Daily hassles and life satisfaction of Turkish migrant mothers in Germany

The present study investigates the daily hassles and life satisfaction of Turkish migrant mothers (n = 100) with preschool children. The Everyday Stressors Index (Hall, 1983) was used to compare their psychosocial stress level to those of German mothers (n = 105) with a similar socio-economic background. Our aim was to take a closer look at the influence of the mother's education on the daily hassles and life satisfaction. Turkish mothers with 10 or 11 years of education showed higher stress levels than German mothers with a similar level of education. For mothers with more than 11 years of education, we found no differences in stress levels between the cultural groups. The longer the Turkish mothers had attended a German school, the lower were their stress levels and the higher was their life satisfaction. Psychosocial stress was negatively correlated with life satisfaction. In addition, the status of the Turkish mothers' residence permit in Germany influenced the degree of life satisfaction.