The relationship between anger and coping strategies of mothers of children with mental retardation

The main goal of the current study was to investigate the relationship between strategies for controlling anger and indices of anger, including anger arousal, situational variables eliciting anger arousal, hostile attitude, internal/external manifestation of anger, and anger control strategies. one hundred and twenty mothers of children with mental retardation, who were receiving services from education and rehabilitation centers in Tehran, participated in this study. Participants were asked to complete two measures of Multidimensional Anger Inventory and Parent’s Anger Evaluation Scale. To analyze the data, statistical indices including mean, standard deviation, pearson correlation coefficient, regression analysis, and F ratio were used. The results of the study indicated that emotional oriented coping and religious oriented strategies significantly correlated with anger reduction. Moreover, findings indicated that emotional oriented coping strategies predicted external anger while religious coping strategies predicted anger arousal, hostile attitudes, internalized anger, and overall score on Multidimensional Anger Inventory.