The Role of Family Atmosphere, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Social Skills, and mothers' mental disorders in Predicting Child Abuse of High School Female Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the family atmosphere, mother-daughter relationship, social skills, and mothers' mental disorders in predicting child abuse of high school female students. The research design was a correlational. The statistical population consisted of 55766 Isfahan high school female students and their mothers in the academic year of 2017-2018 using a multistage cluster sampling method, 250 were selected. The research tools consisted of Questionnaire of Family Emotional Condition (Hill Burn, 1964), the Parent-Child Relationship Scale (Fine, Moreland & Schwebel, 1983), the Teenage Inventory of Social Skills Questionnaire (Inderbitzen & Foster, 1992), the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979) and Child Abuse Questionnaire (Nourbakhsh, 2012). The data were analyzed using stepwise regression analysis, and the final step of regression analysis showed that mother-daughter relationship and mothers' mental disorders were 10.6% were able to predict child abuse at the level (P <0.01). The results of this study indicate the importance of the mother's role in the prevention of child abuse of females. Therefore, researchers and planners in the field of psychosocial issues can provide a space to reduce this problem by formulating educational, preventive, and therapeutic programs.