Factors related to parenting stress and satisfaction among international students with accompanying families and their spouses

Maria Eugenia Fonseca, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate which environmental and person variables predicted parenting stress and parenting satisfaction in international students with accompanying families and in their non-student spouses. A mail questionnaire was completed by 114 international students and spouses living in a large midwest university's married student housing. The questionnaire included several scales and items measuring the dependent variables of parenting stress (PSI/SF) and parenting satisfaction (SWPS) as well as independent variables: cultural difference, cultural misfit, social support, academic demands, financial difficulties, fluency in English and depressive mood. The main sources of support were also measured as well as the perceived spouses' adjustment. A series of multiple regression analyses indicated that depressive mood was the strongest predictor of parenting stress in both male and female students as well as in non-student females. Cultural Misfit was an important predictor of parenting stress for non-student female spouses but not for the male and female students. Financial support had a small but significant contribution in the parenting stress of male students, and fluency in English also had a small but significant contribution in females' parenting stress. Parenting satisfaction on the other hand was best predicted by Depressive Mood in females and by depressive mood and cultural misfit in non-student female spouses. The amount of variance that was accounted for by independent variables was less for parenting satisfaction than for parenting stress, and less for males than for females. The study also found that the main sources of support for international students with children and spouses are their relatives in their home countries and other students from their own countries. Finally, couple analyses indicated that females made better predictions of their spouses' well-being, while males evaluation of their spouses well-being was more related to their own well-being.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Myers-Walls, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Developmental psychology

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