The Role of Mental Health of Mothers of Children With Learning Disabilities in the Relationship Between Parental Stress, Mother-Child Interaction, and Children’S Behavioral Disorders

Background: behavioral problems of children are common and debilitating conditionsthat create many difficulties for both children and their families. the present study aimed toinvestigate the relationship between parental stress and mother-child interaction, and children’sbehavioral disorders with the mediating role of mental health in the mothers of children withlearning disabilities.methods: the research population of this descriptive-correlational study consisted of themothers of all students with learning disabilities in adnimeshk city, iran, in 2020. applying theconvenience sampling method, 210 students were selected as the study sample. the researchinstruments included the child behavior checklist, the parental stress scale, the child-parentrelationship scale, and the mental health questionnaire. the proposed model was evaluatedusing path analysis in amos v. 24.results: the obtained results indicated a direct and significant relationship between parentalstress and children’s behavioral disorders (β=0.321, p=0.0001), as well as mother-childinteraction and mothers’ mental health (β=0.255, p=0.001). there was a negative relationshipbetween mother-child interaction and children’s behavioral disorders (β=-0.148, p=0.019),as well as parental stress and mothers’ mental health (β=-0.581, p=0.0001). furthermore, thecollected results presented a reverse and significant relationship between mothers’ mentalhealth and children’s behavioral disorders (β=-0.360, p=0.0001). the indirect path analysis datarevealed that mothers’ mental health played a mediating role in the relationship between parentalstress, mother-child interaction, and children’s behavioral disorders (p=0.001).conclusion: according to the present research results, the model proposed in this study wasfavorably fitted; thus, it can be considered as an important step in identifying the factors affectingbehavioral disorders in students with learning disabilities.