The role of marital boredom with the mediation of the quality of maternal care in anticipation of externalizing and internalizing problems of children

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of marital boredom with the mediation of the quality of maternal care in anticipation of externalizing and internalizing problems of children. The method used in this research is descriptive survey. The community of this study was 7 to 10 year-old children in Tehran. The sample consists of 321 children (144 boys and 177 girls) that were selected by using multi-stage cluster sampling and the questionnaires were completed by their mothers. The tools which were used: Couple boredom Inventory (Panyz, 1381), quality of maternal care Inventory (Ghanbari, Khodapanahi, manifestations and Lavassani, 1390) and Child Behavior Checklist (Eschenbach, 2001). Finally, the data was analyzed by correlation, regression analysis and analysis of variance, using 22th version of SPSS. In the first step, the regression of externalizing and internalizing problems of children was significant, but, in the second step, with the arrival of the mediation of the quality of maternal care, a significant reduction in the B coefficient of marital boredom took place and the significant was lost. In other words, the mediator variable quality of maternal care in the relationship between marital boredom and externalizing and internalizing problems of children, has the role of mediator; moreover, there are significant differences in externalizing problems between the genders. The quality of maternal care for children plays a significant role in emotional and behavioral problems. The mothers, who show a kind of weakness in their roles as a mother, will confront with difficulties in the upbringing of their children and this matter causes increasing difficulties in children.