Journal of Family Issues Volume 30 Number 11 November 2009 1505-1526 © 2009 SAGE Publications 10.1177/0192513X09336830 http://jfi.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com 1505 Parenting Self-Efficacy and Social Support in Japan and the United States Sawako Suzuki Saint Mary’s College of California, Moraga Susan D. Holloway University of California, Berkeley Yoko Yamamoto Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island Jessica D. Mindnich Children Now, Oakland, California To understand the conditions that give rise to parenting self-efficacy in Japan and the United States, the authors have investigated its relation to the percep- tions of support available to mothers of children in the final year of preschool (N = 235; n = 121 in United States, n = 114 in Japan). Hierarchical regression analysis indicates that in both countries, women who experience higher par- enting self-efficacy report more positive childhood memories of parental support and greater satisfaction with husband’s and friends’ support. Mothers in the United States are significantly more self-efficacious than are mothers in Japan, even after controlling for the effects of the support predictors. A follow-up mediational analysis reveals that Japanese women’s lower levels of parenting self-efficacy are partially attributable to their low satisfaction with husband’s support. Keywords: parenting self-efficacy; social support; cross-cultural differ- ences; mothers; Japan; childhood memory A central construct in the growing field of parenting is the notion of parenting self-efficacy, a person’s judgment about the extent to which he or she is able to perform competently and effectively as a parent. According to Bandura (1982, 1989), parents with high self-efficacy are more likely than those with low self-efficacy to appraise a child-rearing problem as a challenge rather than a threat. They are also less likely to experience stress or physical arousal when facing a difficulty and are more likely to trust in their own abilities and to exhibit perseverance in the face at UNIV CALIFORNIA BERKELEY LIB on April 8, 2015 jfi.sagepub.com Downloaded from