Self-compassion and Psychological Well – being of First-time Mothers: The Role of Online Parenting Forums

Lalitha Ragul and Prathibha MV
CHRIST University, Yeshwanthpur campus, Bangalore

Pages:381-389

The knowledge, attitude and practices needed for parenting is configured by parents’
own childhood experiences, or experiences learned from others such as family, friends,
social networks, cultural systems, and online parenting forums available in contemporary
technology driven society. Parenting is an amalgamation of responsibility and
psychological consequences. While raising children, parents especially mothers find
it difficult when they do it for the first time. Irrespective of the age of children, parenting
influences the psychological well – being of first – time mothers and it is essential for
a woman to practice self-compassion (loving-kindness towards oneself) in order to
secure her mental health. This study aims to examine the users and non-users of
online parenting forums, self-compassion and their psychological well – being as firsttime mothers. An ad hoc questionnaire was used to gather information about parents’
sociodemographic data and usage of online parenting forum. For assessing their
psychological well – being, 54– item version of the Ryff’s Psychological Well – Being
Scale (PWB; Ryff) and Self-Compassion Scale – short form (SCS-SF; Raes et al.,) for
Self-compassion was used. After statistical analysis such as t test and Pearson’s
correlation results found that users of online parenting forums were found to have
significant higher level of psychological well-being and self-compassion. Further there
was a significant positive association found between online parenting forum,
psychological well-being and self-compassion