Abstract

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize the characteristics of maternal separation anxiety, and to find its related variables. Subjects were consisted of 297 mothers who had children from 6 to 36 months of age. The measurement instruments are the questionnaire which consisted of the following parts: Maternal Separation Anxiety Scale(Cho and Park, 1992), Maternal Role Inventory(Farel, 1980) and interview on the pattern of child care and mother's employment. The data was analyzed by the statistical method bashed on frequency, Percentile, Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA, t-test, F-test, Scheff&#x00E9; r test, and Pearson's correlation. The main results were as follows: 1. As a result of investigating the differences of maternal separation anxiety according to the pattern of child care, in respect of trusting degree for caregiver, the higher trust degree resulted in the lower maternal separation anxiety (p<.001). 2. There were significant differences(p<.01) in the maternal separation anxiety according to prenatal employment plan, mother's employment status and employment preference. Maternal separation anxiety had a significant negative correlation (r = -.41, p<.001) with mothers' positive attitudes for their occupations.