The relationship between marital satisfaction and mental health in mothers of children with emotional and behavioral problems

Usually, children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties are a reflection of parents’, especially mothers’ lack of marital satisfaction and their psychological conditions. The present study investigated the relationship between marital satisfaction and mental health in mothers of children with emotional and behavioral problems. For this purpose, from 412 first and sixth grade female students in a primary school of district two of education, in Tehran, 42 students with emotional and behavioral problems were identified by their mothers. Finally, 28 mothers of children with emotional and behavioral problems took part in the study as the available sample. The required data were collected through enrich marital satisfaction scale, general health questionnaire, and Rutter child behavior questionnaire. The data were analyzed by linear regression analysis. The findings revealed that in mothers of girls with emotional and behavioral problems there is a significant correlation between marital satisfaction and mental health (P>0.001). It is clear that when marital satisfaction and mental health is low in mothers of girls, the emotional and behavioral problems of their children increase.