Socioeconomic indicators for psychological distress in mothers of young children in Japan

Background and aims:Despite social disparity issues and their effects on mental health being serious concerns in Japan, little is known about these in mothers with young children. Maternal mental illness is a risk factor for child abuse and is an essential issue in optimizing child-rearing. This study aimed to quantitatively explore the socioeconomic factors that are associated with psychological distress of mothers with toddlers and the associations between the socioeconomic factors and child-rearing environment. 

Methods:In October 2011 a cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among all mothers (n=2464) with children aged between one and three years who lived in a town in South-West Japan. Household income, mother’s educational background, spare in their budget, Subjective Social Status(SSS) were assessed using single-item questions. Those with K6 scores of 5 or greater were defined as psychological distress being in depressive state.

Results: The response rate was 47.9%. Household income, spare in budget and SSS were significantly associated with the mothers’ psychological distress. In multiple logistic regression analysis, after adjusting for mothers’ personal factors and ease of child rearing, spare in budget and SSS remained significantly associated with psychological distress but lost their significance after adjusting for social support for child rearing.

Conclusions: Household income, spare in budget and SSS were significantly associated with the mothers’ depressive state. The study also revealed many mothers of low income families were finding child rearing difficult and there is a lack of emotional support for mothers of families with no spare budget or low SSS.