Homemaker role experiences affect toddler behaviors via maternal well-being and parenting behavior

A model delineating the relationship between homemakers' role experiences and toddler behavior was developed, and tested using path analysis. We proposed that the relationship between homemakers' role experiences (skill use, perceived financial equity, homemaking satisfaction, and role overload) and toddler's internalizing and externalizing behaviors is mediated by maternal psychological well-being (positive mood, negative mood, and cognitive difficulties) and parenting behavior (positive, punishing, and rejecting). Using confirmatory path analysis, the proposed model fit the data [Q=73, W(34) =47.4; p >.05] obtained from a sample of 187 homemakers. The results suggest that, as for employed mothers, it is important to understand how homemakers experiencetheir role, because those experiences indirectly predict children's behavior.Portions of this research were supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (grant 410-88-0891) to the first author. The authors express their appreciation to Sharon Agar and E. Kevin Kelloway for assistance with this research.