TTLA: Women's adaptation to motherhood after childbirth

1. Full name: Nguyen Thi Chinh

2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: 28/01/1984

4. Place of birth: Bac Giang

5. Decision to recognize graduate students: Decision No. 2999/2013/QD-XHNV-SDH dated December 30, 2013.

6. Changes in the training process:Renewal from 1/1/2017 to 11/30/2018 (23 months)

7. Thesis topic name:Women's adaptation to motherhood after childbirth.

8. Major:Psychology

9. Code: 62 31 04 01

10. Scientific instructor:Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Minh Duc

11. Summary of new results in the thesis:

- The thesis has generalized four main trends in research on adaptation to the role of motherhood of postpartum women in the world today, including: (1) Indicators of adaptation to the role of motherhood, (2) The process of adaptation of postpartum women to the role of motherhood, (3) Mental health problems of postpartum women and (4) Factors affecting adaptation to the role of motherhood.

- The thesis has built a theoretical system on adaptation to the role of motherhood of postpartum women, especially analyzing in depth the model of Achieving the role of motherhood of Romana Mercer. From there, the thesis builds the concept of the tool of the topic: Adaptation to the role of motherhood of postpartum women includes 3 basic manifestations: satisfaction with the role of motherhood, confidence in the role of motherhood and behavior to fulfill the role of motherhood.

- The scale consists of 46 items with three aspects (satisfaction, self-confidence and motherhood role-fulfilling behavior) assessed for reliability and validity using SPSS software, showing that it is a tool that can quantitatively assess motherhood adaptation.

- The thesis shows that the child's developmental characteristics, the mother's psychological characteristics and social support are all correlated and have a causal relationship with the adaptation of postpartum women. In which, the strongest correlation is the factor of child satisfaction, child characteristics and resources to support postpartum motherhood. These are also the 3 strongest predictors of postpartum women's adaptation.

- The thesis shows that psychological counseling is an effective intervention method, helping mothers improve their adaptation to their role as mothers.

12. Ability to apply in practice:

The thesis can be used as a reference for researchers, experts and students in the fields of Social Psychology, Counseling Psychology and Family Psychology.

13. Further research directions

The topic also suggests some issues that need to be further expanded in subsequent studies such as: adaptation to the role of motherhood during different periods of motherhood (longitudinal research), adaptation to the role of motherhood in postpartum women with special characteristics such as giving birth early or at an older age, the relationship between personality traits and adaptation to the role of motherhood,...

14. Research works related to the results of the thesis:

1. Nguyen Thi Chinh (2017), “Theoretical overview of the concept of adaptation in psychology”,Education and Society Magazine(10), pp.33-36.

2. Nguyen Thi Chinh (2017), “The level of adaptation to the role of motherhood of postpartum women and socio-demographic differences”,Journal of Psychology(12), pp.88-99.

3. Nguyen Thi Chinh (2018), “Some manifestations of adaptation to the role of motherhood of postpartum women (0-12 months)”,Journal of Social Psychologyi (1), pp.59-64.

INFORMATION ON DOCTORAL THESIS

1. Full name: Nguyen Thi Chinh 2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: January 28, 1984 4. Place of birth: Bac Giang Province

5. Extending study time from January 1, 2017 to November 20, 2018 (23 months)Admission decision number: 2999/2013/QD- XHNV- SĐH, dated December 30, 2013.

6. Changes in acadamic process

7. Official thesis title: Women's maternal role adaptation in postpartum period

8. Major: Psychology

9. Code: 62 31 04 01

10. Supervisors: 1. Prof., Ph.D. Tran Thi Minh Duc

11. Summary of new findings of the thesis

- The thesis has generalized four main trends in research on motherhood adaptation for postpartum women in the world today, included: (1) Indicators of maternal role adaptation, (2) Process of maternal role adaptation, (3) Mental health issues of postpartum and (4) Factors circulating maternal role adaptation.

- The thesis has built a theoretical system of maternal role adaptation, especially deeply analyzed the model Maternal role Attainment of Romana Mercer. Thereby the thesis builds the key concept of maternal role adaptation in postpartum period, including three basic expressions: maternal satisfaction, maternal confidence, and responsible behaviors of maternal role.

- Scale of 46 items with three aspects (satisfaction, self-confidence and mother-responsive behavior) is assessed for reliability and validity by SPSS software, which is a tool to assess maternal role adaptation quantitatively.

- The thesis shows that the developmental characteristics of child, the psychological characteristics of mother and social support have a correlated and causal relationship with the maternal role adaptation. In particular, the strongest correlation is the factor of satisfaction of children, characteristics of children and resources to support motherhood. These are also the three most powerful predictors for the adaptation in postpartum.

- The thesis shows that psychological counseling is an effective way of intervention, helping mothers improve their adaptation as a mother.

12. Practical applicability:

The thesis can be used as a reference for researchers, experts and students in the fields of Social Psychology and Counseling Psychology, Family Psychology.

13. Future research directions, if any:

The thesis also suggests a number of issues that need to be further expanded, such as: maternal role adaptation during motherhood periods (vertical study), adaptation to maternal roles of women who have special characteristics such as early or older childbirth, the relationship between personality traits and adaptation to motherhood, ...

14. Thesis-related publications

1. Nguyen Thi Chinh (2017), “A little review on theories of adaptation in psychology”,Journal of Education and Society(10), pp. 33-36.

2. Nguyen Thi Chinh (2017), “Level of postpartum maternal role adaptation and the difference of social demographic”,Journal of Psychology(12), pp. 88-99.

3. Nguyen Thi Chinh (2018), Some expressions of maternal role adaptation in postpartum (0-12 months,Journal of Social Psychology(1), pp. 59-64.