The Relationship between Mothers’ Perceived Value of Children and Parenting Stress Among Mothers with Infants: The Moderating Roles of Utilization and Satisfaction of Parental Leave

Background/Purpose:

parenting stress is associated with negative parenting behaviors and can adversely affect child development, highlighting the importance of identifying factors that alleviate parenting stress. Prior research suggests that parenting stress is shaped by both individual psychological resources and socio-institutional contexts. Mothers’ perceived value of children refers to perceiving children as meaningful and valuable and as providing emotional benefits, and it can function as a psychological resource for parents. However, limited research has examined how the interaction between these factors influences parenting stress. Using nationally representative data from South Korea, this study examines the relationship between mothers’ perceived value of children and parenting stress and further investigates the moderating roles of the utilization and satisfaction of parental leave. By integrating individual (i.e., mother’s perceived value of children) and policy-level factors (i.e., parental leave utilization and satisfaction), this study aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of mechanisms that alleviate parenting stress among employed mothers with infants.

Methods:

Data came from the first wave of the Korean Early Childhood Education and Care Panel (K-ECECP), a nationally representative survey of families with infants conducted in 2022. The analytic sample consisted of 1,292 employed mothers with infants aged 4 to 12 months, including 1,031 mothers who have used parental leave. Parenting stress (10 items) and perceived value of children (8 items) were measured as composite scales. The perceived value of children scale included items such as “Becoming a parent is a valuable life experience” and “Raising children brings happiness and joy”. Parental leave utilization was coded as a binary variable, and satisfaction with parental leave was measured using a 5-point Likert scale, with a higher score indicating greater satisfaction. Moderation effects were examined using regression-based analyses with the PROCESS macro, including bootstrapping procedures to test conditional effects. The moderation analysis was conducted among mothers who had used parental leave (N=1,031).

Results:

Findings indicate that mothers’ perceived value of children was significantly associated with lower parenting stress. However, parental leave utilization itself did not significantly moderate this relationship. In contrast, satisfaction with parental leave demonstrates a significant moderating effect. The stress-reducing effect of perceived value of children became weaker as satisfaction with parental leave increased. This suggests that when institutional support is sufficiently provided, the influence of individual psychological resources on parenting stress is reduced, as institutional resources complement their role in alleviating stress.

Conclusions and Implications:

The findings highlight that both individual and institutional resources play important roles in shaping parenting stress. While enhancing mothers’ perceived value of children may help reduce parenting stress, improving the quality of parental leave experiences is equally critical. Policy efforts should therefore move beyond increasing access to parental leave and focus on improving its qualitative aspects-such as supportive workplace culture, prevention of career disadvantages, and reduction of caregiving burden-in order to support stable parenting environments without excessive reliance on individual psychological resources. This study contributes to social work research by demonstrating how policy contexts interact with individual-level factors to influence parenting experiences.