Statement of problem

Working mothers are a population experiencing heightened levels of parenting stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the associations between parenting stress, quality of life, and physical activity in a national sample of working mothers who endorsed having been forced to work from home full-time due to the COVID-19 pandemic and examine if physical activity moderates the association between parenting stress and quality of life in this sample of working mothers.

Methods

Participants in this cross-sectional study were 200 full-time working mothers from the United States (mean age = 33.50 years; SD = 6.25; 70.0% White). Participants were recruited from a Qualtrics research panel and completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short-Form, the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale-Brief Version, the Parental Stress Scale, and a demographic questionnaire.

Results

After controlling for socio-demographic variables (i.e., maternal marital status, annual income, maternal highest level of education), greater parenting stress was associated with poorer maternal quality of life across domains (standardized beta coefficients ranged from −0.26 to −0.47; p < .001). The interaction between parenting stress and moderate intensity physical activity was associated with social relationships quality of life and environment quality of life (standardized beta coefficients ranged from 0.15 to 0.17; p < .05) in our sample of working mothers. The negative effect of parenting stress on maternal social relationships and environmental quality of life was weaker for working mothers who engaged in higher levels of moderate intensity physical activity.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that moderate intensity physical activity may attenuate the negative impact of parenting stress on social relationships and satisfaction with one's environment in working mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

中文翻译：

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在 COVID-19 大流行期间，体力活动减轻了在职母亲的育儿压力与生活质量之间的关联

问题陈述

在 COVID-19 大流行期间，职业母亲是一个承受着更高水平的育儿压力的人群。本研究的目的是评估因 COVID-19 大流行而被迫在家全职工作的职业母亲的全国样本中育儿压力、生活质量和身体活动之间的关联，并检查在这个职业母亲样本中，身体活动是否能缓和育儿压力与生活质量之间的关联。

方法

这项横断面研究的参与者是来自美国的 200 名全职工作母亲（平均年龄 = 33.50 岁；SD = 6.25；70.0% 白人）。参与者是从 Qualtrics 研究小组中招募的，并完成了国际体育活动问卷简表、世界卫生组织生活质量量表-简版、父母压力量表和人口统计问卷。

结果

在控制社会人口变量（即母亲的婚姻状况、年收入、母亲的最高教育水平）后，更大的育儿压力与更差的跨领域的母亲生活质量相关（标准化 β 系数范围为 -0.26 至 -0.47；p  < .001)。 在我们的职业母亲样本中，育儿压力和中等强度体育活动之间的相互作用与社会关系生活质量和环境生活质量（标准化 β 系数范围为 0.15 至 0.17；p < .05）相关。对于从事较高水平中等强度体育活动的职业母亲，养育压力对母亲社会关系和生活环境质量的负面影响较弱。

结论

我们的研究结果表明，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，中等强度的体育活动可能会减轻育儿压力对职业母亲的社会关系和环境满意度的负面影响。