Perception on the importance of Parental Role by Mothers with Infants

Abstract

Purpose: The purposes of this descriptive survey study were to describe the perception on the importance of parental role by mothers with infants, and to analyze the differences of those perception depending on the mothers’’ and infants’’ characteristics.

Method: Data were collected from 240 mothers of infants visited at one public health center in Gangreung city. The instrument used for this study was a self-report questionnaire to identify the parental role.

Results: The mean score for perception on the importance of parental role was 139.89, and item mean for caring performance ability domain 4.43, environmental organization for development domain 4.38, acceptance domain 4.26, responsibility domain 4.21 for responsibility, knowledge for caring domain 4.19, sensitivity 4.16, provision of stimulus and involvement 4.01. There were significant differences in the perception of parental role according to spouse relationship, father’’s participation in child rearing, experience of parental role education, and infant’’s temperament.

Conclusion: The experience of childhood is highly affected by the quality of the parental role. It is important to identify parents’’ perception of parental role. Therefore, the parental role education program are necessary.