If mothering a middle school-aged child has proven unusually difficult for you, don’t be alarmed. A new study has found that these are the most difficult years for mothers.

The Daily Mail is reporting on a study conducted at Arizona State University which surveyed 2,200 mostly well-educated mothers with children ranging from infants to adults.

Researchers say there’s plenty of research about how mothers impact their children at various ages, but very little on the affect children have on their mothers. This study specifically addressed that void by concentrating on how the infant, preschool, elementary school, middle school and adult years impacted mothers.

The result of their work found that the early teenage years between 11 and 14 are the most challenging for moms because this is the period that marks a child’s transition from childhood to adolescent along with all of its accompanying physical, hormonal and cognitive changes.

It’s also the age when children begin to separate from their parents and begin to form their own identities.

At this point in their young lives, they are also learning to cope with increasing social pressure.

This all adds up to a lot more stress for mom.

“For mothers with children in exclusive age categories, middle school was the time when difficulty peaked across several dimensions including emptiness, (low) life satisfaction, (low) parenting satisfaction, maternal rejection, child maladjustment, (low) child positive, and child negative behaviors,” the report found.

The second most stressful time for mothers is infancy which presents “significant stressors” on a mother’s personal time and energy.

Researchers concluded that their study indicates a need for more attention to the well-being of mothers.

The study was published in the journal Developmental Psychology.

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