Relationship of Behavioral Disorders in Girls With Learning Disabilities With Parental Stress and Spiritual Well-being in Mothers in Shiraz City, Iran Mediated by Mother-child Interaction

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Raising children with behavioral disorders is a stressful experience and many mothers experience parental stress. The present study aims to investigate the relationship of behavioral disorders in girls with learning disabilities (LDs) with parental stress and spiritual well-being in mothers in Shiraz City, Iran through the mediating role of mother-child interaction. Methods: The statistical population of this descriptive-correlational study included mothers of girls with learning disabilities in Shiraz, Iran in 2022. A total of 227 mothers of girls with learning disabilities were selected through random sampling. To collect data, the child behavior checklist, the parenting stress index (PSI), the child-parent relationship scale (CPRS), and the spiritual well-being scale (SWBS) were used. The proposed model was assessed using path analysis in SPSS, version 27 and AMOS. Results: The results showed that all direct paths except parenting stress to behavioral disorders in children were significant (P<0.01). In addition, indirect paths of parental stress and spiritual well-being to behavioral disorders in children mediated by mother-child interaction were significant (P<0.01). Conclusion: The results suggested that the corrected and final model had a good fit to the data and can be considered a helpful step towards understanding factors contributing to behavioral disorders in children with learning disabilities.

Keywords

• specific learning disorder
• behavior
• parenting
• mother-child relations
• psychological well-being