Mothering under pressure: Environmental, child, and dyadic correlates of maternal self-efficacy among low-income women

In this study, the authors examine environmental, child, and dyadic correla tes of mothers' perceptions of parenting self-efficacy among a group of wom en raising toddlers in an urban area of concentrated poverty (N = 44). Find ings suggest that women's self-efficacy is inversely related to the number of environmental risks and to child's temperamental difficulty. Although ob served measures of dyadic conflict were not directly related to women's rat ings of self-efficacy, hierarchical regression analysis indicated that moth er-toddler conflict served as a moderator. Specifically, higher maternal se lf-efficacy was associated with fewer risks for women experiencing higher l evels of conflict. For mothers experiencing lower levels of conflict with t heir children, maternal self-efficacy was inversely associated with child's temperamental difficulty.