Maternal confidence in child rearing: comparing data from short-term prospective surveys among Japanese and...

To investigate the confidence women feel about child rearing in Japan and Vietnam.

We conducted a prospective study of 210 Japanese mothers who registered as pregnant in Sukagawa City, Fukushima, and 132 Vietnamese mothers who attended a university hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Follow-up surveys were conducted via mail approximately 6 weeks after newborn delivery among the Japanese cohort, and at the time of a one-month checkup at the hospital among the Vietnamese cohort.

The follow-up rate among these subjects was 67% (N = 140) in Japan and 65% (N = 86) in Vietnam. The proportion of mothers who were not confident about child rearing was 48% (N = 67) in Japan and 63% (N = 54) in Vietnam. In both countries, mothers in the unconfident group reported less happiness and relaxation time with children than mothers in the confident group. Maternal confidence was associated with child rearing experience, although the significance of this factor diminished in a multivariate analysis of the Vietnamese data. While unintended pregnancy and unemployment were related to confidence in child rearing in Japan, educational history was associated with confidence in Vietnam.

This exploratory study found a high proportion of Japanese and Vietnamese mothers are not confident in child rearing, which calls attention to this understudied issue of confidence among Asian mothers.