This study aimed to develop and test a model of the happiness of mothers with young children based on the stress-coping-adaptation model of Lazarus and Folkman.

The data collection period was from May to July 2016. A self-report questionnaire was used to collect data from 210 mothers with children under 5 years of age living in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Gangwon provinces. The exogenous variable was parenting stress, and the endogenous variables were parenting alliance, depression, optimism, ways of coping, and happiness. Data from 201 questionnaires were analyzed using the SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 20.0 programs. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling.

The final modified model showed a reasonable fit to the data, and out of 25 paths, 13 were statistically significant. This model explained 78.4% of the variance in the happiness of mothers with young children and confirmed that depression, optimism, parenting alliance, and social support-focused coping have a direct effect on the subject's happiness. Parenting stress also influenced happiness through parenting alliance, depression, and optimism.

In order to bolster the happiness of mothers with young children, positive psychological interventions that can minimize psychological vulnerabilities, such as depression, and that can enhance their strengths, such as optimism, may serve as effective ways of coping with and adapting to stress.

The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional study of cause-and-effect relationship, which used the 7^th year data of the Panel Study on Korean Children, to investigate the effects of parenting stress, depression, and family interactions of the parents of early school-age children on children's subjective happiness.

The present study included data of 1419 pairs of parents who participated in the mother and father survey of the Panel Study on Korean Children. The effects of parenting stress, depression, and parental family interactions on children's subjective happiness were analyzed as actor and partner effects using path analysis.

Parenting stress had an actor effect on depression; maternal parenting stress (b=-.21, p<.001) and depression (b=-.30, p<.001) had an actor effect on maternal family interaction; and paternal parenting stress (b=-.18, p<.001) and depression (b=-.17, p<.001) had a partner effect on maternal family interaction. Paternal parenting stress was found to have an actor effect on paternal family interaction (b=-.30, p<.001), and parental depression was found to have actor effect (b=-.23, p<.001) and maternal depression had a partner effect on paternal family interactions (b=-.22, p<.001). Children's subjective happiness was found to have a statistically significant relationship with maternal family interaction (b=.40, p<.001).

The significance of the study is in its provision of basic data for adjusting parents’ family interactions that are closely related to the growth and development of children by confirming the effect of parents’ parenting stress, depression, and family interaction on children's subjective happiness.