Role of psychological flexibility in parenting and maternal depression in predicting the symptoms of conduct disorder in adolescents

The mother has an important role in the development and increase of child behavioral problems; therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the role of psychological flexibility in parenting and maternal depression in predicting the symptoms of conduct disorder in adolescents.

In this descriptive (correlation) study, which was conducted in the academic year 2019-2020, 440 mothers-children from Tehran, Hamedan and Boldaji were present. Psychological flexibility in parenting questionnaire (Greene, Field, Fargo, and Twohigm, 2015), depression, anxiety and stress questionnaire (Lovibond, and Lovibond, 1995) and child behavioral checklist (Achenbach, and Rescorla, 2001) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed with SPSS-20 software using Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression.

Data analysis showed that the symptoms of conduct disorders in adolescents have a positive relationship with maternal depression (p=0.001) and negatively related to maternal psychological flexibility in parenting (p=0.001). Also, maternal depression and two components of psychological flexibility in parenting (acceptance and self as context) are able to predict the symptoms of conduct disorder in adolescents (p <0.01).

Given that maternal depression and psychological flexibility in parenting can predict the symptoms of child behavior disorder, it is suggested that mothers play a positive role in reducing the symptoms of their adolescentchr(chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))39chr(chr('39')39chr('39')))s conduct disorder by participating in individual or group counseling sessions to reduce depression and improve psychological flexibility in parenting.