An exploratory study on the challenges, coping strategies and psychological wellbeing among working mothers in Malaysia

Lim, Lee Chun (2024) An exploratory study on the challenges, coping strategies and psychological wellbeing among working mothers in Malaysia. Master dissertation/thesis, UTAR.

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Abstract

The boundary separating work from home is always indistinct. This makes both domains mutually incompatible for working mothers. Where different cultural settings might influence working mothers’ challenges, coping strategies and their perceptions on PWB, and considering most of work and family issues has been conducted predominantly in Western countries, the relevant issue and coping strategies in work-family literature in Malaysian population is less profound. (Mahamad et al., 2021) Thus, this study is aimed to examine the challenges, coping strategies and psychological wellbeing among working mothers in Malaysian context. Qualitative case study has been employed to explore the challenges faced, the coping strategies adopted and the contributory impact of the coping strategies to their PWB. Five married fulltime working mothers in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur have been recruited to participate in in-depth semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was done to analyse the data manually. The findings of this study highlight the key challenge the participants had that was having to shoulder multiple roles and responsibilities. The participants revealed that self-management appeared to be their main coping strategies in face of the challenges. Generally, they opined positive relationship and life purpose are the goal commitment they strive for their PWB. The study provided understanding to the society on the challenges faced by working mothers, the circle of support and the policies organizations can focus to help them. It also contributed to the importance of implementing work-life balance and fostering culture focused on the PWB of working mothers. Considering the fact that the study makes contributions to TTSC theory and PERMA theory of wellbeing, working mothers will be able to perform more efficiently and serve their role optimally in both profession and motherhood.

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