Early Maternal-Efficacy and Competence in First-Time, Low-Income Mothers

ABSTRACT Mothers with higher maternal competence in early parenthood are more comfortable performing infant skills and interpreting their infants’ cues. Further, maternal perceptions of self-efficacy are related to her ability to take care of her infant. First-time, low-income mothers’ new role, life stressors, and economic hardships can increase psychological distress resulting in less positive parenting practices. Purpose: This secondary analysis of a mixed methods study compared qualitative interview responses of mothers with the highest and lowest maternal competence scores to determine if interview responses reflected maternal competence, and to validate aspects of Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory. During a routine Women, Infant, Children’s (WIC) nutrition visit at 1–6 months after birth, 21 mothers completed 3 measures of self-esteem, sense of mastery, and maternal competence and were interviewed privately using a 9-item semi-structured interview guide that elicited reflections about early mothering experiences. The sample for this study (n = 8) was arrived at by taking mothers with upper (75th, N = 5) and lower (25th, n = 3) percentiles on the Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC) and directed content analysis to compare their interview responses. In addition, efficacy expectations from Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory were validated in this sample by analyzing the interview responses. The findings revealed that mothers with the highest (n = 5) and lowest (n = 3) PSOC scores reported similar concerns with maternal role adaptation. However, mothers who reported lower PSOC scores verbalized more problems in the category “feelings about being a mother.” Health care professionals need to be aware of maternal competence and self-efficacy in new mothers and assist them as they assume the maternal role.