The interaction between sense of mastery, social support, and parental distress among mothers with and without serious mental illness

Social support and sense of mastery are considered important resources in coping both with serious mental illness (SMI) and with motherhood-related challenges. However, their interactive effects on the parental stress of mothers with SMI are not clear. Scales assessing parental distress, social support, and sense of mastery were administered to 60 mothers with SMI and 60 mothers without SMI. A main effect of sense of mastery and a lack of main effect of social support were found in both groups. An interaction effect of social support with mastery was found among mothers with SMI revealing that for mothers who had a high sense of mastery, social support was beneficial, whereas for mothers who had a low sense of mastery, social support was harmful. In practice, attention should be given to the sensitive provision of support, balancing between what is needed and what is requested, with the aim of not harming an individual's sense of mastery. •Sense of mastery is negatively related to parental distress for mothers with and without serious mental illness.•Social support does not have a main effect on parental distress for mothers with and without serious mental illness•For mothers with serious mental illness an interaction effect between sense of mastery and social support was found.•According to the interaction effect: for mothers who have a high sense of mastery (versus mothers with a low sense of mastery), social support can contribute to less parental distress.