engleski

General life stress of parents of adolescents: Its sources and relationship with parenting

Contextual stress has been recognized as one of the key determinants of parenting. However, much more is known about the sources of stress and the relationship between stress and parenting in early than in later stages of parenthood. In addition, maternal stress has been investigated more than paternal. The aim of this study was to examine and compare the level and sources of general life stress of mothers and fathers of adolescents. Relationships between stress and parenting were also examined. The sample comprised 432 pairs of mothers (mean age 41.3 years) and fathers (mean age 44.1 years) of Croatian young adolescents (mean age 12.6 years). Parents reported about the current level of general life stress (by answering the single item on a 6-point scale), perceived sources of stress, and several aspects of their functioning in parental role (parenting self-efficacy, frequency of parent-adolescent conflict, and parenting behavior). Adolescents gave reports on frequency of conflict with each parent, and on mothers' and fathers' parenting behavior. Overall, parents perceived moderate level of general life stress, with mothers' level of stress being statistically significantly higher than fathers'. Job was the greatest source of stress for both mothers and fathers. Children, partner, extended family, and personal health were greater sources of current life stress for mothers than for fathers, whereas administration/bureaucracy was greater source of stress for fathers than for mothers. Both mothers and fathers with higher perceived stress reported lower parenting self-efficacy, more frequent conflict with children, and more restrictive and less supportive parenting. Higher level of parent-adolescent conflict in families with higher life stress of parents was supported by adolescents' reports, although for conflict with father the effect of stress was marginally significant.

general life stress; parenting; mothers; fathers; adolescents

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