Differential Prediction of Externalizing Behavior Problems of Children Based on Marital Conflicts and Social Emotional Investment of Parents

The aim of this study was to predict externalizing behavior problems of children based on marital conflicts of parents and social emotional investment of parents in children. The conducted study was descriptive and correlation one, and the statistical population included mothers with children aged 6 to 12 years old in Ahvaz city, Iran. Participants included 702 mothers that were selected by voluntarily sampling method. For data collection, Child and Adolescent Behavior Assessment (Morin, Miller, Smith, & Johnson, 2016), Marital Conflict Questionnaire (Sanai Zaker, 2007) and Parental Investment in Children (Bradley & Caldwell, 1995) were used. Differential analysis method was used for data analysis. The results showed marital conflicts of parents and social emotional investment of parents could predict the group membership of children with external behavioral problems and without external behavioral problems. The findings suggested that decreasing marital conflicts and increasing social emotional investment of parents could decrease the externalizing behavior problems of children.