Protective resources that promote wellbeing among New Zealand moms with young children facing socioeconomic disadvantage

ABSTRACT

Poor maternal mental health and well-being during early stages of parenting impact child developmental outcomes. The primary objective of this study was to explore protective resources that may confer resilience among mothers living in low resourced neighborhoods in New Zealand. A purposive, non-probabilistic sampling method was used to recruit an ethnically representative sample of mothers with children under the age of five living in high deprivation neighborhoods in Auckland, New Zealand (n = 74). Data was collected via focus groups and interviews. Analyses consisted of both a deductive, theory-driven approach, and an inductive, data-driven approach. The most frequently mentioned resources that supported positive mental health and well-being included: 1) social support, and specifically family and instrumental support; 2) neighborhood cohesion, including collective efficacy and neighborhood permanence; and 3) alignment with social and cultural norms, though tensions surrounding cultural identity were also identified as sources of stress by some mothers. These findings highlight how the socioecological context impacts subjective perceptions of environmental demands and modifiable factors that may be promoted to improve maternal mental health and well-being and subsequent child health and development outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Culture
• maternal health
• mental health
• protective factors
• resilience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (include name of committee + reference number) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant in Biological Anthropology (Grant number: 1751287).