Parenting Stress and Self-compassion among Mothers during COVID-19 in Urban India: Investigating the Mediating Role of Psychological Inflexibility

Rationale. With social distancing and work from home the COVID-19 (WHO, 2020) pandemic has created a new reality for parents worldwide and brought along significant challenges in their lives. In particular, the process of mothering has been affected during the COVID-19 pandemic with higher physical and emotional labour and a greater responsibility for managing care of the children and household without the usual support system in place. Objective. The primary objective of the current study was to explore the mediating role of Psychological Inflexibility (PI) between the relationship of Parenting Stress (PS) and Self-Compassion (SC) among Indian mothers with children aged under 10 years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design. Self-reported measures of PI, PS and SC through respective scales were used to collect data from N=552 Indian mothers. Results. The data analysis was indicative of a positive relationship between Self-compassion and Parental Stress and Self-compassion and Psychological Inflexibility. Psychological Inflexibility was found to positively mediate the relationship between Parental Stress and Self Compassion with the mediating effect being close to 31%. Conclusion. Increased parenting stress could have propelled mothers to be more self-compassionate in order to cope with the stress induced by the pandemic.