Age-Stratified Patterns of Psychological Resilience and Self-Reconstruction: A Study of Chinese Mothers Navigating Role Stress in Quanzhou

Abstract

Women aged 30–45 face intensified role-related stress from overlapping parenting, career, and family care duties. Existing research often treats middle-aged women as a homogeneous group and lacks fine-grained, localized investigations. Addressing these gaps, this study adopts an age-stratified lens to examine 373 mothers aged 30–45 with school-aged children in Quanzhou, China—a city with a strong Confucian cultural context. A descriptive quantitative design and a self-developed questionnaire with high reliability (Cronbach’s α=0.94) were used to measure role-related stress, psychological resilience (emotional regulation, adaptability, positive thinking), and self-reconstruction mechanisms (cognitive, emotional, behavioral, relational). Non-parametric tests revealed significant age-specific patterns: the 36–40 age group exhibited the highest levels of resilience (M=3.75, SD=0.42) and self-reconstruction (M=3.78, SD=0.39), while the 41–45 group reported the highest stress (M=3.89, SD=0.45). Kruskal-Wallis tests confirmed significant differences across age groups for role-related stress (χ²=8.76, p=.013), psychological resilience (χ²=11.24, p=.004), and self-reconstruction (χ²=12.81, p=.002). Post-hoc pairwise comparisons indicated the 36–40 group differed significantly from the 30–35 and 41–45 groups (p<.05). A strong positive correlation was found between resilience and self-reconstruction (Spearman’s rho=0.76, p<.001). This research provides empirical evidence on the diversity and dynamics of psychological adaptation among middle-aged Chinese women, underscoring the critical need to incorporate developmental stage and local cultural context into the design of mental health interventions. The findings enrich the cross-cultural application of resilience theory and inform the development of localized support strategies for specific female populations.