Noy A, Taubman-Ben-Ari O, Kuint J. Well-being and distress in mothers of two-year-old singletons and twins. Women Health. 2014;54(4):317-35. PubMed PMID: 24617925.

Women Health. 2014;54(4):317-35. doi: 10.1080/03630242.2014.896441.

Well-being and distress in mothers of two-year-old singletons and twins.

Noy A(1), Taubman-Ben-Ari O, Kuint J.

Author information:
(1)a The Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work , Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

The present study investigated well-being and distress in 274 Israeli mothers of two-year-olds. Of these, 127 were mothers of singletons and 147 mothers of twins. The study examined the contribution to the explanation of well-being and distress of a range of variables relating to the mother, including sociodemographic characteristics, internal resources (attachment style, self-differentiation, and maternal self-efficacy), and external resources (marital quality and grandmothers' support). The findings showed that being a mother of a singleton or twins did not contribute to the explanation of variance in well-being or distress. Marital quality provided the strongest explained variance for both well-being and distress. Mother's health, attachment anxiety and self-differentiation also explained significant amounts of the variance. Several differences were found in the contribution of certain other variables, such as maternal grandmother's support, which contributed only to well-being. The results indicated the lesser role of sociodemographic variables, as opposed to the centrality of personality traits and marital quality, in the relationships with well-being and distress. Practical implications are discussed.

PMID: 24617925  [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]