The Relationship Between the Social Support Perceived by the Mothers and Their Motherhood Experience

Abstract

Objective: Becoming a mother, is one of the most important developmental events in a woman's life. This study, by making Turkish validity and reliability study of Being a Mother scale which was developed by Matthey, was conducted methodologically and analytically in order to determine social support which mothers perceived and motherhood experiences. Methods: The study universe consists of 588 volunteer mothers, who have a child between 0-3 year range, that holds the criteria for the study and applied September 2015-March 1016 University Training and Research Hospital. Data was gathered with question form, which was prepared by researchers, Being a Mother Scale (BaM 13) and Multi-dimensional Perceived Social Support Scale (MDPSSS). Data were evaluated with the help of IBM SPSS Statistics 23 and IBM SPSS AMOS 23 statistics programs. Results: It was determined that 45.7% of mothers remain in the 28-34 year range and 47.1% were primary school graduates. It was seen that the Being a Mother Scale has good psychometric characteristics. It was determined that the model, which consists of 25 statements with 6 factors integrated structure of Being a Mother Scale and Multidimensional Perceived Social Support, generally fits for the research purposes. Conclusions: As a result of the validity and reliability study of the Being a Mother scale, it was seen that it is applicable for Turkish society. A decrease of satisfaction from motherhood was determined accordingly decreasing social support.