The present study investigated the roles of goals, feedback, and motivation for mothers to experience parenting positively by examining the relation with flow experience, parenting efficacy, and role satisfaction. On the basis of the literature, the f...
The present study investigated the roles of goals, feedback, and motivation for mothers to experience parenting positively by examining the relation with flow experience, parenting efficacy, and role satisfaction. On the basis of the literature, the first goal of the study was to examine the associations between predictor variables including goals, feedback, and intrinsic motivation and variables of positive parenting experience mediated by flow in parenting. Upon the findings, the second goal was to divide types of goals, feedback, and motivation and examine the relationship with positive parenting experience respectively. The types of goals, feedback, and motivation were divided in two for each: parent-related goal and child-related goal, parent-related feedback and child-related feedback, and intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The third goal of this study was to explicate the relative effects in comparison with all of the six predictor variables.
Participants were 651 mothers of children at age 3 through 5 living in socioeconomically diverse districts in Seoul and Gyounggi, Korea. Mothers were completed questionnaire packets sent home with and returned by children from 15 participating kindergartens and child care centers. Study measures consisted of five questionnaires: parent's goals and parenting feedback, parent's motivation, flow in parenting, parenting efficacy, and role satisfaction. All measures were translated and modified to apply to Korean parents and tested construct validity and reliability with confirmatory factor analyses. According to the research questions, path analyses and multiple regression were conducted.
Analyses of responses revealed partial relations among variables and mediating effects of flow experience in parenting. The main findings of the study were as follows: First, path analysis indicated that goals, feedback, and intrinsic motivation of mothers were related to both parenting efficacy and role satisfaction mediated by flow experience in parenting. Second, the two types of parent's goals had similar effects on flow experience and parenting efficacy, but in predicting role satisfaction, only child-related goal remained significant. Between the types of parenting feedback, effects of child-related feedback on flow experience and parenting efficacy were higher, but none of types related to role satisfaction directly. Both types of motivation showed significant relations with all the variables of positive parenting experience except the pathway between extrinsic motivation and role satisfaction. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation played a positive and negative predictor respectively. Third, among six predictor variables, intrinsic motivation was revealed the most significant predictor throughout the mothers' flow experience, parenting efficacy, and role satisfaction. In predicting parenting efficacy, however, extrinsic motivation demonstrated as strong as intrinsic motivation but in a negative way.
The present findings added new information to the literature highlighting the importance of intrinsic motivation in parenting. Additionally, mediating role of flow experience in parenting efficacy and role satisfaction from the study suggests how parents improve their parenting by conditioning goals, feedback, and motivation. Limitations of the present study, implications for parenting education, and directions for future studies were discussed.