The Mediating Role of Maternal Caregiving Quality in the Relationship Between Mother’s Self-Esteem and Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of maternal caregiving quality in the relationship between the mother¢s self-esteem and the child¢s emotional and behavioral disorders. 388 mothers with 6-14 years old children in primary schools of 2 and 5 districts of Tehran in the academic year of 1398 entered the study by the convenience sampling method and answered to the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001), Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (O’Brien & Epstein, 1998) and Maternal Caregiving Quality Scale (Ghanbari et al., 1390). The path analysis test results showed that the indirect impact of the mother¢s self-esteem on childrenchr('39')s internalizing (b=0/14) and externalizing problems (b=0/23) is significant with the mediating role of maternal caregiving quality. This study corroborates the mediating role of maternal caregiving quality in the relationship between the mother¢s self-esteem and emotional and behavioral disorders in children. According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that the mother¢s self-esteem and the quality of maternal caregiving have significant effects on emerging child¢s emotional and behavioral disorders. Considering these variables may be useful in preventing, diagnosing, and treating emotional and behavioral disorders in children.