Predicting Children's Behavioral Problems based on Maternal Parenting Styles: The Mediating Role of Child Adjustment

Previous studies have shown that maternal parenting styles play a key role in the child's mental health and that each parenting style has different effects on the psychological well-being of children. Thus, the present study aimed to predict children's behavioral problems based on maternal parenting styles with mediating role of child adjustment.

This research is a correlation study. The statistical population of this study included all preschool students of city in the academic year 2017-2018 (2201 girls and 2688 boys). The sample consisted of 447 (191 girls and 256 boys) preschool students from the mentioned papulation who were selected through multistage cluster sampling. Parenting style inventory (Baumrind 1973), child adjustment questionnaire (1998), and child behavior checklist of the teacher report of ASEBA (2001) were used to collect data in this study. Correlation and path analysis were used to analyze the data.

The findings showed that the components of mothers' parenting styles directly affect children's behavioral problems. The results also showed that maternal parenting styles had a direct effect on children's behavioral problems through child adjustment (P = 0.01).

The results of this study showed that the variable of child adjustment in relation to maternal parenting styles with behavioral problems in preschool children plays an undeniable role. Therefore, educating mothers about proper parenting practices and thus improving the levels of the level of child adjustment can be very effective in reducing behavioral problems.