Journal of Tourism & Hospitality
Open Access

Abstract

Parenting Stress and its Associated Factors among Parents Working in Hospitality and Services Industries of Macau

Lam Ching Chi and Hu Xiao Xu

The changing social structure has led to complicate social issues, one of which is the aging population due to low birth rate. This is largely due to the parental stress of being a parent. Macau, after the liberalization of the gaming industry, has been top listed as one of the cities with the highest gross domestic product. The current research studied if employees in the hospitality and services employees also suffered from parental stress even under such a strong financial background. Based on past literatures, the independent variables of demographics, parental role and parenting competency were identified. Findings show that despite the rocket high economic situation, both fathers and mothers of the hospitality and service industries feel stressful at becoming parents, when mothers are found to be significantly more stressful than fathers at parenting. Good economic situation is not the final solution to the societal problem of parental stress. Contrariwise, increase in parenting competency can reduce parental stress. When parents are more knowledgeable on parental matters, they will have more confidence with less worries at becoming parents and at parenting.