The relationship of mothers' coping strategies and health behavior with oral health care for children

Factors Related to Behavioral Functioning in Mothers of Children with Type 1 Diabetes: Application of Transactional Model of Stress and Coping

BACKGROUND

Having a child with diabetes creates a great deal of stress for mothers. The transactional model of stress and coping is one of the best conceptual frameworks for stressors.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to investigate factors related to health promoting behaviors based on transactional model in mothers of children with type 1 diabetes.

METHODS

This study was conducted on 180 mothers of children with type 1 diabetes. The data was collected using a multi-sectional questionnaire including demographic characteristics and questions about the model constructs. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 19) and using statistical tests.

RESULTS

The highest mean score was related to interpersonal relationships (13.8 ± 4.5) and the lowest was related to stress management (10.8 ± 4.2). Linear regression model showed that mother's education, information seeking, and social support had a positive effect, and primary appraisal and emotion-focused coping had a negative effect on the mother's health promotion behaviors. In the regression model R-square accounts for 53.7% of the variance.

CONCLUSIONS

The transactional model was an appropriate framework for explaining the coping outcomes in mothers of children with type 1 diabetes. By mothers' attempts to improve attitude about diabetes and reduce their vulnerability, training to use coping strategies, increasing information and inter-sectoral interventions for attracting sufficient support from patients' families can be hopeful in improving mothers' behavioral Functioning.

Does the Association between Guardians' Sense of Coherence and their Children's Untreated Caries Differ According to Socioeconomic Status?

Untreated caries is the most prevalent disease in the world. A sense of coherence (SOC) is believed to contribute to oral health. We aimed to clarify the association between guardians' SOC and their children's caries based on socioeconomic status (SES) in Japan. This study's subjects were Japanese public junior high schoolers (N = 1730), aged 12-15, and their guardians in Kosai City. We administered a questionnaire survey among guardians in 2016 to assess their SOC and family environment. With their students' consent, public junior high schools shared the results of the dental examinations that were part of their school physicals. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to clarify the association between guardians' SOC and their children's untreated decayed permanent teeth. We also conducted a stratified analysis according to a relative poverty line. We observed in the multivariate regression a significant inverse association between children's untreated decay and their guardians' SOC (OR 0.93, 95%CI 0.87-1.00). The association of SOC was stronger in the low economic group (OR 0.64, 95%CI 0.43-0.95). Guardians with higher SOC were associated with children having fewer caries. Guardians' SOC is a factor for the prevalence of caries and access to dental care, especially among children with low economic status.

Maternal Burnout Syndrome: Contextual and Psychological Associated Factors

Background: Becoming a parent is one of the most significant experiences in a woman's life. Including substantial and long-lasting mental, social, and physical charge, the parenting experience may also be a potentially stressful and overwhelming task. Since the eighties, the notion of parental burnout syndrome has gained increasing attention, but its contextual and psychological factors need to be better identified. Aims: To investigate a large array of contextual and psychological factors associated with maternal burnout syndrome in a French community-based population in order to contribute to better operationalize the notion of parental burnout and to explore its determinants. Method: A total of 304 French-speaking mothers (mean age = 34.8 years, SD = 6.72) completed a set of questionnaires including a sociodemographic form (in order to gather general information about the mothers, their spouses, and children living at home). The Perceived Stress Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory adapted to parents (MBI-parental), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Parental Stress Index-Short Form and the Ways of Coping Checklist were used in this study. Results: Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed that scores on the MBI-parental version were strongly and positively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms, as well as with perceived stress related to parenthood and parenting stress levels. Moreover, using the task-oriented coping style in parenthood was strongly and positively associated with personal accomplishment. Conversely, some sociodemographic characteristics were found to be negatively associated with maternal burnout: being employed, working full time and being a mother living without a coparent. Conclusion: The construct of maternal burnout syndrome seems to be linked to a conjunction of psychological and contextual factors associated with maternal exhaustion. The implication of the results for prevention and intervention strategies are discussed.