Relationship Between Attitude Towards Children, Psychological Well-being and Perceived Stress of Expectant Parents

Becoming a parent is a major shift in the life of any individual as they undergo lot many changes in the physical, psychological and economical aspects of their life. The pregnancy period is considered as the crucial period in which not only the baby develops but also a father and a mother is in the process of making themselves fit for the role of parents. The happiness and excitement of becoming parents is expected to be accompanied by varying levels of stress from the initial days. Various factors that induce and influence the stress experienced by expectant parents have been studied earlier in the research literature while the factor of attitude towards children has been left untapped. The current study tried to understand if the attitude towards children play any role in the perceived stress and psychological well-being of expectant parents. The Affect Balance Scale (Bradburn, 2015), Barnett Liking for Children Scale (Barnett & Sinisi, 1990) and Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et. al., 1983) were the tools used to quantitatively measure the different variables of the study. Karl Pearson’s correlation, linear regression and t-tests were conducted to analyse the data statistically using SPSS. Based on the results, the study concluded that there is a significant negative relationship between perceived stress and psychological well-being of expectant parents, with the relationship being stronger among expectant fathers when compared with that of the expectant mothers. It is evident that the perceived stress of expectant parents negatively predicts their psychological well-being. It also clarified that there is no significant difference in the perceived stress, psychological well-being and attitude towards children among the expectant fathers and mothers. The major understanding from the study was that the attitude towards children did not have any relationship with the perceived stress or psychological well-being of expectant parents. The results have been discussed further in the paper with a proper note on the limitations and future scope of the study.