ANALYZING PARENTING STRESS IN TERMS OF PARENTAL SELF-EFFICACY AND PARENT

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between parenting stress, parental self-efficacy, and parent-child communication. 492 parents participated in the study. 200 of the participants are fathers and 292 are mothers. For data collection, the Parenting Stress Index Short Form (PSI-SF) Perceived Parental Self-Efficacy Scale, Parent-Child Communication Scale, and Demographic Information Form were used. The differences among parenting stress, parental self-efficacy, and parent-child communication across demographic variables were analyzed with SPSS 17.0 program. At the same time, the effects of demographic variables on parenting stress and parent-adolescence communication were examined. To the findings, it is found that mothers and low-income level parents had higher parenting stress and no significant difference for other demographic variables was observed. A medium-level negative correlation was found between parenting stress and parent self-efficacy and parent-child communication variable. Additionally, self-efficacy and communication predicted 15.5% of parenting stress. According to the standardized regression coefficient, and when the relative significance level of predictive variables on parenting stress was analyzed, it can be seen that the most predictive variable was self-efficacy (β=-.255) and followed by communication (β=-.174).