The mediating role of mother resilience in the relationship between mothers' psychological flexibility and mental toughness of adolescents

The main purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between the psychological resilience of mothers and the mental resilience of adolescents and whether maternal resilience mediates this relationship. The other aim of the study is to investigate whether the mental resilience of adolescents differs according to gender, the number of siblings, birth order, perceived maternal attitude, marital status of parents and perceived academic success. In addition, whether the psychological flexibility and resilience of mothers differ according to age, age of the mother when the first child was born, number of children, educational status, marital status, employment status and perceived maternal attitude in intended to examine. The study group of the research consists of 9th-grade, 10th-grade, 11th-grade, and 12th-grade students who are in the 14-18 age group in Manisa province and its districts in the spring semester of the 2021-2022 academic year, and their mothers. In this context, a total of 654 adolescents, including 677 mothers and 418 girls (63.9%), and 236 boys (36.1%), participated in the study. "Personal Information Form", "Adolescent Mental Resilience Scale", "Multidimensional Psychological Resilience Inventory" and "Mother Resilience Scale" were used in the research. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that maternal resilience fully mediated the relationship between the psychological resilience of mothers and the mental resilience of adolescents. In addition, it was observed that maternal psychological flexibility predicted 1,1% of adolescent mental resilience. In addition, it was determined that maternal psychological flexibility predicted maternal resilience by 37%. When the mental resilience of adolescents was examined according to demographic variables, it was found that it differed according to gender, and the mental resilience of male adolescents was higher than that of girls. In addition, the mental resilience of adolescents differs according to the perceived maternal attitude. It was determined that the mental toughness scores of adolescents who were exposed to inconsistent maternal attitudes from their parents were lower than those who perceived overprotective, permissive, and democratic parenting attitudes. It was determined that mental toughness scores did not differ according to age, the number of siblings, birth order and marital status of parents. The psychological flexibility no significant difference was found according to age, mother's age when the first child was born, educational status, marital status, employment status and perceived maternal attitude. Finally, when the differentiation status of the maternal resilience variable according to the demographic variables was examined, according to the age of the first mother in the social competence sub-dimension, and according to the educational status in the sub-dimension of being open to innovations. In addition, significant differences were found in the social support sub-dimension according to the working status, and perceived parental attitude. It was found that the variable of maternal resilience did not differ according to age and marital status. The research findings were interpreted within the framework of the literature. Keywords: Mother, psychological flexibility, mother resilience, adolescent, mental toughness