Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the mediating effect of parenting guilt in the relationship between intensive mothering ideology and parenting stress, and to confirm the moderating effect of self-compassion in the direct path of intensive mothering ideology on parenting stress and in the indirect path through parenting guilt. For this purpose, a survey was conducted using the intensive maternal ideology scale, the parenting stress scale (K-PSI-4-SF), the parenting guilt scale, and the self-compassion scale targeting 305 mothers whose children were under 9 years of age. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and SPSS Process Macro v4.0. The results of this study are as follows. First, there was a significant positive correlation between intensive mothering ideology, parenting guilt, and parenting stress, and self-compassion showed a significant negative correlation with intensive mothering ideology, parenting guilt, and parenting stress. Second, in the relationship between intensive mothering ideology and parenting stress, parenting guilt showed a fully mediating effect. Third, self-compassion showed a statistically significant moderating effect in the direct path of intensive mothering ideology on parenting stress. Fourth, self-compassion showed a significant moderating effect in the indirect path of intensive mothering ideology on parenting stress through parenting guilt. The significance and implications of the results of this study were discussed and suggestions for follow-up studies were made.