Level of mothers' sense of parenting competence and attitude toward the use of psychotropic medication in preschool-aged children

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between mothers' sense of parental competence and their attitude toward the use of psychotropic medication in children. A total of 54 mothers, 26 from a suburban school sample and 28 from an urban substance abuse treatment facility sample, were assessed using two measures. The Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC) measured total Parental Competence, along with Satisfaction and Efficacy, the factors making up the scale. The researcher developed a scale, Attitude Toward Psychotropic use with Children (ATPC) to measure mothers' attitudes about medication use in children. A series of t-tests, Chi-square tests, and Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to compare the two groups and measure outcome variables. Results indicate that there was a weak, but not statistically significant correlation between parental competence and attitude toward psychotropic medication use in children. There was also a weak, but not statistically significant correlation between mothers' sense of parental competence and their actual use of psychotropic medication in their children. Notable differences were found between the two samples, including a higher level of reported parental competence in suburban subjects. Subjects' attitude toward the use of psychotropic medication use in children was found to be correlated with several demographic variables including employment, number of children, having children between the ages of 0-4, whether children were on medication, and whether the mothers were themselves on medication. Interestingly, mothers who were on psychotropic medication themselves were more likely to also have children on medication. Of additional importance and interest, were the subjects' responses to an open-ended question asking for identification of the most significant stressor for mothers today. Responses were categorized using Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs.