Investigating the mediating roles of parenting attitudes in the relationships between mothers' perceived parental attitudes and their childrens' mental problems

The aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of parenting attitudes in the relationship between mothers' perceived parental attitudes and their children's mental problems. In addition, mental problems in children were also examined in terms of demographic variables of mother and child. The participants included 1123 mothers with children between the ages of 7-13. The convenient sampling method was used to collec the data. The data were collected using Demographic Information Form, The Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PARI), The Parental Attitude Scale and The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Mplus version7 and SPSS 21.0 package programs were used to analyze the data. Path analysis was conducted to examine the predictive effects of mothers' parenting attitudes and child-rearing attitudes on mental problems in children and to examine the mediating roles of mothers' child-rearing attitudes. In addition, independent samples t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed to determine whether the variables differed according to demographic variables. Bootstrapping methods with 5,000 iterations was used to test the hypotheses of the research. The mother-perceived democratic parental attitude had negative effects on children's conduct problems, hyperactivity and peer problems. Over-protective motherhood had positive effects on democratic attitudes and strict discipline. However, over-protective motherhood played a full mediator role on the relationship between perceived democratic attitude and conduct problems, and democratic behavior played a partial mediator role on the relationships between perceived democratic attitude and prosocial behaviors. The protective parental attitude perceived by the mother had positive effects on children's hyperactivity, emotional symptoms and peer problems, and had negative effects on conduct problems. At the same time, perceived protective-demanding attitude has a positive effect on child-rearing attitudes such as over-protective motherhood, rejection of the role of housewife, intra-familial conflict and strict discipline, and negatively with democratic attitudes. Over-protective motherhood was positively associated with the perceived protective-demanding attitude and conduct problems and the democratic behavior attitude was positively related to the perceived protective-demanding attitude and conduct problems, hyperactivity and peer problems. In addition, the attitude of rejecting of the role of housewife was positively associated with the perceived protective-demanding attitude and conduct problems, hyperactivity and emotional problems. Democratic attitude played a partial mediator role between perceived protective-demanding attitude and prosocial behavior. The authoritarian attitude of the mother had positive effects on conduct problems, hyperactivity and emotional symptoms in children, and had negative effects on child-rearing attitudes with strict discipline. However, none of the child-rearing attitudes played a mediating role between the perceived authoritarian attitude and the mental problems seen in children. Keywords: Child-rearing attitudes, Mental problems in children, Perceived parental attitude.