68% and at home mothers = 72%, while 32% of employed mothers and 28% of at
home mothers were having moderate parenting stress. None of them fall within the severe range.
Table 1. Distribution of total PSS scores
Total
scores
18 41
42 65
66 90

Stages
of PSS
Mild
Moderate
Severe

Employed
mothers
41
19
0

Percent
(%)
68.3
31.7
0.0

At home
mothers
43
17
0

Percent
(%)
71.7
28.3
0.0

It should be remarked that the higher score indicates a higher level of stress that the mothers perceived. Refer
to Table 2, the mean for employed mothers and at home mothers are 36.45 and 36.67 respectively. It
demonstrated at home mothers have slightly higher level of parenting stress as compared to employed mothers.
Table 2. Mean and standard deviation of Parental Stress Scale (PSS)
Parental Stress Scale

Employed mothers

At home mothers

(PSS)

(n = 60)

(n = 60)

Mean

36.45

36.67

Standard deviation

8.91

7.94

3.2. The levels of child behavior problems among employed mothers and at home mothers.
Refer to Table 3, it reveals the majority children of employed mothers (98%) and at home mothers (92%)
were having mild behavioural problems. The remaining of 2% and 8% of children from these both groups were

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Kee Jiar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 90 (2013) 895 903

found to be within the range of moderate behavioural problems. None of them was classified as severe
behavioural problems.
Table 3. Distribution of total adapted CBCL scores
Total

Stages

Employed

Percent

At home

Percent

scores

of PSS

mothers

(%)

mothers

(%)

48 112

Mild

59

98.3

55

91.7

113 176

Moderate

1.7

8.3

177 240

Severe

0.0

0.0

The findings show in Table 4 indicated both groups of research sample were having similar means.
Table 4. Mean and standard deviation of adapted version of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
Child Behavior Checklist

Employed mothers

At home mothers

(CBCL)

(n = 60)

(n = 60)

Mean

80.48

80.55

Standard deviation

18.04

22.30

3.3. T-test result for employed mothers and at home mothers on PSS
In Table 5, the results showed there was no significant difference between the means of the two groups as
shown by the analysis: t = 0.141, P = 0.88 at p < 0.05. In other words, the parenting stress between employed
mothers and at home mothers are relatively the same.
Table 5.T-test result for employed mothers and at home mothers on PSS
Scale

df

Sig. (2-tailed)

Parental Stress Scale (PSS)

-0.141

118

0.888

3.4. T-test result for employed mothers and at home mothers on CBCL
Refer to Table 6, the results showed there was not a significant difference in the level of the childs behaviour
problems for the group of employed mothers (M = 36.45, SD = 8.91) and at home mothers (M = 36.67, SD =
7.94) conditions; t (118 ) = 0.018, p = 0.986.
Table 6.T-test result for employed mothers and at home mothers on CBCL
Scale

df

Sig. (2-tailed)

Child Behavior Checklist

(CBCL)

-0.018

118

0.986

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899

3.5. Correlation results between PSSs score and CBCLs score for employed mothers
By using Pearsons interpretation, it demonstrated that the CBCLs variable is a strong positive correlation to
the PSSs variable (r = 0.460, p<0.01) for employed mothers. It shows that mothers whose children are more
likely to exhibit behavior problems are also more likely to experience parenting stress and the strength of this
relationship is strong.
Table 7.Pearsons correlation between PSSs scores and CBCLs scores for employed mothers
Scale

Pearsons r

Sig. (2-tailed)

Child Behavior Checklist

(CBCL)

0.460

60

0.000

3.6. Correlation results between PSSs score and CBCLs score for at home mothers
As for at home mothers, the analysis of the correlation matrix (Table 8) indicates that childs behavior
problems is strong positively correlated to parenting stress (r = 0.590). Apparently, the relationship for at home
mothers is stronger than employed mothers.
Table 8.Pearsons correlation between PSSs scores and CBCLs scores for at home mothers
Scale

Pearsons r

Sig. (2-tailed)

Child Behavior Checklist

(CBCL)

0.590

60

0.000

4. Discussions
4.1. Parenting stress between employed mothers and at home mothers
Findings from many studies have shown that employment can actually lighten maternal stress as participation
in the workforce helps in enhancing mothers prestige (Ronald, 1982), getting greater sense of autonomy and
independence in workforce (Ferree, 1976), enjoying emotional and other mental benefits (Kessler and McRae,
1982), and therefore there are less depression and anxiety among employed mothers than women who are at
home (Ross et al., 1990).
On the other hand, at home mothers were particularly vulnerable to stress (Walker et al., 1989). The long
hours of contact with the children (Harris & McHale, 1989), physical burden of housework and potential loss of
self esteem when a womans self identity is subsumed by her role as mother and wife are the reasons to cause
stress to at home mothers. As the main responsibility of the at home mothers is taking care of the family thus at
home mothers are spending more time at home and with their children than employed mothers. Owing to such
reason, the stressors of these trifling, recurring, and irritating daily parenting chores and obligations are a salient
cause of parenting stress (Kanner et al., 1981).
In line with these findings, the result from the t-test (p=0.888) in present study revealed that there was no
significant difference between the means of employed mothers and at home mothers. It implies levels of
parenting stress for the two groups to be similar.

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One of the possible explanations for this finding is the availability of other caretakers. From the data
collected, it indicated that almost half of the employed mothers (42%) would send their children to their parents
or in-laws for child care. With their help, it directly lightens the stress faced by the employed mothers as they are
less worried about the safety of their children and thus they can fully concentrate on their jobs. Besides this, the
domestic help, paid childcare, and others may become the second choice of parents to call for child care (30%).
With the availability of these childcare centres, it helps to ease the minds of lots of employed mothers.
With regard to outcomes of the parenting stress, scores for the mothers in present study all fell within the
normative range (employed mothers, mild = 68%, moderate = 32% ; at home mothers, mild = 72%, moderate =
28%), thus it should be noted that the sample does not consist of mothers who experiencing severe level of
maternal stress.
To answer the question of the occurrence of mild parenting stress among the mothers, one of the best
explanations is the marital satisfaction. When mothers were asked about their spousal relationship, 74% of
employed mothers and 68% of at home mothers rated very good relationship with their husbands. According to
Hess, H. (2008), in her study, the negative correlation between mothers marital satisfaction and her overall
parenting stress was found. It implies as a mothers level of marital satisfaction increases, her level of parenting
stress decreases and vice verse. Specifically, mothers who feel a greater degree of marital satisfaction show lower
stress over parenting issues.
Alternately, mild parenting stress was found in both groups of mothers due to the reason of less number of
children at home. According to Jacquelyn et al. (2010), greater numbers of children living in the home were
associated with greater levels of parenting stress. The reason behind is more extensive care have to be given to
greater number of children at home. Therefore, consistent with the present findings that both groups of mothers
were experiencing mild parenting stress as majority of them (employed mothers = 97% ; at home mothers = 80%)
has children not more than three at home.
4.2. Child behavioral problems between children of employed mothers and at home mothers
Compared with earlier researches, in general, findings in this study were inconsistent with earlier findings. In
this study, there was not much difference in terms of the child behavioural problems for both employed mothers
and at home mothers. The findings in this study contradict with findings by Han, Waldfogel, and Brooks-Gunn
(2001) who found that maternal employment sometimes led to behavioural problems in children. The findings in
this study could be related to children being cared for by several caretakers (both out-of-home care providers and
parents). Children likely receive varying amount and types of discipline in this situation, which could lead to
confusion and ultimately the occurrence of behavioural problems. Moreover, it was the consensus of the
researchers that the maternal employment would affect the childrens behaviour (Barling,J. 1988, Karyl, E, et al.
1991, Anne,I.H,et al., 2005).
In this study, an independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the child behavioural problems
between employed mothers and at home mothers. The results of p = 0.986 showed there was no significant
difference in the child behavioural problems between both groups. This statement was further supported by a
recent research conducted in UK. According to McMunn, A. et al. (2012), the results indicated that there was no
evidence of detrimental effects of maternal employment in the early years on subsequent child socio-emotional
behaviour. In addition, the researchers suggested the ideal scenario for children, both boys and girls, was to have
both parents in paid employment and lived together with the children.
Apart from it, in this study, t-test was being conducted on other sub-scales such as aggressive behaviour
(p=0.265), anxiety (p=0.878), attention problems (p=0.056), delinquent behaviours (p=0.628), social problems
(p=0.802), social withdrawal (p=0.708) and somatic complaints (p=0.581). No significant differences were found
within these sub-scales. It means the occurrences of the sub-scales were not affected by the maternal
employment.

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901

According to Romano, E., Kohen, D., and Findlay, L.C. (2010), the results indicated high quantity of care
(over 30 hours per week) was associated with less aggression. In other words, the more hours the mothers spent
with the children, then the less aggression the children would portray. Refer to the data collected, 25% of the
employed mothers in this study spent less than 21 hours per week with their children while 57% of them spent
between 28 hours and 42 hours per week with their children. Apparently, more than half of the employed mothers
had actually provided high quantity of care (over 30 hours per week) for their children, owing to this reason, less
behavioural problems were found in the children of employed mothers.
The findings in present study are further supported by Cooksey, E et al. (2009) and Verropoulou, G., and
Joshi, H. (2009) that no relationship between maternal employment and socio-emotional behaviour. However,
Cooksey, E. et al. (2009) found that children of employed mothers were less likely to display internalising
behaviour or be worried (Cooksey, E et al., 2009) and unhappy (Joshi, H and Verropoulou, G. 2000).
With regards to behavioural outcomes, scores for the children in present study all fell within the normative
range, thus it should be noted that the sample does not consist of children with serious difficulties in behavioural
domain. Nonetheless, mild difficulties should not be overlooked as behaviour problems in the early years can
become magnified in later years and can be resulted a host of negative outcomes. In sum, the overall pattern of
results remained almost the same, suggesting that results from the present study appear applicable to children
from both employed mothers and at home mothers families.

4.3. Relationship between child behavior and parenting stress

In the prior researches, there was abundance of studies surveyed on the levels of parenting stress with the
child behaviour problems. However, majority of the researches focused mostly on children with disabilities while
there was very limited source on typically developing children. One of the researches was conducted by
comparing the families of young children with externalizing behaviours (e.g. hyperactive, aggressive; n = 22),
autism (n = 20), and no significant problem behaviours (n = 22) on several measures of family functioning, which
found that parents with externalizing children reported greater impact on social life, less positive feelings about
parenting, and higher child-related stress. In this prior study, it has been proven that child behavioural problem is
positively correlated with parenting stress. Again, this result was in line with the current study that the child
behaviour problem was positively correlated to parenting stress of employed mothers and at home mothers.
It is undeniable that parents would perceive higher levels of parenting stress if their children are
developmentally delayed. It is because children with developmental delays were rated higher on behaviour
problems than their non-delayed peers, and were three times as likely to score in the clinical range (Baker, B.L. et
al., 2003). From this prior study, preschool children with and without developmental delay were investigated.
The results demonstrated parenting stress was higher in the delayed group, but was related to the extent of
behaviour problems rather than to the childs developmental delay.
Overall, a transactional model fit the relationship between parenting stress and behaviour problems. It means
high parenting stress contributed to a worsening in child behaviour problems over time, and high child behaviour
problems contributed to a worsening in parenting stress. As aforementioned, there is a bidirectional relationship
between child behaviour problems and parenting stress, however, this is not the main concerned of the present
study. Apparently, it is important to note that these results were consistent across all prior researches that there
was a positive relationship between child behaviour problem s and parenting stress.
5. Conclusion and recommendation
Maternal employment has no directed influence on stress perceived by mothers during the course of parenting
their children as the evidence has proven the levels of child behaviour problem from both groups are relatively
the same. Nevertheless, the findings in this study found out the stress level of at home mothers is strongly

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Kee Jiar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 90 (2013) 895 903

correlated to the child behavioural problems. With regard to behavioural outcomes, scores for the children in
present study all fell within the normative range thus it should be noted that the sample does not consist of
children with serious difficulties in behavioural domain. Nonetheless, mild difficulties should not be overlooked
as behaviour problems in the early years can become magnified in later years and can be resulted a host of
negative outcomes. For future research, it is suggested to explore on mothers personalities as mothers with
different personalities might have different levels of stress they perceived during the course of parenting their
children.

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