Impact of Stress and Guilt on Parent-Child Relationships among Working and Homemaker Mothers

In this study, we will focus on Working mothers, “a woman who has a job and takes care of her children” (Working Mother/Father/Parent, 2024), and homemaker mothers, “a woman whose work is inside the home, doing the cleaning, cooking, etc., and who usually does not have any other job” (Housewife, 2024). We will understand the work-life balance, “the amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family and doing things you enjoy” (Work-life Balance, 2024) of both these groups in their professional and home grounds and the guilt that is formed in them either due to unavailability at home or career, often described as a result of competing demands of work and family responsibilities (Haslam et al., 2019). Thus, the main objective of our research is to analyse the effect of stress due to their work and the guilt formed in them on their relationship with their children, which is a significant and unique bond between a parent and child (APA Dictionary of Psychology, n.d.). The research methodology would be by purposive sampling, where the sample would consist of 400 Indian mothers (200 working, 200 housewives) within nuclear families, aged above 25 years, and having no diagnosed mental disorder. The data will be collected through an online survey method. Child-parent Relationship Scale Robert C. Pianta, Guilt About Parenting Scale (GAPS), and Parental Stress Scale (PSS) Berry, JD, & Jones, W, H, (1995), will be used to formulate the questionnaire and assess parental stress and the parental guilt caused among working and non-working mothers and its impact on the parent-child relationship. Standard deviations, variance analysis, and correlational analysis will be used depending on the nature of the data obtained from the sample. The expected result is to find out the effect of parental guilt and occupational stress on the relationship between the mother and the child.