This study aims to observe the impact of mothers’ child-rearing stress on the development of
3-month-old, breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding infants. For this purpose, a survey based on the
K-ASQ scale was conducted on a sample of 533 3-month-old infants and their mothers in the Seoul
and Kyeong-gi area. The results of the study are as follows. First, breastfeeding mothers felt less
child-rearing stress than their non-breastfeeding counterparts, especially in parent-role stress.
Second, breastfeeding infants exhibited a better personal sociality than non-breastfeeding infants.
Third, it was found that mothers’ child-rearing stress had an impact on all aspects of infant
development in breastfeeding infants, and especially in the development of communicational skills,
having an impact of 12.4%. However, in non-breastfeeding infants, mothers’ child-rearing stress had
an impact only on communication and personal sociality development and exhibited a nonsignificant
impact on other aspects. Lastly, it was found that mothers’ parent-role stress, out of all aspects of
child-rearing stress, was the main factor of negative impact on infant development in both
breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding infants. Based on the results of this study, I have suggested
family-level and society-level support measures to reduce mothers’ parent-role stress and promote
breastfeeding.