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Lee JY, Park SE, Kim YM, Cho HJ, Khang YH. An analysis of the very high level of maternal distress experienced by South Korean women with young children. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0274016. [PMID: 36129903 PMCID: PMC9491576 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Accepted: 08/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
This study was conducted as a part of a larger study to identify the needs of a maternal and early childhood home visit program that the South Korean central government has begun to expand nationwide. This survey measured the distress of mothers with children aged 2 years or younger during the transition into motherhood using the Being a Mother scale (BaM-13) and compared the stress levels for each question with those of existing studies in other countries. The survey results revealed that the mean BaM-13 score of the 350 participants was 17.09 (SD = 6.81), with 87.7% showing very high levels of maternal distress, indicated by a score of 9 or above in BaM-13. The item from the BaM-13 with the highest response rate of 2 or 3 points (sum of the percentage of those who answered 2 and 3 points) was “I have missed the life I had before I became pregnant with this baby/toddler,” to which 80.8% of the respondents agreed. The percentage of South Korean mothers who answered 2 or 3 points was higher for every item on the BaM-13 than that of Australian mothers. A comparison of the total BaM-13 score and 3 factors (child experience, adult’s experience, and emotional closeness) of the BaM-13 according to the participants’ characteristics revealed that discrepancies in women’s sociodemographic factors (including smoking and alcohol consumption behaviors) were not significant, whereas differences in the total BaM-13 score and the 3 factors of the BaM-13 according to the mothers’ scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were noticeable. The high level of maternal distress observed in this study should be reflected in the nurse-led maternal and early childhood home visit program that the South Korean central government is expanding across the country.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji Yun Lee
- The Support Team for the Early Life Health Management Project of Korea, Seoul, Korea
- The Support Team for the Seoul Healthy First Step Project, Seoul, Korea
- College of Nursing, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Korea
| | - Sae Eun Park
- The Support Team for the Early Life Health Management Project of Korea, Seoul, Korea
- The Support Team for the Seoul Healthy First Step Project, Seoul, Korea
- Institute of Health Policy and Management, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul, Korea
| | - Yu-Mi Kim
- The Support Team for the Early Life Health Management Project of Korea, Seoul, Korea
- The Support Team for the Seoul Healthy First Step Project, Seoul, Korea
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Hong-Jun Cho
- The Support Team for the Early Life Health Management Project of Korea, Seoul, Korea
- The Support Team for the Seoul Healthy First Step Project, Seoul, Korea
- Department of Family Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Young-Ho Khang
- The Support Team for the Early Life Health Management Project of Korea, Seoul, Korea
- The Support Team for the Seoul Healthy First Step Project, Seoul, Korea
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
- * E-mail:
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