Ask any mum out there, and she will tell you that every day can come with a side-order of stress, but experts in the US claim to have pinpointed the most stressful period of a mother’s life with her children.
According to a study carried out by researchers at the Arizona State University, the period of least life satisfaction for mothers is when their children are going through ‘pre-adolescence’ – aka around ages 11 to 13.
As part of the study, which was published in the Development Psychology journal, the research team analysed surveys from 2,200 ‘well-educated’ mothers across the US. Their children ranged in age from infancy to adulthood.
To retrieve their findings, the team compared the data to mothers with children in just one age group (e.g. primary school or adults), and gauged how they felt about their lives.
They found that the mothers of middle-school-aged children – translating over here to kids between the ages of 11 and 13 years – have the lowest levels of life satisfaction and fulfilment. These mothers were also found to have the highest levels of loneliness, stress and emptiness.
At the other end of the scale, it was the mothers of infants who were found to have the highest level of life satisfaction.
Commenting on the findings, co-author Suniya Luthar said that these feelings of dissatisfaction mainly come down to the fact that the transition into pre-adolescence and beyond is often very quick.
“You see this person who is almost but not quite grown-up physically, saying at one moment, ‘Leave me alone. I’ve got this figured out. Let me do it my way,’ or ‘Don’t ask me questions,’ and so on. And on the other hand, they’re crushed in tears, and looking to you for comfort just like a child,” Luthar explained.
She added: “They might cry like the children they used to be, but being able to actually comfort them is nowhere near as easy.”
Would you agree with the findings?
