Well-Being and Distress in Mothers of Two-Year-Old Singletons and Twins

Abstract

The present study investigated well-being and distress in 274 Israeli mothers of two-year-olds. Of these, 127 were mothers of singletons and 147 mothers of twins. The study examined the contribution to the explanation of well-being and distress of a range of variables relating to the mother, including sociodemographic characteristics, internal resources (attachment style, self-differentiation, and maternal self-efficacy), and external resources (marital quality and grandmothers’ support). The findings showed that being a mother of a singleton or twins did not contribute to the explanation of variance in well-being or distress. Marital quality provided the strongest explained variance for both well-being and distress. Mother’s health, attachment anxiety and self-differentiation also explained significant amounts of the variance. Several differences were found in the contribution of certain other variables, such as maternal grandmother’s support, which contributed only to well-being. The results indicated the lesser role of sociodemographic variables, as opposed to the centrality of personality traits and marital quality, in the relationships with well-being and distress. Practical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• motherhood
• well-being
• social support
• distress

Acknowledgment

The study is part of the PhD dissertation submitted to the School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University by the first author, and was carried out under the supervision of the second author.

Notes

1. 1. Articles based on the data generated in phase 1 (Taubman–Ben-Ari et al., 2008), in phase 2 (Noy, Taubman–Ben-Ari, & Kuint, 2014) and phases 1 and 2 (Findler, Taubman–Ben-Ari, & Kuint, 2007; Taubman–Ben-Ari, Findler, & Kuint, 2010) have previously been published. However, the current study presents new evidence not reported in earlier publications.