母親の育児幸福感―尺度の開発と妥当性の検討

Mothers' Happiness in Child Care：Development and Validation of a Measure

要旨

　本研究では，Lazarusの理論による育児中の母親の肯定的な情動を「育児幸福感」とし，多面的な育児幸福感を捉える尺度を開発し妥当性の検討を行った．6歳以下の乳幼児期にある子どもをもつ母親を対象に，育児で感じる幸せな気持ちが生じるさまざまな場面を提示し，その度合を5段階評価で求めた．併せて妥当性の確認のため「主観的幸福感」や「育児ストレス」の尺度を実施した．有効回答872名であった．育児幸福感の項目を因子分析した結果，「子どもの成長」，「夫への感謝の念」，「子どもからの感謝や癒し」など8つの因子（41項目）が抽出された．信頼性の内的整合性を表すα係数は，第2因子の「希望と生きがい」が.867と最も高く，第6因子の「新たな人間関係」が.768と最も低かったが，すべての因子において十分な値が得られ，尺度の信頼性が認められた．育児幸福感と主観的幸福感との間には，総じて正の有意な相関があったが，「夫への感謝の念」を除き，低い相関がみられた．一方，育児ストレスとは，負の有意な相関がみられたが，「夫の育児サポート」を除き弱い相関だった．これらの主観的幸福感や育児ストレスの尺度との結果より，育児幸福感尺度の概念的妥当性について議論を行った．

Abstract

　Based on Lazarus's theory, this study focused on positive emotions that mothers feel during childcare and termed those emotions “child-care happiness.” The aims of the study were to develop a multidimensional scale of childcare happiness and to investigate the validity of it. Mothers with children aged six or under completed Childcare Happiness Scale (CHS). A total of 872 valid responses were collected. Construct validity was examined using factor analysis and correlation with the Subjective Well-Being Scale (SWBS), and the Childcare-Related Stress Scale (CRSS). A factor analysis of the CHS yielded eight factors: (1) children's growth and development; (2) hopes and purpose in life; (3) growth as a parent; (4) being needed by children; (5) gratitude to their husbands; (6) new interpersonal relationship; (7) gratitude or comfort from their children; and (8) meaningfulness of childbirth and parenting. Cronbach's alphas were adequate for each sub-scale (α=.768--.867). The results showed that there significantly were positive correlations between SWBS and sub-scales of CHS. On one hand, the correlations between CRSS and CHS were significantly negative and weak on the whole, except “gratitude to their husbands” with “their husbands' support” of CRSS. It was concluded that this CHS should be examined in the next study;however, CHS has good enough validity.