Type A behavior and parenting stress in mothers with young children

Abstract

Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) is characterized by competitiveness, a sense of time-urgency, impatience, and aggression/hostility and it has been associated with coronary heart disease and occupational stress in men. Recently, research had begun to examine TABP in women. However, the majority of studies focus on women as student or employee and not in the role of mother. Thus, although women spend a significant proportion of their adult lives bearing and raising children, little is known about TABP relationships in these roles. Further, the parenting adjustment literature amply describes the stressful nature of parenting a young child but with little attention paid to the relationship between maternal individual characteristics and parenting stress. This study investigated maternal adjustment and TABP in order to provide a clearer picture of Type A women as mothers as well as to expand information on individual characteristics which contribute to or mediate a woman’s adjustment to motherhood. Because of its presumed relationship to TABP and stress, maternal employment status was a control variable. One hundred twenty-six women with children between the ages of 9–24 months completed questionnaires reporting maternal stress, maternal perceptions of her child and somatic complaints. TABP was assessed by two measures, the Framingham Type A Scale (FTAS) and a recent measure, the Adolescent/Adult Type A Behavior Scale (AATABS), which yields factor scores as well as a global TABP rating. Overall, Type A women reported higher levels of child-related stress and personal stress than Type B women. Certain factors such as Hurry, Control, and Hostility were also associated with stress indices. There was qualified support for a relationship between the TABP factor, Hurry, and self-reported somatic complaints. Directions for future research are discussed.