The mediating Role of Reflective Functioning Dimensions in the Relationship Between Parental Insecure Attachment Styles and Parenting Stress in Parents of Child with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder

The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of the dimensions of reflective functioning in the relationship between insecure attachment styles and parenting stress in parents of child with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The method of the current research was correlation-structural equation modeling and the research population included parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Yazd city in 1401. Among them, the sample consisted of 295 fathers and mothers of these children selected using convenient method and fulfilled the questionnaires of experience of close relationships by Brennan et al. (1998), Parental reflective functioning by Luyten et al. (2017) and parents stress by Abidin (1995), in person or online. In the next step the data was analyzed using the statistical method of path analysis and multi-group analysis. The findings of the research showed that in both groups of mothers and fathers, pre-metallization can play a mediating role in the relationship between insecure anxious attachment style and parenting stress in fathers and mothers of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Also, multi group analysis confirmed the role of parents' gender, and in the difference between these two groups, the path of avoidant attachment to parenting stress was significant in the mothers' group as opposed to the fathers' group. As a result, according to the findings, it can be said that in both groups of mothers and fathers, anxious attachment plays an important role in increasing pre-mentalization about children with disorders and thus increases the stress of parenting.