Practice efforts during childcare consultations utilizing the mothers' psychological health checksheet

Purpose<br> The present study aimed to clarify practice efforts of child care consultants using the "Mothers' Psychological Health Checksheet" in continuous consultations.<br>Subjects and Methods<br> Seven consultants in charge of 2-3 mothers who had conducted 3 home visits, and 20 mothers (80% were full-time homemakers, and 90% had 1 child) participated in the study. Children were between the ages of 1 and 2. The "Mothers' Psychological Health Checksheet" (hereafter, the checksheet) was used at the consultations. The checksheet, which was designed to understand the emotional health of mothers who are raising children, comprises 13 items from the short form of the Child Care Happiness Scale and 16 items from the short form Child Care Stress Scale. We performed content analysis of consultant practice efforts at the consultation, focusing on any changes in practice efforts that occurred at the time of each of the three consultations.<br>Results<br> Across all three consultations, several common practice efforts within [acknowledge feelings as a mother] were identified, and included "acknowledge feelings experienced in child care," "acknowledge feelings toward the child (ren)," and "acknowledge feelings about child care support." Within [affirmation of the mother] was "affirm that child care is fine the way it is currently," and within [reassure the mother] were "provide reassurance by conveying that the children are in a developmental stage" and "provide reassurance by conveying feedback offered by others." In addition, within [affirm the mother's way of thinking] was "affirm the way of thinking about child care." At the second child care consultation, we extracted the practice effort of "acknowledge the difficulty of pregnancy," and at the third consultation, we extracted "acknowledge the desire to value the family," "acknowledge the feeling when receiving praise from someone else," and "acknowledge that thinking of one's own future is a good thing."<br>Conclusions<br> Of all practice efforts required of a child care consultant, roughly 60% involved the affirmation of a mother's feelings in some way, and thus is thought to be very important. As children grow up, and as mothers gain experience, the consultant must make efforts to become more involved in acknowledgement and affirmation of maternal feelings and thoughts. In addition, efforts to console the mother were made at all consultations. The present study clarified the various efforts of child care consultants to increase the awareness of mothers through the use of checksheets.