The positive and the negative feelings toward motherhood.

The purpose of this study was to analyse the characteristics of feelings and attitudes toward motherhood and maternal role among Japanese mothers. In the first study, it was found that the mothers who have absorbed only in child-rearing, tend to have negative feelings toward motherhood. Based on this result, in the second study, a questionnaire was administered to 291 random sampled women ranging from 18 years to 44 years in the Tokyo area. The findings are as follows: (1) mothers who have their first-born child aging three to six or above 13 showed high negative feelings. This suggests that the mothers' negative feelings are higher when their children are at a rebellious age, (2) mothers who scored high in the negative feelings and low in the positive feelings tended to have low self-esteem and to lack daily-life satisfaction.