Maternal adaptation of working mothers with infants or toddlers in South Korea: a systematic review

Background The fertility rate in South Korea has been decreasing dramatically, as working women postpone or avoid childbirth due to the challenges of maintaining a career while raising a family. Working mothers with infants or toddlers have unique maternal adaptation needs, which must be understood in order to support their needs during childbearing years. Supporting successful maternal adaptation of working mothers is not only essential for each individual new working mother, but also benefits her family, her workplace, and the country. Methods A systematic review was conducted to describe the current state of the science on maternal adaptation of working mothers with infants or toddlers in South Korea. Eligible studies, published between 2009 and 2018, were identified by searching electronic databases. Quantitative studies related to the maternal adaptation of Korean working mothers who had a child younger than age 3 years were included. 37 articles met the inclusion criteria for narrative analysis and synthesis. Results Studies were classified into 4 major groups by maternal adaptation categories as psychological, behavioral, relational, and cognitive adaptation. The majority of studies were focused on working mothers’ psychological adaptation (n = 36, 97.3%), followed by behavioral (n = 10, 27.0%), relational (n = 9, 24.3%), and cognitive (n = 3, 8.1%) adaptation. We found that maternal adaptation of working mothers was ultimately influenced by diverse variables within their communities, spousal and familial support, personal attributes, and job-related characteristics. Conclusions These findings demonstrate the importance of understanding variable aspects of maternal adaptation of working mothers with infants or toddlers. The complexity of working mothers’ needs at the individual, family, and community levels must be considered in order to develop effective intervention programs and public policy for supporting maternal adaptation in Korea.