The Relationship between Dimensions of Mother's Attachment and Mother's Reflective Functioning with Preschool Aggression: The Mediating Role of Child Abuse Potential

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of child abuse potential in the relationship between dimensions of mother’s attachment and mother’s reflective functioning with preschool aggression. This study examined the relationships of the variables as correlation research by path analysis method. The statistical population of the research included mothers with preschool children (4 to 6 years) in Mashhad. For this purpose, 337 mothers were selected through convenient sampling and were asked to fill the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (Luyten, Mayes, Nijssens & Fonagy, 2017), the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (Collins,1996), the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (Ondersma, Chaffin, Mullins & LeBreton, 2005) and the parent form of Preschool Aggression Scale (Vahedi, Fathiazar, Hosseini nasab & Moghadam, 2008) which were available online. The results of the path analysis, which confirmed the model fit, showed that attachment anx- iety has indirect effects on aggression through the path of pre-mentalization-child abuse potential. The indirect effects of attachment anxiety on preschool aggression through the certainty about mental states and curiosity in the mental states were also significant. Also, the only indirect effect of attachment avoidance on aggression was through child abuse potential. The research findings indicate the role of attachment and reflective functioning in identifying potentials related to mothers’ abuse potential and preschool aggression.