Maternal stress and perceptions of self-efficacy in socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers: an explicative model.

Studies have demonstrated that maternal stress and perceptions of self-efficacy influence a mother's performance, affecting her ability to interact with her child and to understand and answer his needs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate maternal stress and the perception of self-efficacy in the mothers of infants who are cared for in child-care centers and belong to the poorest segment of the Chilean population. To this end, these aspects were studied in 121 low-income, high-social-risk mothers with children between the ages of 4 and 9 months. The final goal was to generate an explicative model of self-efficacy and maternal stress that considered characteristics of the family and the child. The results revealed that family characteristics - especially household size, per capita incomes and mother age - are more relevant for explaining maternal self-efficacy and stress. The findings and implications for practice are discussed.