The Relationship between Parent-Child Communication Quality and Students’ Self-Control with the Mediation of Problem-Solving-Based Communication: Presentation of a Causal Model

This study was conducted to determine the mediating role of problem-solving-based communication in the relationship between parent-child communication quality and students' self-control. The statistical population of the study consisted of all the high school female students in Kermanshah, Iran in the academic year 2016-2017. A group of 240 students was selected through the multistage cluster random sampling method to participate in the study, and the data were analyzed using path analysis method. The required data were collected using the Barnes & Olson Parent-Child Relationship Scale (1982), the Humphrey Self-Control Scale (1982), and the McCobbin, Thompson & McCobbin Problem-Solving-Based Communication Scale (1996). Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the research findings, and to develop an appropriate model, path analysis for predicting students' self-control was employed. The results of path analysis showed that problem-solving-based communication plays a mediating role in the relationship between parent-child communication and self-control. The results confirm that the quality of parent-child communication directly and indirectly affects self-control through the mediation of problem-solving-based communication. Therefore, students' skills in controlling and managing their behaviors and emotions can be improved by strengthening open and explicit interactions between parents and children.