Social, community, and cultural factors associated with parental stress in fathers and mothers

Abstract

Parenting stress is a key factor in predicting the quality of parent–child relationships and child development outcomes. Previous research tends to focus on examining individual factors contributing to parental stress, with minimal attention to other important contextual factors that may affect parenting. This study examines the issue from a broader ecological perspective by investigating social, cultural, and community factors associated with parental stress in a community sample of economically active fathers and mothers in Hong Kong. A secondary analysis was conducted using the data from the 2017 Family Survey, a territory-wide household survey conducted in Hong Kong. The data of the current study included a sub-sample of 736 working-class parents (48.4% males and 51.6% females). The mean age of fathers and mothers was 50.99 (SD = 11.2) and 48.68 (SD = 10.34) years, respectively. Mothers reported significantly higher levels of parental stress than fathers, t = −4.241, p < 0.001. Different social, cultural, and community factors were associated with parental stress for fathers and mothers. Strong endorsement of traditional family values (B = −0.23, p = 0.032) and frequent practice of filial piety (B = −0.005, p = 0.019) reduced parental stress in fathers. Additionally, fathers who perceived formal support as effective scored higher levels of parental stress, B = 0.20, p < 0.001. For mothers, informal social support from family members was the only social predictor for reduced parental stress (B = −0.14, p < 0.001) among all the other contextual variables. Community support to reduce parental stress in working parents should address the respective risk factors for fathers and mothers.