Abstract:

This study focuses on Israeli undergraduate college student-mothers, using a quantitative cross-sectional design. Considering the fact that juggling between parenthood and academic studies might be challenging, and the fact that the number of student-mothers is on the rise, the study aimed to shed some light on the relationship between these phenomena. One hundred and thirty nine student mothers completed an online survey, which included a battery of valid self-report questionnaires about parenting, stress, and self-efficacy. The results of a path mediation model showed that academic self-efficacy was positively associated with mothers’ maternal self-efficacy both directly and indirectly through parental stress (i.e., academic self-efficacy was associated with lower perceived stress which, in turn, was associated with higher maternal self-efficacy). Moreover, according to our path model, mothers’ parental self-efficacy was also associated with higher levels of mother-child communication in the family, both directly and indirectly through authoritative parenting (which by itself was strongly positively associated with mother-child communication). In other words, mothers’ parental self-efficacy is associated with better parent-child communication in the family partially due to their authoritative parenting style. The findings provide a deeper understanding of the experience of student-mothers, through the reciprocal role of the psychological indicators examined in this model.

Keywords:

Academic Self-Efficacy, Student-Mother, Stress, Parenting.