Social support, parental stress and quality of life among first time mothers attending care at St. Francis hospital, Nsambya.

Abstract

First time mothers experience post-partum stress when dealing with the parenting experience and possibly may require support in order to improve the quality of their lives. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between social support, parental stress and quality of life among first time mothers. Convenience sampling strategy was used in the selection of 123 first time mothers attending care at St. Francis Hospital Nsambya in Makindye Division and data was collected using the Parental stress scale, the Multi-dimensional scale of perceived social support and the Quality of life scale. A correlation research design was employed and Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the first three study hypotheses and PROCESS macro software was used in testing the fourth hypothesis. The results of this study indicated that social support and parental stress were negatively correlated (p= .004, r = -.260**) while parental stress and quality of life were not significantly related (p= .348, r = .085) but social support and quality of life had a significant positive relationship (p= .004, r = .258**). Finally, the interactive effect of parental stress and social support on quality of life was not significant (B = -.28, p > .05). In conclusion, the findings underscored the relevance of offering social support to first time mothers as they navigate the first time experience of motherhood. Sensitization on the benefits of social support from all sources and in all forms may buffer the negative effects of parental stress on the first time mothers.