Structural Equation Modeling of the Relationship Between Mothers’ Problematic Internet Use and Child Behavioral Problems with the Mediating Role of Mother-Child Interaction

Mothers’ problematic internet use has been associated with suboptimal mother-child interactions and child behavioral problems. This study aimed to investigate the structural model of the relationship between mothers’ problematic Internet use and child behavioral problems with the mediating role of mother-child interaction.

The population was all mothers in Tehran in 2020. From this statistical population, a sample of 322 mothers was selected by using the purposive sampling method. The instruments used included the Problematic Internet use (Caplan, 2010), The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997), and Child-Parent Relationship Scale (Pianta, 1992). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS-26 and AMOS-24 software.

The data analysis showed a significant inverse relationship between mothers’ problematic internet use with mother-child interaction and a positive and significant relationship with child behavioral problems. The structural equations modeling results showed that the model has a good fit and mother-child interaction played a mediating role in mothers’ problematic internet use and child behavioral problem.

Based on these results, it is suggested that parents and psychotherapists with managing parents' use of the Internet during mother-child interactions and strengthening this interaction, improve behavioral problems in children. Thus, the foregoing variables could be attended in the familial, educational, and therapeutic domains.