The effect of postnatal support on mothers' parental self-efficacy

The study was conducted in a descriptive type to examine the effect of postpartum support on mothers' parental self-efficacy. It was carried out with mothers living in any regions of Turkey between 12 January 2021-21 January 2022. The sample in the study comprises 604 mothers whose power analysis was determined. The data were collected online through the Mother Descriptive Information Form, Parent Self-Efficacy Scale (PSES), and Postpartum Support Questionnaire (PSQ) forms. Percentages, means, Student's t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis, logistics, and multiple linear regression analysis were used to evaluate the data. The mean age of the mothers was 30.97±4.78, the number of births was 1.60±0.70, the number of children was 1.61±0.70, and the postpartum period (months) was 4.80±1.14. The total mean score of the mothers on PSES was found to be 35.20±10.4. The total mean score of "the importance of the need" dimension on PSQ was 153.21±50.24, and the "support received" dimension was 125.17±45.81, and the importance of the need was found to be more important than the support received. According to the cut-off of PSQ, 55% of the mothers evaluated "the need for support" as "very important", 32.6% of them regarded it as "not important", and 42.9% of them evaluated "support received" as "too much" and 31.3% of them stated, "I do not have support". There was a positive and significant relationship between the mothers' mean scores of PSES and the "importance of need" dimension in PSQ and its sub-dimensions (p<0.05). The explanatory effect of the "importance of need" dimension in PSQ on the total parental self-efficacy score was found to be 7.4%. There was no relationship between the PSES mean score and the "support received" dimension in PSQ (p>0.05), but there existed a negative correlation with the "emotional support" sub-dimension (p<0.05). In the study, a relationship was found between the parental self-efficacy of mothers and the importance of their need for postpartum support. Nurses' routine evaluation of parenting self-efficacy and social support levels of mothers in the postpartum period, their early identification of parents in the risk group, and giving more social support will contribute to the increase of parental self-efficacy and postpartum care quality.