The Relationship between Family Function, Marital Function and Perceived Social Support of Mothers with their Child Abuse Mediated by Anxiety

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between family functioning, marital functioning and perceived social support of mothers with their child abuse mediated by anxiety in order to provide a model. The method of the present study was correlation with the structural equation modeling method. The statistical population of the study was the parents of students in Kerman, Iran, in 2019 (N = 8950). Sampling in the present study was performed in two parts: psychometric properties of instruments (n = 160) and model test (n = 280). The sampling method was multi-stage cluster. Data collection tools were Spielberger Anxiety Questionnaire (2002), Epstein et al.'s Family Assessment Device (1997), Enrich Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire, Sherbourne & Stewart Social Support Questionnaire (1991) and MohammadKhani child abuse questionnaire (2013). The results indicated that the initial model did not fit well with the data, but the modified model showed a good fit with the data. Examination of mediation hypotheses also revealed that anxiety has a significant mediating role in the relationship between social support, family functioning and marital function with the rate of child abuse.

Keywords

• social support
• family functioning
• anxiety
• child abuse